Tuesday, November 3, 2015

11/3: The Deacon Wins the Cy, Big Poison Falls Short, HBD Harry, Iwamura Deal, DC Shenanigans

  • 1866 - RHP Harry Staley was born in Jacksonville, Illinois. Staley pitched in Pittsburgh from 1888-91, tossing for the Alleghenys, Burghers and Pirates. His overall Steel City record was 51-58 with a 3.21 ERA. He was a workmanlike pitcher, but he did know his way around the batter’s box. On June 1, 1893, Staley (then a Boston Beaneater) had nine runs batted in, hitting two three-run homers of Louisville’s Billy Rhines. It set a record for most RBIs in a game by a pitcher that stood for over 70 years until equaled by Atlanta Braves pitcher Tony Cloninger in 1966. 
Harry Staley 1889 (photo from The Police Gazette)
  • 1934 - Dizzy Dean‚ with a 30-7 record‚ was selected as the NL MVP, with the Pirates Paul Waner finishing a distant second despite a .362/14/90 slash.
  • 1960 - The Deacon, Vern Law, who finished 20-9 with 18 complete games and a 3.08 ERA, was voted the Cy Young Award winner by easily outpolling Warren Spahn.
Vern Law 2007 Topps Heritage series
  • 1971 - PA senators Hugh Scott and Richard Schweiker, winners of a bet made on the 1971 Fall Classic between them and Maryland senators Charles Mathias Jr. and J. Glenn Beall, Jr., rode elephants in front of the Capitol as the losers led the pachyderms while carrying shovels to clean the street.
  • 2009 - The Pirates sent RHP Jesse Chavez to Tampa Bay for 2B Akinori Iwamura, who at $4.85M became the Pirates highest paid player. Iwamura was gimpy, out of shape and benched in June with a .172 average. He was replaced rather handily by The Kid, Neil Walker, then released in mid-September, and after 10 games with Oakland, Aki was out of MLB.

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