- 1975 - The Pirates released minor league infielder Tony LaRussa after he hit .260 at Class AAA Charleston in 1974. He retired in 1977 and came back to annoy the Bucs as the manager of the St. Louis machine that ran roughshod over the NL Central during his tenure as skipper.
- 1977 - OF Mike Easler was traded by the California Angels to the Pirates for P Randy Sealy. The Hit Man spent six seasons with the Bucs, hitting .302 and earning an All-Star spot in 1981. The Pirates then sold him to the Red Sox after the 1978 campaign but traded a couple of minor leaguers to get him back before the 1979 season began. Persistent suitor Boston eventually got his services for the ‘84 season, sending John Tudor to Pittsburgh for Easler; apparently both clubs really liked the guy.
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| Mike Easler 1977 Topps |
- 1978 - The Pirates sent OF Miguel Dilone, P Elias Sosa and IF Mike Edwards to the A’s for C Manny Sanguillen, who was traded to Oakland 17 months earlier for Chuck Tanner and cash. He spent three more seasons in Black & Gold, mainly as a bench player behind Ed Ott and Steve Nicosia as his heyday was in the rear view mirror. Dilone carved out a 12-year career, returning to the Bucs briefly in 1983. Sosa was also in the middle of a 12-year MLB run while Edwards played regularly for a couple of years for the A’s but was finished after the 1980 campaign.
- 1986 - 1B Jason Thompson was traded to Montreal for a pair of PTBNL minor leaguers, Ron Giddens and Ben Abner. It ended up a very minor deal as Thompson fared poorly for the Expos in his last MLB campaign and neither prospect the Pirates got made it to the show.
- 1993 - C John Bormann was born in Danville, Virginia. A 24th round pick in the 2015 draft from the University of Texas at San Antonio, the Class A Bradenton Marauder catcher got a call to the show in 2017 for a game while regular catcher Fran Cervelli was laid up briefly with a sore foot. He got one at bat and whiffed. Still, he was excited to get a chance to live the dream. As Clint Hurdle said "Imagine, when he woke up today, he was going to go on a bus to Port Charlotte..(and instead) ends up playing in a major league game.”
- 2000 - The Bucs drew a record announced crowd of 54,399 as Jason Schmidt lost 5-2 to the Astros for TRS’s final home opener. Sadly, the butts in the seats didn’t match the attendance figure by a longshot even with Christina Aguilera on hand to sing the Anthem. There were maybe an estimated 15,000 live fans on hand because of drizzly, 40-degree weather in Pittsburgh.
- 2007 - The Bucs swept the Astros in Houston for the first time since 1991, winning 5-4 at Minute Maid Park behind Tom Gorzelanny. Jose Bautista banged out three hits including a double and drove in three RBI to prime the attack.
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| Joey Bats 2007 Upper Deck |
- 2008 - Closer Matt Capps agreed to a $3.05M, two-year contract that ran through 2009 and covered his first year of arbitration. Capps wasn’t tendered when the deal ran out - he had 27 saves in 2009, but with a 5.80 ERA - and moved on to Washington. He hasn’t tossed over 50 IP in any season since 2010, and last pitched in the majors in 2012 for the Twins as he was plagued by a series of shoulder injuries.
- 2016 - Cumberland “Cum” Posey, the first black athlete at Penn State & Duquesne and a former player, manager, and owner of the Homestead Grays baseball team, was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He had been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, and thus became the only member of both the professional basketball and baseball halls of fame. Posey, who was born in Homestead in 1890, played two hoop seasons at Penn State, then with the Loendi Big Five, an all-black basketball team that won multiple Colored Basketball World Championships, and later at Duquesne under the name "Charles Cumbert," leading the Dukes in scoring for three seasons from 1916-18. After Duquesne, he focused on baseball and helped build the Grays into a powerhouse club. (bio via Pittsburgh Post Gazette)
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