12/20: The Mahatma, Jose DeLeon, Dale Berra, Jose Silva, Chris Young...

The Mahatma, Jose DeLeon, Dale Berra, Jose Silva, Chris Young...

1881 - Branch Rickey was born in Stockdale, Ohio. An innovator of things as diverse as the breaking the color line, a feeder minor league system and batting helmets, Rickey was the Pirate GM from 1950-55. His Pittsburgh teams were notoriously poor (“The Rickey-Dinks”), but his player development pipeline helped to form the core of the 1960 World Championship club.
1960 - RHP Jose DeLeon was born in Rancho Viejo, Dominican Republic. After being taken in the third round of the 1979 draft, he reached Pittsburgh in 1983. He went 17-38 with a 4.02 ERA as a Buc before being traded to the White Sox in 1986. DeLeon lasted 13 seasons in the MLB, but never matched his promise with his performance.

1984 Donruss series from Baseball Almanac

1984 - SS Tim Foli, OF Steve Kemp and cash were sent by the NY Yankees to the Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for SS Dale Berra, OF Jay Buhner and LHP Alfonso Pulido. Buhner went on to have a 15 year career, mostly with Seattle, while not much else was gotten out of the other guys involved in the deal.
2001 - In a minor deal, the Bucs sent RHP Jose Silva to the Reds for minor league RHP Ben Shaffar. Silva pitched one more year in the big leagues while Sharrar never made it to the show.
2002 - RHP Chris Young and minor leaguer Jon Searles were traded to the Montreal Expos for RHP Matt Herges. The 6’10” Young, a third round pick of the Bucs in 2000, went on to win 32 games between 2005-07 and landed an All-Star berth before injuries derailed his promising career, while the Pirates cut Herges in spring training.