Thursday, November 3, 2016

11/3: HBP Harry, Vern's Cy, No Cigar For Big Poison, Jesse-For-Aki, Elephant Walk

  • 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, and one who knew his way around the batter’s box. On June 1st, 1893, Staley (then a Boston Beaneater) had nine runs batted in, hitting two three-run homers off Louisville’s Billy Rhines. It set a record for most RBIs in a game by a pitcher that stood for over 70 years until equalled by Atlanta Braves pitcher Tony Cloninger in 1966.
Harry Staley 1889 (photo 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. It would start a string of three top eight MVP finishes in four years for Big Poison.
  • 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, easily outdistancing runner-up Warren Spahn.
  • 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 packing peanuts for snacks and carrying shovels to clean the street.
Jesse Chavez 2009 Topps Heritage
  • 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 Neil Walker, then released in mid-September, and after 10 games with Oakland, he was out of MLB.

No comments: