Tuesday, February 4, 2014

2/4: Possum, the Great One, Bronson Arroyo...

Possum, the Great One, Bronson Arroyo...

  • 1890 - UT George “Possum” Whitted was born in Durham, North Carolina. Possum played in Pittsburgh from 1919-21, hitting .286 while manning first, third and left field. 

 Possum Whitted image from Wikipedia

  • 1962 - Roberto Clemente was given the Dapper Dan Man of the Year Award after hitting .351 in 1961 to claim the NL batting title, his first of four crowns. 
  • 2003 - The Red Sox claimed Bronson Arroyo off waivers from the Pirates. After three seasons and a 9-14/5.44 ERA for Pittsburgh, he’s quietly worked another decade in the show since then, winning 100+ games with a resume of an inning eater.

3 comments:

WilliamJPellas said...

Hey, Ron, just a quick research question for you. You state that Roberto won 4 NL batting titles. I thought I had read somewhere that former Pirate 3B-1B Bill Madlock was the only righthanded batter in NL history to win 4. If Roberto also did so, then the story I read was incorrect. Very cool that both players were Pirates, though Madlock won his first two batting crowns while with the Cubs.

Ron Ieraci said...

He won four, Will - 1961, 1964, 1965 and 1967.

WilliamJPellas said...

Even better! The only TWO players who ever won 4 NL batting titles were BOTH Pirates! :-D