3/26: Deals Made...And Not; Kuwata Retires; Herges Released; Sandy; HBD Josh, Eric, Jack & Morrie

• 1850 - P Morrie Critchley was born in New London, Connecticut. He honed his art as a semi-pro player before tossing as a 32-year-old rookie for the Alleghenys in 1882. Morrie did pretty well, spinning a seven-hit whitewash as he tamed Cincinnati 2-0 at the Bank Street Grounds to become the MLB’s first 30-year-old or over hurler to pitch a shutout in his first game. Despite that victory, he was released 10 days later; it seems the Allegheny directors had “strong reason to believe he was throwing games” per Major League Player Profiles, with their shackles raised after an exhibition contest where he was shellacked. Even with that stain, he was taken by the St Louis Brown Stockings six weeks later. He threw four complete games for them, but the results weren’t as shiny as he went 0-4/4.24, and that stint ended his big league career. Morrie remained in Pittsburgh, umpired briefly and then ran a local bar/hotel until he died at the age of 59. 

Jack McCarthy 1904 (photo Chicago Daily News)

• 1869 - LF Jack McCarthy was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts. McCarthy started for the Pirates in 1898-99 and hit a robust .298. But the Pirates landed Fred Clarke, also a LF, when they absorbed the old Louisville team and sold McCarthy to the Chicago Orphans. He played until 1907 and had a lifetime .287 BA. He managed in the minors for a while after retiring, then finished his days as a Chicago courthouse employee. Fun fact: On April 26th, 1905, as a Cub, McCarthy became the first fielder to throw out three runners at home plate, doing the deed against his old mateys, the Pittsburgh Pirates. 
• 1963 - The LA Dodgers' Sandy Koufax surrendered two homers and was touched for six runs while whiffing nine Buccos in seven innings during a spring tune-up. It was not an omen of things to come. In 40 starts that season, Koufax gave up six runs in an outing once, going 25-5 with a 1.88 ERA, winning the Cy Young Award and earning a World Series ring. The Bucs did get to the Hall-of-Fame lefty better than most that campaign, going 1-1 against him in three starts and scoring over three runs per game. 
• 1981 - IF Josh Wilson was born in Pittsburgh and played prep ball at Mt. Lebanon High along with Don Kelly. As a Blue Devil, he won the 1998 PIAA Championship and was the PA Player of the Year. He was only with the hometown organization briefly at Indy in 2008 but played in eight big-league campaigns for nine teams (with three stops at Arizona). Wilson earned the nickname “Paperboy” not so much because he delivered (his lifetime BA was .229) but as a nod to his youthful appearance. Josh was the son of one of the area’s top baseball icons - his dad, Mike, was a long-time coach with stops at Mt Lebanon HS (he coached up Josh & Don), Pitt and Duquesne and also was a player, coach, and manager with the semi-pro Greater Pittsburgh Federation Baseball League for more than 20 years. Josh is a free agent this season. 

Eric Hacker (photo Dave Arrigo/Pirates)

• 1983 - RHP Eric Hacker was born in Duncanville, Texas. The Pirates got the reliever from the New York Yankees for Romulo Sanchez in 2009. He spent most of his time at AAA Indianapolis, getting a September call up and making his MLB debut on September 22nd. He toed the slab for three Bucco outings, giving up two runs on four hits in three frames. Eric got a couple more cups of coffee in the show and then headed to greener pastures, pitching in Korea since 2013. 
• 1988 - C Mackey Sasser and RHP Tim Drummond were traded to the NY Mets for minor leaguer Scott Henion and 1B Randy Milligan. Milligan hit .220 for the Bucs before having some solid seasons at Baltimore while Sasser caught the next six seasons for the Mets, batting .286 for NY over that span. Drummond worked 43 more games in the bigs, with a 3-5-2/4.35 line. 
• 2003 - The Pirates released RHP Matt Herges, for whom they had traded RHP Chris Young to the Padres in December. SD reclaimed Herges on April 1st, keeping their reliever and getting a young front-line pitcher for free from Pittsburgh’s GM Dave Littlefield. Herges pitched until 2009 and Young, despite a boatload of injuries, has started 221 games and is still tossing the ball at age 39 on a minor-league deal with the Padres. 
• 2006 - The day’s hot topic was a deal brewing between Atlanta and Pittsburgh featuring a straight 1B/OF Craig Wilson-for-RHP John Thompson swap, with the Bravos also showing interest in expanding the talks to include Salomon Torres. It eventually led nowhere, with all the players remaining place for the season, which was an overall plus for Pittsburgh. The Pirates starters were terrible in 2006, but Thompson’s 2-7/4.82 campaign for the Braves wouldn’t have helped to right that ship. Wilson hit .267 with 13 HR off the bench while Torres was a bullpen ironman, getting the ball 94 times and going 3-6-12/3.28 over the year. 

Tyler Yates (photo Getty Images)

• 2008 - The Pirates traded minor league RHP Todd Redmond to the Atlanta Braves for reliever Tyler Yates. Fastballer Yates went 6-5 in two seasons with Pirates, pitching to a 5.08 ERA before arm surgery derailed his career. Redmond finally got a shot at Toronto in 2013 and was effective in 2014 after being converted to the pen. He got beat up in 2015 at Toronto and spent most of the year in AAA. 2016 was his last pro season when he was released by Baltimore in April. 
• 2008 - RHP Masumi Kuwata, the first Japanese player ever signed by the Pirates and a legend in his homeland, retired. Kuwata, who was a week shy of 40-years-old, had a 1.80 ERA in five innings in the spring but hadn’t pitched since March 18th and chose to retire when it became clear that he wouldn’t make the Pirates' opening-day roster. Per Japanese tradition, Kuwata walked to the McKechnie Field mound about an hour after the Tigers-Pirates exhibition game ended and without stepping on the white-painted pitching rubber, placed a ball on it. He had made his major league debut at Yankee Stadium on June 9th, 2005 and was 0-1/9.43 in 19 games before his final MLB appearance on August 13th. Kuwata was the oldest player to make his major league debut since 41-year-old Diomedes Olivo, also for the Pirates, in 1960.