3/2 From 1930: UN Umps; Ollie & Jay Bay Doth Protest; RIP Howie; HBD Don, Brandon & Jim

• 1936 - RHP Don Schwall was born in Wilkes-Barre. A two-sport college star (he was All-Conference hoopster) at Oklahoma, he won the AL Rookie of the Year honors in 1961 with the Red Sox, beating out teammate Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski. He settled into journeyman status and was converted to the bullpen later in his career by the Bucs. He was with Pittsburgh from 1963-66, going 22-23-4 with a 3.23 ERA. Don retired to Pittsburgh’s North Hills and worked as an investment broker. 

Howie - 1907 Pittsburgh Press

• 1960 - RHP Howie Camnitz, 78, passed away in Louisville, Kentucky. He pitched nine years (1904, 1906-13) for the Pirates, with a line of 116-84-13/2.63, went to Philly briefly and returned to toss for the Federal League Pittsburgh Rebels in 1914-15, slashing 14-19-1/3.32. Camnitz was the ace of the 1909 World Series champs, and tho he didn’t have a good Fall Classic, his 25-6-3/1.62 regular season was a big reason the Bucs won the flag. He threw for 235+ innings for seven straight seasons (1908-14), won 20+ games three times, and got to be on the same staff as his brother Harry in ‘09. Howie retired after his Rebels stint with a bum wing and became a car salesman. 
• 1985 - IF Brandon Wood was born in Austin, Texas. A first round pick of the Angels in 2003 (23rd overall), he spent parts of five seasons with the Halos. The Bucs claimed him in April of 2011 off waivers and he got into 99 games that season, batting .220 with seven homers while playing all four infield positions (primarily third base). He was with four other organizations after that campaign, his last in MLB, and after being cut in camp by the Padres, he hung up his mitt and became a SD minor league manager. 
• 1985 - 2B Jim Negrych was born in Buffalo, New York. He never made it to the show but was a local story during his career. The Pirates drafted two-time All-American Negrych out of Pitt in the sixth round of the 2006 MLB Draft as the first Panther drafted since the Bucs selected P Larry Lamonde in 1981 (Dan Marino ‘79 & Ken Macha ‘72 were prior picks). In 2008, Negrych was the Pirates minor league player of the year and was a Carolina League All-Star, then with Atoona and again with Indy he was named an MiLB.com Organizational All-Star. But he topped out at AAA and bounced around several organizations, earning upper level honors but no promotions. Jim took his game east to the Chinese league for a couple of seasons, helped coach at Pitt, managed the New England College League Keene Swamp Bats and is now a regional scout for the Cards. 
• 1996 - At St. Petersburg's Al Lang Field, two Japanese umpires worked the Pirates-Cards exhibition game along with two U.S. umpires as part of an exchange program that also had American umps working games in Japan. "I thought they (the Japanese) did a good job," said Pirates manager Jim Leyland. "And even if they didn't, you couldn't argue with them." Scott Zucker of UPI added that “(Tony) LaRussa offered that his only Japanese conversation consists of shaking his head 'yes' or 'no.' Keeping LaRussa quiet should be enough to keep any umpire, no matter what his nationality, happy.” The Bucs won the contest 11-2 behind Denny Neagle’s first spring start without any igniting any international incidents. 

Ollie Perez - 2005 Upper Deck Ultimate

• 2005 - LHP Ollie Perez, 23, and OF Jason Bay, 26, refused to sign their pre-arb contracts, symbolically dissatisfied with the raises proposed by the Pirates. Perez got $381,000, a $60,000 increase and Bay received $355,000, a $50,000 bump. Ollie was coming off a 12-10/2.98 campaign while Rookie of the Year Jason hit .282 with 26 homers. Both players said there was a big gap between their pay requests and the FO offers, but said they bore no ill will toward the club.