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  Sunday, Oct. 1 4:05pm ET
Old memories can't turn recent trends
 
  RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME LOG

PITTSBURGH -- Plenty of flashbulbs popped as fans tried to catch the last home run at Three Rivers Stadium, but the game was hardly a Kodak moment for the home team.

Three Rivers Stadium
Sunday was the last time Three Rivers Stadium will be set up for baseball.

Shane Andrews hit a two-run double off Scott Sauerbeck as the Chicago Cubs rallied in the eighth inning Sunday and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates 10-9.

With one of the most famous scores in Pirates' history -- Bill Mazeroski's homer won Game 7 of 1960 World Series 10-9 over the Yankees at Forbes Field -- the Pirates finished 1,324-1,080 at Three Rivers Stadium, the site of Roberto Clemente's 3,000th hit and home of two World Series champions in 1971 and '79.

The Pirates will move less than a quarter mile east across a parking lot next year to PNC Park. Pittsburgh Steelers and University of Pittsburgh football games remain for Three Rivers, which will be demolished next year.

"Believe me, knowing that PNC Park will be on grass, I feel better already," said Kevin Young, the Pirates first baseman who has battled knee injuries this season.

Three Rivers, which opened in 1970, was a cookie-cutter like Riverfront in Cincinnati and Veterans in Philadelphia. Initially praised for doing double-duty for football and baseball, it lost favor because it had poor sight lines, lacked swanky luxury boxes and had tens of thousands of empty seats for many baseball games.

Fans brought faded signs from the 1970s, including ones honoring 1979 heroes Willie Stargell and Dave Parker and another saying "Think Pennant" from someone who apparently has not checked the National League standings lately. The Pirates (69-93) finished fifth in the NL East, the Cubs (65-97) sixth.

"When you lose 97 games, you better be busy in the offseason," manager Don Baylor said. "It is not going to be easy to do it in one year, but I don't like this losing."

Sister Sledge, whose hit "We Are Family" was adopted by the 1979 team and helped inspire three consecutive victories against the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series after being down 3-1, brought back a chorus of the hit after singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" on Sunday.

The game was likely the last with the Pirates for manager Gene Lamont, whose contract has not been renewed and who is expected to announce his own firing Monday morning, an hour before owner Kevin McClatchy's news conference on his fate. Lamont got a 90-second standing ovation from the crowd and hugs from Brian Giles and John Vander Wal as lineups were announced.

The Pirates fell short of McClatchy's spring prediction of 90 victories.

"You don't get more professional that Gene Lamont. He's a class act. We're all going to miss him," Jason Kendall said. "I wish we could have gotten a win for him."

John Wehner, who came to Three Rivers for baseball games as a boy, hit a two-run home run to give the Pirates an 8-5 lead in the fifth before 55,351 fans, a Three Rivers record for baseball, surpassing the 54,399 who attended a 5-2 defeat to Houston on April 4.

"I never had a curtain call before, at any level," Wehner said of his ovation. "I was running on air around the bases. Believe me, it's ironic with the way my career has gone, so up and down, that I had the last home run and the last out at Three Rivers."

Adrian Brown, who won the starting center field job after Chad Hermansen failed in his first full season, also homered for the Pirates. But Brown lined out to Grace in the eighth, killing a rally as Mike Benjamin was doubled off first.

With Pittsburgh ahead 8-7 in the eighth, Sauerback (5-4) walked Sammy Sosa leading off and Mark Grace singled. Andrews doubled for a 9-8 lead and Augie Ojeda hit a run-scoring double.

Kyle Farnsworth (2-9) pitched two hitless innings for the victory.

Jeff Huson, 4-for-7 in the Pirates series since an 0-for-29 slump, had two singles and scored two runs. The Cubs started the season with a 5-2 victory over the Mets in Japan but lost 14 of their last 20 and 18 of their last 25 games.

"We won the first one in Tokyo and the last one. What killed us were the things in the middle," Baylor said.

Cubs starter Jon Lieber gave up eight runs -- seven earned -- and nine hits in five innings. Pirates starter Kris Benson gave up five runs -- four earned -- and seven hits in five innings.

"I wish I could have put on a lot better show," said Lieber, who made his first big-league start at Three Rivers and asked Baylor to start Sunday.

Vander Wal singled in Kendall to pull the Pirates to a run down in the ninth, but Wehner grounded out against Jamie Arnold, who got his first save.

Game notes
Pirates reliever Josias Manzanillo threw the 1999 club's record 67th wild pitch in the sixth inning. The 1988 Pirates had 66 wild pitches. ... Cubs fans mark Sept. 24 as an anniversary that involves Three Rivers -- Rick Sutcliffe's two-hitter on that day in 1984 gave Chicago its first playoff appearance in 39 years. ... The three-game Cubs series drew 138,937 fans, also a Three Rivers record for baseball. ... Sosa's double in the fifth inning was his 89th extra base hit of the season, tying a career high, set last year. He had 50 homers, following years of 66 and 63, and became only the third player with three seasons of 50 or more. Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire are the others. ... The Cubs were 87-157 at Three Rivers since it opened.
 


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