11/21 From 1950: Hill Traded; Pops Gets Hutch; Willie & Bonds #2, Groat #3; Bragan, Cooke, Hassler Inked; Roster Wiggle; Viet Tour; HBD Kid, Bill & Brian

• 1952 - IF Bill Almon was born in Warwick, Rhode Island. Bill played in Pittsburgh from 1985-87, batting .249, before being traded to the Mets for Al Pedrique. His last season was 1988 as a Phil, his 15th MLB campaign, before he retired and joined the family business. Trivia Pursuit: Bill Almon is the only Ivy Leaguer to be drafted first overall in any of the four major professional sports. The Brown grad was selected by the San Diego Padres with the first pick of the 1974 Draft. 
• 1952 - Brooklyn Dodgers pitcher Joe Black, who posted a 15-4/2.15 slash, ran away with the NL Rookie of the Year. Another pitcher, Hoyt Wilhelm of the Giants, claimed second, followed by Bucs SS Dick Groat (.284) and Braves 3B Eddie Mathews.

Bobby Bragan - phjoto via Sports Memorabilia

• 1956 - Bobby Bragan was inked to his second contract as Bucco manager after his initial one-year audition ended, and though the terms weren’t revealed, the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported he had received a ”substantial raise.” Hopefully he didn’t spend it all in one place; he was relieved of duties with two months remaining in the season. Ironically, Brash Bobby’s critics said that he was a fish out of water with such a young team and was better suited to lead a veteran club, but his greatest successes as field general were claimed as a minor-league skipper. In fact, Bragan became president of the Texas League and did so well in that post that he was elected president of the National Association, the governing group of MiLB. 
• 1969 - Ken Griffey Jr. of Seattle and Cincinnati fame was born in Donora. The Kid (a childhood nickname given to keep him sorted from his dad, Ken Sr.) was a 13-time All-Star, and his 630 home runs rank as the sixth-most in MLB history. Griffey also won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He's tied for the record of most consecutive games with a home run (eight games, along with Don Mattingly and Dale Long). His pop, Ken Griffey Sr., was born there and was a multi-sport star at Donora HS, graduating the year before it merged with Monongahela to form Ringgold. 
• 1970 - Pirates broadcaster Bob Prince, Willie Stargell, and Mudcat Grant, along with the O’s Merv Rettemund & Ed Watt plus the Braves Phil Niekro, began a tour of troops and hospitals in Vietnam. Richie Hebner left for a visit to the war zone in December. 1973 - Pete Rose won the NL MVP, edging out Willie Stargell by a 274-250 tally. Rose took his third batting crown with a .338 mark. Stargell led the league with 44 HR, 119 RBI, and a .646 slugging percentage while batting .299. Many in Pittsburgh still believe Captain Willie wuz robbed, victimized by the Charlie Hustle mystique. 
• 1975 - RHP Brian Meadows was born in Montgomery, Alabama. He pitched for Pittsburgh from 2002-05. The Bucs converted him to a reliever in 2003, and his line with the Pirates was 8-12-2/4.20. He went on to Tampa Bay in 2006 and retired the following season after failing to make it out of camp with the Reds. 

Brian Meadows - 2005 Fleer Tradition

• 1978 - Willie Stargell won the Hutch Award for persevering through adversity with the same competitive spirit as the honor’s namesake, Fred Hutchinson. Pops had lost the majority of the 1977 campaign to injury and illness, but bounced back in ‘78 to play 122 games and hit .295 with 28 homers & 97 RBIs during the Bucs down-to-the-wire chase of the Phillies. Captain Willie was the first Pirate to win the award, followed by Don Robinson (1984), Rick Reuschel (1985) and Sid Bream (1990). 
• 1979 - Free agent LHP Andy Hassler signed a six-year/$750K (+$25K bonus money available annually) contract with the Bucs. It was much ado about nothing for the Pirates. They sold the hurler in June after just six outings and a 3.86 ERA to California, where he strung together three solid campaigns with the Halos. He mostly struggled his last three seasons with the Angels & Cards, retiring after the deal expired. 1991 - The Brave's 3B Terry Pendleton, who hit .319 with 22 HR and 86 RBI, won the NL MVP over Barry Bonds, who hit .292, with 25 HR & 116 RBI by a 274-259 point count. Bobby Bonilla came in third and was thought to have split Bond's vote, leading to Barry’s somewhat surprising runner up finish. 
• 1996 - The Pirates took a low-risk flyer on LHP Steve Cooke, signing him for a one-year/$175K contract. Due to shoulder injuries, he had made only three MLB appearances in 1995-96. He did give them about league average performance in 1997, going 9-15/4.30, but was released at the end of the year and pitched just one more game in 1998 for Cincinnati to end his big league career. Cooke was 10-10/3.80 w/200+ IP in his rookie campaign of 1993 and looked like a potential rotation mainstay, but never enjoyed a healthy season afterwards. 
• 2002 - The Pirates added 2B Pat Meares and LHP David Williams to the 40-man roster from the 60-day IL, along with minor leaguers C Ryan Doumit, SS Jose Castillo, RHP Bobby Bradley and OF Walter Young. To make room, they released OF Armando Rios and DFA’ed LHP John Grabow, with OF Adrian Brown having been freed earlier. The shake and bake wasn’t quite over: Meares ended up back on the 60-day DL, with his career finished, while Grabow was re-signed and debuted in 2003. 

Bobby Hill - 2005 Topps Total

• 2005 - The Pirates sent 2B Bobby Hill, part of the ill-fated salary-dump deal with Chicago that made Aramis Ramirez a Cub, to San Diego for RHP Clayton Hamilton, a Beaver Falls native who went to Blackhawk HS and Penn State. Clayton never made it to the majors, although he did work a season or two in Japan. It was a wash; Hill, who been DFA’ed three days before the trade, never made another MLB appearance. 
• 2011 - The Pirates signed ex-Astros’ SS Clint Barmes to a two-year/$10.5M free agent deal, their first $10M+ free agent deal since they signed Steve Buechele in 1991. Barmes ended the Ronny Cedeno experiment, and they re-signed him in 2014 as a back-up after he had played 252 games in his first two campaigns as the bridge to Jordy Mercer. Barmes, a popular and respected clubhouse guy, tutored the young Mercer to make the transition painless. He lived up to his glovely rep with a +26 DRS (good thing; he only hit .224 as a Bucco), and gave the breakout Bucs an identity when made his walk up song “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey, which became that club’s “We Are Family” 2013 variation on a theme as they finally broke their 20-year losing streak and made the playoffs. When he first returned to PNC Park as a Padre in 2015, he was greeted by the song and an ovation. Clint retired in 2016 after a 13-year MLB run.