- 1866 - Utilityman Frank “Frenchy” Genins was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Frank’s biggest workload in a three-year big league career came with the 1895 Pirates. He played all the infield & outfield spots (in fact, he was the only other Bucco to play the OF that year other than the starting trio of Patsy Donovan, Jake Starzel and Mike Smith), hitting .250 in 73 games. Genins may not have dented very many major league lineups, but he played his way through much of the midwest in the minors from 1887-1909, with his latter years spent as a player/manager.
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| Frenchy at Sioux City Ars Longa Art Card |
- 1881 - The American Association was founded. The initial members were the Brooklyn Atlantics (replaced by the Baltimore Orioles), Cincinnati Red Stockings, Louisville Cardinals, Philadelphia Athletics, Pittsburgh Alleghenys, and St. Louis Brown Stockings. The AA was considered a major league organization, though the Alleghenys bolted to the NL after the 1886 campaign and the league folded after the 1891 season. Denny McKnight, the Alleghenys owner, was elected its first president, with his term running from 1882-85.
- 1952 - He never played in the Pirate organization, but he sure has some pull in the FO: agent Scott Boras was born in Sacramento. Boras is the rep of Gerrit Cole and Josh Bell among others and was Pedro Alvarez’s man. Fun fact: Boras played four years in the minors as an infielder and was a pretty good slap hitter and OBP guy, even earning a spot on the Florida State League All-Star team before hanging up the spikes due to injury, leading him to law school.
- 1955 - Bobby Bragan was named the new Bucco field manager‚ replacing Fred Haney. The fiery Bragan didn’t last long, getting the ax in early August of 1957 after compiling a 102-155 record. His spot was taken by Danny Murtaugh, making the first of four Pirates managerial stints. Bobby went on to manage the Cleveland Indians (1958) and Milwaukee/Atlanta Braves (1963-66), compiling an overall 443-478 record.
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| Orlando Merced 1993 Stadium Club |
- 1966 - OF/1B Orlando Merced was born in Hato Rey, Puerto Rico. Merced played from 1990-96 for the Bucs with a .283 BA, coming in second in the Rookie of the Year voting in 1991. After a 13-year MLB career, he now he operates the Orlando Merced Baseball Training Center in Kissimmee, FL.
- 2005 - LHP Mark Redman exercised his $4.95M player option for the 2006 season. Acquired as part of the Jason Kendall deal, he went 5-15/4.90 in 2005 for the Bucs. He didn’t make it to camp, though, as the Bucs swapped him to KC for RHP Jonah Bayliss a month later.
- 2015 - The Pirate had eight free agents after the season: P Antonio Bastardo, P Joe Blanton, P AJ Burnett, P JA Happ, 1B Corey Hart, UT Sean Rodriguez, 3B Aramis Ramirez and P Joakim Soria. S-Rod was the only one the team re-signed as AJ and A-Rod retired while the others found new homes during the winter. Bastardo had a homecoming when the Pirates traded to get him back at the 2016 deadline. S-Rod left the flock after 2016, but not for long; the Pirates got him back later in the campaign.
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