3/7: Freddy to 2B; Willis HoF; Diomedes Signed; Mound Modified, RIP Pud & Cool Papa, HBD Doc, Junior, Dick & Albert

• 1881 - RHP William “Doc” Scanlan was born in Syracuse. He started his career in Pittsburgh, tossing sparingly from 1903-04 before being sold to the Brooklyn Superbas. Doc was 1-4 with a 4.65 ERA here, but was steady for some bad Brooklyn teams over the next 6-½ years, winning 64 games with a 2.96 ERA and tossing over 1,200 IP. He made baseball history in 1905 when he became one of only a handful of NL hurlers in modern major league history to win two complete games in one day, beating St. Louis, 4-0 and 3-2 on October 3rd. Doc’s nickname was straightforward enough; he became a doctor after he hung up the spikes. 
• 1893 - Baseball began to take on its modern form. The NL eliminated the pitching box, a 6’ x 4’ area the pitcher could throw from, and replaced it with the pitcher's rubber, establishing both a set position for pitchers and today’s pitching distance of 60’ 6”. Also, bats had to be rounded - the semi-cricket style of one side being flat for ease of slapping/bunting was made illegal. 

• 1902 - Pud Galvin, who had spent half of his 16 big league years pitching for the Alleghenys, Burghers and Pirates, passed away impoverished at the age of 45 of a stomach ailment, leaving behind six kids and a wife in baseballs pre-pension era; various local funders were held after his death to help the family. In his career, he tossed 6,003 IPs and 646 complete games, behind only Cy Young. He was MLB's first 300-game winner in 1888 (he won 365 times), authored two no-hitters and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1965. His original memorial stone at Calvary Cemetery in Pittsburgh was replaced as part of SABR's 19th Century Baseball Grave Marker Project and is now befitting a HoF player. 
• 1919 - RHP James “Junior” Walsh was born in Newark. Junior pitched in 1946, returning during 1948-51, for the Bucs and not very effectively; he never had an ERA lower than 5.05. In five years, his line was 4-10-1/5.88. He spent most of his 12-year pro career in the Pirates organization, once leading the Western League in whiffs but also walking nearly 1,000 batters (969) during his farm time. 
• 1931 - C Dick Rand was born in South Gate, California. Rand got into 60 games for the Bucs in 1957, batting .219 and ending his MLB career after three years. He was part of the cattle call of catchers the Pirates rostered in 1957 after starter Jack Shepherd earned a masters degree and surprised the club by retiring to go to work for his alma mater, Stanford. Rand joined Hank Foiles, Danny Kravitz and Harding “Pete” Peterson, who would find more success in the front office (he eventually became the Pirates GM) than on the field, as Bucco backstops during the season. 
• 1958 - OF Albert Hall was born in Birmingham, Alabama. Hall spent his final MLB campaign in Pittsburgh after signing a minor league deal, closing out a yo-yo nine-year career (all but this stop as a Brave) with only two seasons spent entirely with the big club. He got into 20 September games in 1989 for the Bucs after playing with the AAA Buffalo club and hit .182. A noted base-stealer in the minors, Hall also was the first Atlanta Brave to hit for the cycle in late 1987; the last time a member of the Braves franchise had banged out a cycle was 1910 when the team was the Boston Doves. 

Diomedes 1980 TCMA

• 1960 - The Pirates purchased LHP Diomedes Olivo from Poza Rica of the Mexican League, also throwing in an unnamed minor league infielder. He spent most of the year at AAA Columbus, where he slashed 7-9/2.88 and got into four late-season games with the big club. When Olivo made his debut on September 5th, 1960, at age 41, he was the oldest rookie to pitch with the exception of Satchel Paige in the post-WW2 era. He had another solid season at Columbus in 1961 and came north in ‘62 to post a line of 5-1-7/2.77 in 62 outings. Diomedes and Dick Groat were shipped in off season to the Cards for Don Cardwell and Julio Gotay. He wasn’t the only late bloomer in the family - his baby brother Chi-Chi took his MLB bow in 1961 when he was 33. 
• 1991 - OF Cool Papa Bell, who spent five seasons with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and five more with the Homestead Grays (he hit .300+ in nine of those 10 campaigns; the outlier season saw him hit .291), died at age 87 in St. Louis of a heart attack. His speed was legendary; Josh Gibson made the famous observation that Bell was so fast he could flip the light switch and be in bed before the room got dark. Cool Papa played for 25 years and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1974. 
• 1995 - The Veterans Committee selected RHP Vic Willis for the Hall of Fame. Willis pitched from 1906-09 with Pittsburgh, going 89-46 with a 2.08 ERA. The workhorse curveballer was inducted on July 30th with 249 career victories on his resume. Vic also was one of eight pitchers who tossed over 300 innings in a season without giving up a homer when he threw 322 frames in the 1906 campaign without surrendering a long ball. 

Steady Freddy 2009 Topps/Allen-Ginter

• 2007 - The main topic in the papers was whether or not the Bucs should keep defending NL batting champ Freddy Sanchez at second base; both the media and the team had questions about his legs being able to take the physical beating dished out to middle infielders on plays at the bag. Freddy proved tough enough. He spent 2006 much like 2005, splitting time at 3B-SS-2B, and then closed out the rest of his career as a second sacker. Injuries to his arm and then to his back eventually did end his MLB days.