Big Poison, Big Ed, Spanky & Sluggo...
- 1927 - OF Paul "Big Poison" Waner finished ahead of the Card's Fordham Flash, Frankie Frisch, for NL MVP honors by 72 votes to 66. In his second year in the show, Waner hit .380, drove in 131 runs, scored 114 and banged out 237 hits to lead Pittsburgh to the NL title. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1952.
- 1936 - The Brooklyn Dodgers traded LHP Ed Brandt for Pirate IF Cookie Lavagetto and LHP Ralph Birkofer. Lavagetto started for the next five years, hitting .275 for Brooklyn and making four All-Star teams before losing four years to the Second World War. Brandt lasted two years with the Bucs as a swingman, going 16-14 with a 3.23 ERA before he retired at age 34 after 11 MLB campaigns. Big Ed tied a Bucco mark held by several by winning three 1-0 games in 1937, a record no Pirate has matched since.
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| Big Ed Brandt 1937 photo from Out Of the Park Development |
- 1973 - The Pirates traded P Nelson Briles and IF Fernando Gonzalez to the KC Royals for UT Ed Kirkpatrick, IF Kurt Bevacqua and minor league 1B Winston Cole. Briles lasted five more seasons, but posted an ERA under four just once in that span while none of the others became everyday contributors, tho Spanky Kirkpatrick hung as a utility guy with the Bucs until 1977.
- 1989 - The Pirates picked up C Don Slaught from the Yankees for pitchers Jeff Robinson and Willie Smith. Slaught would form a platoon tandem with Spanky LaValliere through 1992, and remained with the Bucs until 1996 after being injured during most of the 1995 campaign, hitting .305 during his Pittsburgh tenure. Sluggo played for the Royals, Rangers, Yankees, Pirates, Angels, White Sox, and Padres in his 16 year career; a catcher with a .283 lifetime BA has an awfully long shelf life in MLB.
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| Don "Sluggo" Slaught 1995 Flair series |
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