8/3 Happenings: Gunner, Pally HoF; Bragan Out, Danny In; ASG; Deals; HBD Sid, Jim, Matt, Mackey & Gee Gee

• 1889 - IF Gus “Gee-Gee” Getz was born in Pittsburgh. He closed out his seven-year MLB stay with seven games for the home team in 1918, going 2-for-10 and playing some hot corner. Gus started his career back in 1908 as an 18-year-old with McKeesport and closed it out in 1927 with Scranton. 
• 1950 - RHP Hank Borowy was sold to the Tigers, moving from a last-place Pittsburgh club to the AL frontrunners. The 34-year-old started the season with the Chicago Cubs, was sold to the Bucs in June and so was on his way to his third team. Of course, he’s probably lucky that three teams wanted him - he went 1-3/6.25 during the year. However, he was a solid get for the Tigers down the stretch, going 1-1, 3.31 from the pen in 13 outings, but even with 95 wins, Motown finished three games behind the Yankees. Detroit released him following the 1951 season. 

• 1956 - During the NL meetings, the Pirates were awarded the 1959 All-Star game as they and the Giants switched home dates. The Bucs original 1961 All-Star slot was swapped out to the G-Men, who were scheduled to host the ASG at the Polo Grounds in New York; the Giants would leave that yard after the 1957 campaign for the Bay and eventually Candlestick Park. The flipped date was quite copacetic for Pittsburgh, falling during the City’s bicentennial celebration. The Pirates had last hosted an ASG in 1944. 
• 1957 - The news that Danny Murtaugh replaced Bobby Bragan as manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates leaked to the press ahead of time‚ and Bragan heard it on the radio before GM Joe L. Brown could reach him. It wasn’t much of a surprise; the quirky Bragan had greased his own skids with an outre incident in Milwaukee when he strolled onto the field sipping a drink through a straw and offered it to the umps a couple of days earlier. 
• 1959 - The second All Star Game of the year was held at LA Memorial Stadium with P Roy Face, C Smoky Burgess, SS Dick Groat and 2B Bill Mazeroski representing Pittsburgh. The AL won 5-3. Face went two innings, striking out two but was touched up by a solo shot off Rocky Colavito’s bat. Burgess and Groat both went 0-for-1 and Maz was planted on the bench. 
• 1959 - RHP Jim Gott was born in Hollywood. Obtained from the Giants off waivers in mid-1987, the Bucs used him as a closer, and he saved 13 games with a 1.45 ERA. In 1988, he broke Teke’s franchise record with 34 saves. But he only appeared once the following year after an elbow injury, and signed with the Dodgers as a free agent for 1990. Gott came back to Pittsburgh for his final season in 1995. 

Jim Gott 1989 Fleer

• 1960 - 1B Sid Bream, the harbinger of the Bucco dark ages, was born in Carlisle, PA. Sid played first from 1985-90 for the Pirates with a .269 average, having three pretty solid years from 1986-88. He signed with the Braves in 1990, and in 1992...let’s not talk about it. Sid played into 1994, retiring during the player’s strike. Despite that soul-crushing slide, he sank roots in the area and lives in the northern suburbs. He’s now a Christian motivational speaker. 
• 1962 - C Mackey Sasser was born in Fort Gaines, Georgia. He joined the Pirates in 1987 as the return from the Giants for Don Robinson, got into a dozen games (.217 BA), and was moved in the offseason as a piece of the Randy Milligan swap with the Mets. There he developed a case of the yips, known as Sasser Syndrome, when returning the ball to the pitcher (although oddly enough not on steal attempts) and it stayed with him through the rest of his career. Sasser re-signed with the Pirates for the 1995 season but played in only fourteen games, getting four hits in 26 at-bats before being released in mid-May. He retired and became the coach at Wallace JC in Alabama. 
• 1964 - IF Kevin Elster was born in San Pedro, California. The 13-year vet spent 1997 with the Bucs, hitting .225. He had just won the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award as a Texas Ranger in 1996 and signed a $1.65M contract with the Pirates as a free agent, but he broke his left wrist in a collision at first base with and missed all but 39 games of the season. Kevin returned to the Rangers the following year.  
• 1979 - The Yankees purchased Lenny Randle from Pittsburgh. The 31-year-old utilityman appeared in 20 games for the Bronx Bombers, which was 20 games more than he played for the Pirates; he was sold the same week the Bucs got him from the Giants as a piece of the Bill Madlock deal and never hit the field for the Buccos.

Matt Joyce MLBPA Faces of the Game

• 1984 - OF Matt Joyce was born in Tampa, Florida. The 31-year-old, nine-year vet signed with Pittsburgh for $1M as a 1996 free agent. Joyce hit .242 with 13 homers and a .403 OBP (his 21 pinch-hit walks set a MLB record) for the Pirates as a fourth outfielder/bench bat and he turned that performance into a two-year, $11M deal with Oakland. 
• 1986 - Pirates announcer Bob Prince was awarded the Ford C. Frick Award for broadcast excellence to win a spot in the Hall of Fame media wing. Per the HoF, ”Prince's charming yet brash demeanor, clever command of the language, entertaining gift of gab and appreciation of baseball's human elements made him the consummate professional.” 
• 1997 - Post Gazette Pirates beat writer Charley Feeney was inducted into the writer’s wing of the Hall of Fame after winning the 1996 JG Taylor Spink Award. Charley covered the Bucs from 1956-86. He chronicled two World Series winners, the death of Roberto Clemente and baseball's 1980s drug scandal in Pittsburgh. Before he came to town, he covered the Giants, Yankees and Mets for the New York Journal American. He was known for calling everyone (even himself) “Pally” because he had such a bad memory for names.