1/11 From 1970: Keona, Corey, Orlando & Ryan Sign; Cover Boy Cutch; DH OK; HBD Warren & Jermaine

• 1972 - OF Jermaine Allensworth was born in Anderson, Indiana. Allensworth spent the first 2-1/2 years of his four year career as a Bucco, hitting .272 from 1996-98 and seeing considerable time in the pasture; he even was portrayed on Saturday Night Live by Tracy Morgan in 1997. He was traded to KC for a minor leaguer, and they moved him to the Mets. His bat went cold and he was out of MLB after the 1999 season, playing a couple of years on the farm followed by a long stint of indie ball.

Jermaine Allensworth - 1998 Pacific Omega

• 1973 - This is a red letter day in baseball history. The owners voted to allow the AL to use a designated hitter, drawing a line in the sand that still exists between the junior and senior circuits. On April 6th, 1973, Ron Blomberg of the Yankees became the first regular season DH in major-league history, drawing a bases-loaded walk off the Red Sox’s Luis Tiant.
• 1974 - 2B Warren Morris was born in Alexandria, Louisiana. He made his major league debut in 1999, going from non-roster invitee in spring training to starting second baseman early in the season for the Bucs. Morris had a sharp rookie campaign, hitting .288 with 15 home runs, 73 RBI and earning a spot on the 1999 Topps All-Star Rookie team at second base. But he went downhill fast, and the Pirates released him before the 2002 season; his last MLB campaign was in 2003 and he formally retired in 2006.
• 1994 - 1B/OF Orlando Merced signed a one-year/$1.45M contract after hitting .313 w/seven homers and 70 RBI during the past season, a nice jump from the $325K he had earned in 1993.With his signing, the Pirates had tied up their arb eligibles (there were just four, with Jeff King earlier agreeing to a $2.4M contract the other biggie) without a hearing for the first time since 1988.
• 2010 - The Pirates signed OF Ryan Church to a one-year/$1.5M contract with an additional $1.32M available in performance incentives that became official of couple of days later. The 31-year old outfielder was expected to be the Bucs' fourth outfielder, behind Brandon Moss, Andrew McCutchen, and Lastings Milledge, but instead batted .182 with three homers for Pittsburgh and became part of a deadline package with Arizona. 2010 would be his last MLB season.

• 2013 - Andrew McCutchen was voted to be the cover athlete on the baseball video game “MLB 13: The Show.” Cutch gathered 108,147 votes from fans via Twitter and Facebook, besting NY Yankees' pitcher CC Sabathia, who came in second place with 89,054 votes.
• 2019 - The Buccos had two remaining arb contracts to sort out, and got them both done by the deadline - LF Corey Dickerson inked an $8.5M deal and RHP Keone Kela signed for $3.175M. Both posted productive 2018 campaigns and got healthy raises: Dickerson had earned $5.95M and Kela $1.2M. RHP Michael Feliz had agreed to an $850K/$375K split MLB-MiLB contract earlier in the off season.