- 1959 - C Adalberto “Junior” Ortiz was born in Humacao, Puerto Rico. Junior caught for the Bucs from 1982-83 (.264 BA), spent a year with the Mets, and came back again between 1985-89. In seven seasons, the reserve hit .262 during his career. We’re not sure where Junior picked up his moniker (he’s not a junior by name, but he did start stateside in the minors at age 17 and reached the Bucs as a 22 year-old) but Ortiz embraced it; he even joked after the birth of his son, Adalberto Jr, that he was going to call him “Junior Junior.”
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| Junior Ortiz 1987 Donruss |
- 1959 - RHP Dave Johnson was born in Baltimore, Maryland. Dave got his first pro shot with Pittsburgh in 1987, giving up seven runs in 6-⅓ IP. He bounced back to have a couple of solid years for Baltimore before calling it quits after five tours of duty following the 1993 season. His son, Steve, also worked in the show, tossing for Baltimore and Seattle.
- 1961 - SS Rafael Belliard was born in Pueblo Nuevo, Dominican Republic. He played his first nine seasons (1982-90) in Pittsburgh as a good glove shortstop, hitting .218 during that time but ranking first in the NL in fielding percentage in 1988. Belliard went on to play the second half of his career in Atlanta, and was part of the ‘91-92 teams that eliminated the Bucs in the NLCS.
- 1969 - LHP Arthur Rhodes was born in Waco, Texas. Rhodes spent 20 years in the show and pitched for nine teams. He was also a Bucco for a brief winter visit. The Pirates got him from Oakland in late November of 2004 along with Mark Redman for Jason Kendall; two weeks later he was on his way to Cleveland for Matt Lawton.
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| Maz 2010 (photo UPI) |
- 1972 - Bill Mazeroski retired from the Pirates after 17 seasons. He only played 34 games and hit .188 in his final campaign as a bench infielder (.260 lifetime). The Hall-of-Famer left a legacy of 10 All-Star games, eight Golden Gloves and two World Series championships. His number #9 was retired in 1987 and his statue was erected at PNC Park in 2010.
- 1978 - RHP Chris Bootcheck was born in LaPorte, Indiana. Chris worked parts of seven big league seasons (2007 with the LAA was his only full season in the show) and made a stop in Pittsburgh in 2009, earning no decisions while putting up an 11.05 ERA in 13 outings. Bootcheck did earn a paycheck for 14 professional seasons, including a couple in Japan, before retiring after the 2014 campaign at the age of 35.
- 2006 - The Players Association and MLB announced that they had agreed on a new CBA that would run for five years through the 2011 season. It jiggled some items and finances, but there were no major changes except that the winning All-Star team would host the World Series and the removal of MLB’s chief threat to the union, contraction. The players voted on and ratified the new deal in December, marking an unbroken stretch of labor peace since 1995.
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| Trevor Williams (photo Joe Guzy/Pirates) |
- 2015 - The Miami Marlins traded RHP Trevor Williams to the Pirates for Rookie League P Richard Mitchell. The Fish had hired away Pirates pitching assistant Jim Benedict, and it was thought that swapping a potential MLB back-ender for a long shot prospect was compensation for the Marlins' luring Benedict away. Looks like a pretty good deal so far - Trevor claimed a back-end rotation spot and Benedict was axed by the new Fish ownership during the past season.
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