- 1964 - IF Junior Noboa was born in Azua de Compostela, Dominican Republic. He got his final two at bats as a Bucco in 1994, going 0-for-2 to close out an eight-year MLB career. Junior spent one more year in the minors, served as batting coach for the Dominican National teams and now works in the Arizona Diamondbacks front office as Vice President of Latin Operations, helping land Miguel Montero, Gerardo Parra, Ender Inciarte, Carlos Gonzalez, and José Valverde.
- 1967 - The Pirates announced a $25-30,000 deal with Monsanto Corporation to cover the field of the Bucs’ Eastern League affiliate York (Memorial Stadium) with artificial turf. The experiment would determine if Astroturf would be an acceptable alternative to grass for the proposed Three Rivers Stadium. The co-tenants of TRS, the Steelers, indicated that they would favor an artificial surface (they changed their minds, thx to player input, when Heinz Field was designed; ditto for the Bucs and PNC Park). It worked out OK at TRS, though not so much for the York Pirates - their franchise folded after the ‘69 season and Memorial Stadium was used by the local softball players before the turf finally wore out after a decade of use.
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| Pops 1971 - Pirates Picture Pack |
- 1971 - Willie Stargell (.295/48/125) was MVP runner-up to Joe Torre‚ who led the NL in RBI (137) and batting (.363) while hitting 24 HR. Torre received 318 points to Stargell's 222. However, Pops did win the WS and HR title.
- 1982 - C Matt Pagnozzi was born in Miami, Arizona, named after the Miami Mining & Milling Company, a big local operator based in the Miami Valley of Ohio. Pagnozzi got in pieces of five MLB campaigns, including a 2011 stop in Pittsburgh as one of eight catchers used by the Bucs. Matt hit .250 in his five games (the Pirates didn’t pick him up until mid-September). He packed up the tools of ignorance after the 2015 season and 13 campaigns in the majors, minors and Dominican.
- 2000 - New manager Lloyd McClendon met with nine of his core players - Brian Giles, Kevin Young, Adrian Brown, John Vander Wal, Keith Osik, Todd Ritchie, Mike Williams, Jason Schmidt and Jose Silva - to set his agenda and get “buy-in” from the players after a 93-loss season, three days after Jason Kendall, Giles and Young had met with GM Cam Bonifay to give their thoughts on righting the Bucco ship. But even with the kumbaya, a new field boss and new ballyard to romp in, it was the same ol’ Bucs - despite the preseason rah-rah, they finished 62-100 in 2001 and Bonifay was canned.
- 2011 - The Pirates signed free agent C Rod Barajas to a one-year/$4M contract with a club option for 2013 ($3.5 million with no buyout). Hot Rod hit .206 and threw out just a half dozen baserunners all year. His option wasn’t exercised, marking the end of his MLB road, and he’s now a minor-league manager.
- 2015 - Starling Marte was named a Gold Glove Award winner for the first time. Marte led all NL left fielders in fielding percentage (.995), making just one error in 196 total chances. He also led all National League outfielders with 16 assists, the most by a Pirates OF’er since Jose Guillen (also 16) in 1998, with 15 coming without a relay man. Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole were also GG finalists, but lost out to AJ Pollock and Zack Greinke.
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| Jameson Taillon - 2018 Topps Big League |
- 2018 - Jameson Taillon was honored at the Rotary Club’s Chuck Tanner banquet with the Memorial Award while Lanny Frattare took the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his 33 years as “Voice of the Pirates.” Sandy Dengler was awarded the Sally O’Leary Distinguished Woman in Baseball trophy after spending 20 years with Tampa Bay (and she also served as the Buccos Bradenton complex coordinator before that). Bob Melvin of the Oakland A’s won the Manager of the Year, and Kent State’s Jeff Duncan was named the College Coach of the Year.
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