1/14 Birthdays Through the 20s: HBD Billy, Chet, Hank, Brode, Art & John

• 1868 - 3B John Newell was born in Wilmington, Delaware. John spent a decade toiling in the minors for teams in the Western, Southern and Atlantic leagues. He did get a cup of coffee with the Pirates in 1891, going 2-for-18 in five games during his only MLB call. 
• 1871 - IF Art Madison was born in Clarksburg, Massachusetts. Art was a minor league lifer, spending a dozen years on the farm, mainly in the Eastern and New York leagues. He did pay a couple of brief visits to the show, getting into 11 games for the 1895 Phillies and coming back four years later to make his major league swan song with Pittsburgh, getting into 42 games and batting .271 while playing second, short and third. 
• 1891 - 2B John “Brode” Shovlin was born in Drifton, Pennsylvania, in Luzerne county in the Pocono Mountains area. He got a wham-bam look with Pittsburgh in 1911, getting into two games and going 0-for-1 and scoring a run; he got into another 16 games in 1919-20 with the St. Louis Browns. He had a split career; he spent from 1910-20 mostly in the minors before going dark, then pops up again in the record books from 1928-31 with the Binghamton Triplets of the NY-PA League before going to work in the coalfields at the age of 40. 

Billy Meyer 1951 Bowman

• 1893 - Manager Billy Meyer was born in Knoxville, Tennessee. After his playing days and a long minor-league managing career, he became the Bucco skipper from 1948-52, with a dismal 317-452 record after a promising fourth place finish in his first year. But the Yankees thought so highly of him that they asked if they could hire him after that season to replace Bucky Harris. NY was rebuffed and had to settle for Casey Stengel instead. After managing, Meyer scouted for the Bucs until 1955, and later had his jersey #1 retired. 
• 1907- RHP Chet Brewer was born in Leavenworth, Kansas. While he pitched for a couple of dozen teams in the black leagues and Central America, the pitcher never earned a check from Pittsburgh until his playing days were done. Brewer was a Pirates scout based in LA from 1957 to 1974 (he signed Dock Ellis) and later worked for the Major League Scouting Bureau, discovering players like Willie Crawford, George Hendrick, Eddie Murray, Reggie Smith and Roy White. His Chet Brewer Rookies program was the forerunner of MLB’s RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities) project. 

Hank Gornicki 1941 (photo via Out of the Ballpark)

• 1911 - RHP Hank Gornicki was born in Niagara Falls, NY. He pitched his final three seasons (1943-44, 1946) for the Bucs, with a two year break when he served during WW2. His slate as a Pirate was 14-19/3.38, and he was used primarily as a spot starter. He had a notable week in August of 1943. Gornicki won both ends of a doubleheader against Boston on the 17th, then lost both games of a twinbill on the 22nd against Brooklyn.