3/24 From 1980: Bo's Walk Year; #4; Slugger Stamp; RIP Mace; HBD Corey & Chris

• 1982 - 1B/OF Corey Hart was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Pirates signed Hart to a one-year/$2.5M contract for the 2015 campaign, taking a risk that he would recover from microsurgery on his knee and fill a hole at first base. The club rolled snake eyes; Corey got into just 35 games battling shoulder & knee injuries, batted .222, and retired prior to the 2016 season. The two-time All-Star is now a minor league hitting coach for Toronto. 

Corey Hart - 2015 Topps

• 1991 - The Pirates president, Carl Barger, GM Larry Doughty and skipper Jim Leyland held a three-hour, closed door meeting discussing the Bucs “State of the Union” per the report of Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press. A major topic was the future of Bobby Bonilla, who was in his walk year and could be signed, traded, or lost to free agency. Hertzel said the rumor mill was percolating, with the Yankees 1B Kevin Maas & OF Roberto Kelly, the Mariners 1B Tino Martinez & old Bucco property OF Jay Buhner, the Braves P John Smoltz & OF Dave Justice and a couple of days later, the Cubs Mark Grace & Jerome Walton, on the Pirates’ wish list of possible matches. But no match was made, and Bobby Bo left the Bucs empty-handed after putting up an All Star line of .302/18/100 in ‘91 to sign with the Mets. 
• 1993 - Utilityman Chris Bostick was born in Rochester, New York. A well-traveled minor league depth guy, Pittsburgh became his fourth organization in 2017 and after some good stick work at Indy, he got his first call to the show for a May cup of coffee, then a longer September look, batting .296 overall in 20 games for the Pirates. He got a couple of more tastes in ‘18 before going to Miami; he's now with the Orioles. 
• 2002 - RHP Mace Brown passed away in North Carolina at the age of 92. Brown was one of the earliest dedicated relievers for the Pirates, appearing 207 times from the bullpen from 1935-41. He also started 55 games over that span and ended up credited retroactively with 29 saves as a Pirate (a closer wouldn’t be a thing for several more decades; a save wasn’t even kept as a stat until 1969) to go with 18 complete games and two shutouts. 
• 2006 - At Mickey Mantle's Restaurant & Sports Bar in New York City, the U.S. Postal Service unveiled the "Baseball Sluggers" postage stamps which were issued on July 15th at Yankee Stadium prior to the game against the White Sox. The four Hall of Famers featured in the set had roots in New York with Mickey Mantle (Yankees), Mel Ott (Giants) and Roy Campanella (Dodgers) playing their entire careers in the Big Apple, and the fourth, Hank Greenberg, had set schoolboy records at James Monroe High School in the Bronx. Greenberg spent his final season (1947) in Pittsburgh where he mentored slugger Ralph Kiner.

• 2014 - The Pirates announced that the team would wear #4 patches all season to commemorate slugger Ralph Kiner, who died on February 6th. Kiner led the NL in home runs for seven straight years (1946-52) and MLB for six consecutive seasons (1947-52), both records. He was selected for the All-Star Game in six straight seasons, from 1948-53, and entered the Hall of Fame in 1975.