8/5 Birthdays: HBD Nellie, Rich, Eric, John, Bernie, Pepper & Sonny

• 1915 - OF Bill “Sonny” Randall was born in Hampton, Virginia. After a decade of playing for local Negro indie teams, Sonny was the Homestead Gray’s fourth outfielder from 1942-43 before entering the service, returning for the 1946 season. He had an odd career; he also worked for the government while a player and would rarely travel with the club (by then the team was the Washington-Homestead Grays) unless they were at home. Sonny turned down several offers with other teams because of that and “...the hard times that the black ball players had trying to make it riding up and down the road in those buses” per the Brent Kelley book “I Will Never Forget.” 
• 1919 - C Lloyd “Pepper” Bassett was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Bassett played for the Homestead Grays in 1936 as a backup. The next year, he started for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and started at catcher in the East-West All-Star Game. He was back on the bench by 1938, jumped to Chicago the following season and became a Negro/Latin League nomad until he retired in 1950. 

Nellie Briles 1971 (Pirates Picture Pac)

• 1943 - RHP Nellie Briles was born in Dorris, California. He only tossed three years for the Bucs, from 1971-73 with a line of 36-28/2.98, but will be remembered for the two-hit shutout he spun in Game Five of the 1971 series. What isn’t as well known is that he called his own pitches for the last three innings, according to SABR Biography Project. After disagreeing on whether to go hard or soft (the original game plan), Manny Sanguillen refused to give him signs from that point on, and just played toss-and-catch with Briles for the remainder of the game. After he retired, he went into broadcasting briefly, then joined the Pirate executive team, and founded the Alumni Association. Nellie passed away in 2005. 
• 1946 - Rich Donnelly was born in Steubenville. Rich was a minor league catcher who made his name as a coach, working for several clubs including the Bucs. He was part of Jim Leyland’s posse, coaching in Pittsburgh from 1986–96, then following Leyland to Florida and Colorado. Donnelly also made stops at Texas, Milwaukee, LA Dodgers and Seattle, with another gig as a Pirate from 2008-10 when he was a player development staffer. 
• 1947 - OF Bernie Carbo was born in Detroit. He ended his 12-year career with the Bucs in 1980, going 2-for-6 at age 33 after signing on as a FA in September. He admitted to drug use during his playing days and said he threw his career away due to his addictions. He later sobered up, largely due to the efforts of Sam McDowell, and became a born-again Christian. In 1993, he founded the non-denominational evangelical organization Diamond Club Ministry and now spends his time ministering to families and their children through talks and baseball camps. 
• 1972 - RHP John Wasdin was born in Fort Belvoir, Virginia. John closed out his 12-year career in Pittsburgh, going 1-1, 5.95 in 2007 in a dozen appearances from the pen. Wasdin then bumped around for a bit, tossing in AAA and Japan, then taking a high school coaching gig. He joined the A’s as a pitching coach in 2011 and in 2017 jumped to the Orioles system. 

Eric Hinske 2009 O-Pee-Chee

• 1977 - Utilityman Eric Hinske was born in Menasha, Wisconsin. The 2002 AL Rookie of the Year signed with the Pirates in 2009 as a free agent for $1.5M and hit .255 with one homer before being traded to the Yankees at the deadline. His 12-year career ended in 2013, and since then he’s been a Yankee scout and hitting coach for the Cubs and Angels.