11/17 Through the 1980’s: Red Lucas Trade; HBD Orlando, Tom, Jim, Ty, Jack & Don

• 1884 - 1B Jack Kading was born in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Jack got into eight games for the 1910 Pirates, batting .304 in 29 at-bats, and that was his biggest bite of the MLB pie. He also played a couple of years for Chicago of the Federal League. Jack served most of his five-year minor league career locally in the Canadian and Minnesota-Wisconsin Leagues, leaving baseball after 1914 at age 29 and returning to Waukesha. 
• 1892 - OF Don Flinn was born in Bluff Dale, Texas. Flinn played pro ball for a decade from 1914-26 with a couple of breaks, but his only big league time came with the Pirates in 1917 when he hit .297 in 14 games. He was a good hitter, amassing a .330 BA in a variety of southern leagues (five seasons in the Texas League) but still only got two part-time shots at the Class A and MLB level before racking the bat for the last time at age 33 in 1926. 

Red Lucas 1938 - photo George Burke

• 1933 - The Pirates traded OF Adam Comorosky and 2B Tony Piet to the Reds for RHP Red Lucas and OF Wally Roettger. Lucas was the key player. He lasted five seasons in Pittsburgh, going 47-32/3.77 and making 96 starts. After the trade, Lucas never lost a game against his old Cincinnati mates, going 14-0 against them during the remainder of his career. Red went 15-4 in 1936 with a 3.18 ERA in his top Bucco campaign and was also handy off the bench with a stick (he started his minor league career in the OF), posting a career .281 BA. Red’s nickname, "The Nashville Narcissus," was coined by Colonel Bob Newhall, a reporter for the old Cincinnati Tribune, who thought the young pitcher who was raised in Nashville was a blooming baseball beauty per SABR. 
• 1933 - RHP Orlando Pena was born in Victoria de Las Tunas, Cuba. He tossed for parts of 14 big league seasons, getting into 23 games and posting a 2-1-2/4.78 slash as a 36-year-old for the Pirates. Orlando was released in August and picked up by Baltimore; he hung around through the 1975 campaign. He’s now a Tigers scout. 
• 1947 - RHP Tom Dettore was born in Canonsburg. Tom tossed one year for the Bucs in 1973, putting up an 0-1/5.96 line and pitched the next three seasons for the Cubs. After his playing days, Dettore was a pitching coach in the Pirates minor league system (1988-95) before becoming the Pirates minor league pitching coordinator through 1998. 
• 1974 - RHP Jim Mann was born in Brockton, Massachusetts. He got into 25 MLB games in four seasons; his last two were as a Bucco in 2003, giving up two runs in 1-2/3 IP. Afterward, he was a AAA guy for Pittsburgh, the Yankees and Boston before spending his last three seasons (2005-07) in the indie leagues. 

Ty Taubenheim 2008 - photo Robbie Rogers/Getty

• 1982 - RHP Ty Taubenheim was born in Bellingham, Washington. The Bucs picked Ty up from Toronto in the 2007 off season; he got one start in 2008, his last in the majors, and it was a good outing. He didn’t get the decision, but went six innings of two-run ball in an eventual 4-3 win over Tampa. The Bucs released him in early September, and he continued through 2010 in the minors and with a Mexican Winter League stint before stepping off the rubber for the last time.