1/4: Bucs Sign Starling, Sam, Skates & Lance; HBD Cork, Brian & Jay

• 1869 - SS Tommy “The Cork” Corcoran was born in New Haven, Connecticut. The Cork started his 18-year big league career, spent mostly with the NY Bridegrooms and Cincinnati Reds, as a 21-year-old rookie starting for the Players League Pittsburgh Burghers in 1890, batting .233 while playing 123 games. Corcoran featured a sweet glove - he set a still-current MLB record for shortstops with 14 assists in a nine-inning game (he started out fielding barehanded and eventually adapted to a mitt later in his career) - and as a leadoff man hit .256 with 387 stolen bases and 1,184 runs scored over his big league lifetime. Fun fact - he was involved in one of the odder sign-stealing scenes of early baseball. While in the field as a Red, he noticed the home third base coach tapping his leg before every pitch. Adding two and two, he went to the coaches’ box and started digging with his spikes. He found a shallowly-buried electronic box that was signaling pitches stole from the outfield to the coach through an gentle shock system and then sent from the coach to the batter. 

Tom Corcoran (photo Moffitt's Studio, Springfield)

• 1886 - St. Louis owner Chris Von Der Ahe sold the contract rights of IF Sam Barkley to the Alleghenys despite the fact that the infielder had already signed a deal with the Orioles. Because the O’s were late in sending Von Der Ahe their check to buy Barkley’s rights, he unilaterally voided the contract and shipped him to Pittsburgh instead, triggering a brouhaha that wouldn’t be settled for weeks. The American Association eventually resolved the controversial case by allowing Barkley to play for the Alleghenys and sending 1B Milt Scott from Pittsburgh to Baltimore as compensation. Additionally, the Browns were allowed to keep the $1,000 they received from Pittsburgh for Barkley's reserve rights. For all that, Barkley hit .248 in his two years with the club, splitting time between first and second base.
• 1962 - RHP Jay Tibbs was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Jay tossed for parts of seven seasons in the show and spent his last five big league games as a Pirate in 1990, going 1-0/2.57. The Pirates sent RHP Dorn Taylor to the Orioles for him in June, and a month later Tibbs, who was coming off shoulder surgery, was done. 
• 1977 - LHP Brian O’Connor was born in Cincinnati. Brian’s MLB career consisted of six relief outings for the Pirates in 2000, picking up no decisions with a 5.11 ERA. Brian was an 11th round pick of the Pirates in the 1995 draft and pitched 12 pro seasons in the Pirates, Rays and Braves systems before retiring after being cut by his hometown Reds in 2007. 

Skates 1993 Upper Deck

• 1993 - The Pirates signed OF Lonnie “Skates” (due to his somewhat awkward footwork and quirky routes while playing the outfield) Smith to a one year/$1M deal. He put up a line of .286/6/24, with a .422 OBP and nine stolen bases before he was flipped to the Orioles in September for two career minor leaguers, Terry Farrar and Stanton Cameron. The Pirates were Smith’s fifth team; he had reached the World Series with the first four (and was on the winning side for three of them) but his championship streak bottomed out as a Bucco.
• 1996 - Pittsburgh purchased the contract of free agent and eight-time All-Star catcher Lance Parrish from the Tigers. He had caught for the Bucs in 1994, hitting .270 in a backup role before Father Time caught up to him. The catcher was entering his age 40 season in 1996 and didn’t make it out of camp with the Pirates, marking the end of his career. Since then, he’s been an announcer, minor league manager, and MLB coach. Lance was a local boy, born in Clairton though he was raised in California. Parrish had a scholarship offer to play football at UCLA but made what proved to be a wise choice by focusing on baseball. 
• 2007 - Rene Gayo signed Dominican OF Starling Marte for $85,000 in one of the top Latin signings of Dave Littlefield’s watch. Marte was sought by several teams, and his stock took off after he switched from SS to CF. The deciding factor was said to be that Gayo had a good working relationship with Marte’s buscon (agent), tilting the field toward the Buccos.