3/2: Arb Arguments; Barkley Battle; International Diplomacy; RIP Howie; HBD Chick, Billy, Rip, Frank, Abie, Don, Brandon & Jim

• 1879 - RHP Joe “Chick” Robitaille was born in Whitehall, New York. He spent his two year MLB career as a Pirate (1904-05), going 12-8 with a 2.56 ERA before being released in August 1905. Chick signed on with the Washington Senators the following season as a free agent, but never returned to the big leagues. 

Sam Barkley 1887 Buchner Gold Coin

• 1886 - The American Association met and overruled Denny McKnight, AA president and also owner of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, over who held the rights to 2B Sam Barkley, then suspended Barkley for signing with Pittsburgh. The issue turned around St. Louis Brown’s owner Chris von der Ahe, who had sold Barkley’s rights to Pittsburgh in January; Baltimore had sent him $1,000 for Barkley’s contract after a verbal agreement but it arrived after the Steel City deal. The case was eventually resolved by allowing Barkley to play for the Alleghenys, sending Milt Scott from Pittsburgh to Baltimore as compensation and allowing von der Ahe to keep Baltimore’s check. After all that, Barkley hit .248 in his two years with the club, splitting time between first and second base.
• 1891 - C Bill Fischer was born in NY City. Bill spent the last two seasons of his five year career in Pittsburgh (he was traded to the Bucs by the Cubs in July 1916 as the Pirates were stockpiling catchers to spell the aging George Gibson) and hit .277 in 137 games before hangin’ the spikes up after the 1917 campaign. Fischer had a career year in 1915 playing for the pennant-winning Chicago Whales of the Federal League, hitting .329. 
• 1898 - RHP Floyd “Rip” Wheeler was born in Marion, Kentucky. After winning 23 games in the minors, the Bucs called him up in late 1921. He gave up three earned runs in three frames and opened 1922 in the minors. He got one more inning in Pittsburgh before joining the Cubs, where he yo-yoed between the show and the farm for a couple of seasons. Rip quietly concluded his career after three more minor league years. 
• 1918 - 1B/OF/PH Frank Colman was born in London, Ontario. He played for the Bucs at the start of his career (1941-46), getting just 373 PA and hitting .233. In 1947, Frank’s career ended with the Yankees when a leg injury followed by surgery finished his MLB playing days. Frank caught on as a player-manager in the minors for awhile, then bought the team he started out on, the London Majors. Frank later founded the Eager Beaver baseball group for kids, and for his efforts as a ballplayer and ambassador of the sport was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999. 

Frank Colman (photo via Ontario Sports Hall of Fame)

• 1924 - OF Cal “Abie” Abrams was born in Philadelphia. He spent 1953 in Pittsburgh as the starting RF, hitting .286 with 15 HR, and was traded early in 1954 to Baltimore for P Dick Littlefield. Abrams hit .269 over his career, but drew 304 walks to just 290 whiffs and ended up with a .386 lifetime OBP in eight seasons with the Dodgers, Reds, Pirates, Orioles and White Sox. Abie ran a college bar after retirement and then became a celebrity host for a cruise liner. 
• 1936 - RHP Don Schwall was born in Wilkes-Barre. A two-sport college star (he was All-Conference hoopster) at Oklahoma, he won the AL Rookie of the Year honors in 1961 with the Red Sox, beating out teammate Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski. He settled into journeyman status and was converted to the bullpen later in his career by the Bucs. He was with Pittsburgh from 1963-66, going 22-23-4 with a 3.23 ERA. Don retired to Pittsburgh’s North Hills and worked as an investment broker. 
• 1960 - RHP Howie Camnitz, 78, passed away in Louisville, Kentucky. He pitched nine years (1904, 1906-13) for the Pirates, with a line of 116-84-13/2.63, went to Philly briefly and returned to toss for the Federal League Pittsburgh Rebels in 1914-15, slashing 14-19-1/3.32. Camnitz was the ace of the 1909 World Series champs, and tho he didn’t have a good Fall Classic, his 25-6-3/1.62 regular season was a big reason the Bucs won the flag. He threw for 235+ innings for seven straight seasons (1908-14), won 20+ games three times, and got to be on the same staff as his brother Harry in ‘09. Howie retired after his Rebels stint with a bum wing and became a car salesman. 
• 1985 - IF Brandon Wood was born in Austin, Texas. A first round pick of the Angels in 2003 (23rd overall), he spent parts of five seasons with the Halos. The Bucs claimed him in April of 2011 off waivers and he got into 99 games that season, batting .220 with seven homers while playing all four infield positions (primarily third base). He was with four other organizations after that campaign, his last in MLB, and after being cut in camp by the Padres, he hung up his mitt and became a SD minor league manager. 

Jim Negrych 2006 Bowman Draft

• 1985 - 2B Jim Negrych was born in Buffalo, New York. He never made it to the show but was a local story during his career. The Pirates drafted two-time All-American Negrych out of Pitt in the sixth round of the 2006 MLB Draft as the first Panther drafted since the Bucs selected P Larry Lamonde in 1981 (Dan Marino ‘79 & Ken Macha ‘72 were prior picks). In 2008, Negrych was the Pirates minor league player of the year and was a Carolina League All-Star, then with Atoona and again with Indy he was named an MiLB.com Organizational All-Star. But he topped out at AAA and bounced around several organizations, earning upper level honors but no promotions. Jim took his game east to the Chinese league for a couple of seasons, helped coach at Pitt, managed the New England College League Keene Swamp Bats and is now a regional scout for the Cards. 
• 1996 - At St. Petersburg's Al Lang Field, two Japanese umpires worked the Pirates-Cards exhibition game along with two U.S. umpires as part of an exchange program that also had American umps working games in Japan. "I thought they (the Japanese) did a good job," said Pirates manager Jim Leyland. "And even if they didn't, you couldn't argue with them." Scott Zucker of UPI added that “(Tony) LaRussa offered that his only Japanese conversation consists of shaking his head 'yes' or 'no.' Keeping LaRussa quiet should be enough to keep any umpire, no matter what his nationality, happy.” The Bucs won the contest 11-2 behind Denny Neagle’s first spring start without any igniting any international incidents.
• 2005 - LHP Ollie Perez, 23, and OF Jason Bay, 26, refused to sign their pre-arb contracts, embolically dissatisfied with the raises proposed by the Pirates. Perez got $381,000, a $60,000 increase and Bay received $355,000, a $50,000 bump. Ollie was coming off a 12-10/2.98 campaign while Rookie of the Year Jason hit .282 with 26 homers. Both players said there was a big gap between their pay requests and the FO offers, but said they bore no ill will toward the club.