12/1/From 1950: Face, Nelson Taken; Young, Nunez & Tenace Signed; Alou, Wills & S-Rod Deals; Pops Switched; Kent To Booth; RIP Gene; HBD Reggie

• 1952 - The Pirates chose ElRoy Face from the Montreal Royals, the top minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the first overall pick of the minor league draft. GM Branch Rickey said the decision was between Face and C Johnny Bucha. He made a good choice; Bucha was taken by the Tigers and lasted one more big league season, hitting .222. During a 15-year career with the Pirates, Face led the NL in saves three times, collecting 100 wins and 188 saves as a Bucco while popularizing the forkball, a prototype of the modern day splitter. He retired to North Versailles where he made his living as a carpenter. During his career, he was known as “The Baron of the Bullpen” as popularized by Bob Prince, and is still considered a pioneer in the closer’s evolution. GM Branch Rickey also selected vet pitchers Johnny Hetki and Swissvale’s Bob Hall. Hetki, who had worked for the Browns & Reds, lasted two more seasons, making 112 appearances, and Hall, who had tossed for the Braves, one more, both ending their MLB careers in Pittsburgh. 
• 1958 - The Pirates drafted Rocky Nelson from Toronto of the International League for a $25,000 fee in the minor-league Rule 5 draft. He was already 34, but would spend three seasons with the Bucs, hitting .270 as a platoon player and pinch hitter. Rocky went 3-for-9 in the 1960 World Series with a home run. 

Rocky Nelson - 1960 Topps

• 1965 - The Bucs traded for Giants’ CF Matty Alou‚ who was coming off a .231 season‚ sending LHP Joe Gibbon and IF Ozzie Virgil to the Bay. Alou played five seasons in Pittsburgh, promptly winning a batting crown in 1966 and putting up four straight .330+ years after manager Harry “The Hat” Walker retooled his batting approach. He finished in the NL’s top five in hitting from 1966-69. In 2007, the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame inducted Alou into their Hall of Fame after he finished his 15 year career with a .307 BA. 
• 1966 - The Pirates sent 3B Bob Bailey and SS Gene Michael to the Dodgers for SS/3B Maury Wills. Wills hit .290 and stole 81 bases for the Bucs in his two seasons as the club’s third baseman. He was lost in the 1968 expansion draft during a Pirates youth movement, played a year with Montreal and then closed out his career where he started it, in Los Angeles. The highly-hyped Bailey had been signed out of Wilson High School in Long Beach in 1961, and was given the largest signing bonus ever paid up to that time, a reported $135,000, by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Michael was 28 and didn’t find a groove in LA, but went on to become the Yankees’ starting shortstop for five years (1969-73) and played until age 37 before going on to a managerial career. 
• 1967 - OF Reggie Sanders was born in Florence, South Carolina. Reggie played 17 solid seasons in the show and his 2003 stay in Pittsburgh was excellent as he hit .285 with 31 homers and 87 RBI. The Pirates had signed the 35-year-old to a one-year/$1M contract and he doubled it the next season by jumping to the Cards. Sanders played into the 2007 campaign, racking the bat for the final time at age 39. 
• 1972 - Manager Bill Virdon announced from the winter meetings in Honolulu that Willie Stargell, who had moved from left field to first base in July of the prior season (101 games played with a league-leading 15 errors) to replace a cold-hitting Bob Robertson, would stay at the position while Big Red would get work at the corners and left field. It didn’t quite work out that way; Robby did start 32 games playing LF/3B, but got 106 starts at first while Willie played exclusively in left (CF Al Oliver got 99 games in at first in 1973-74). Roberto Clemente’s tragic death created an outfield void that Manny Sanguillen and then Richie Zisk tried to fill in right while Willie provided stability in left. Dave Parker’s emergence allowed Zisk to flip to left in 1975 and Pops with his creaky knees finally made the move to become the Buccos’ full-time first-sacker at age 35. Other news from the winter get-together: Commissioner Bowie Kuhn confirmed that the 1974 All-Star Game would be held in Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium. 

Gene Tenace - 1984 Donruss

• 1982 - The Pirates inked 36-year-old FA Gene Tenace to a multi-season deal, thought to be two years/$400K. He was brought aboard as a replacement for Willie Stargell, who was Jason Thompson’s back-up/bench bat during Pop’s last campaign. Gene got into 53 games in 1983, batted .177, and Pittsburgh ate the second year of the agreement. 
• 1989 - Kent Derdivanis was named as John Sanders replacement in the KDKA booth, joining Lanny Farattare on the play-by play and color men Steve Blass and Jim Rooker after signing a two-year contract. He worked for Pittsburgh through the 1993 season before returning to his home base in Arizona. Sanders, who spent nine years as the voice of the Buccos, later landed a deal in Cleveland and was their announcer from 1991-2006. 
• 1997 - The Pirates signed 1B Kevin Young to a two-year/$3.7M contract after he hit .300 and led the team in homers (18) and RBI (74) during the season despite missing 35 games with a thumb injury. KY spent the next five years as a starter for Pittsburgh, mainly at 1B, and hit .263 with 103 homers in that span. Young spent 11 of his 12 MLB seasons in Pittsburgh, and is still with the organization as a special instructor. 
• 1999 - Gene Baker passed away in Davenport, Iowa, at the age of 74. The backup infielder spent the last four years of his MLB career with the Bucs, capped by the 1960 World championship. He retired after that year, and Baker became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia Pirates farm club in the New York–Penn League. In 1962, the Pirates named him player-coach of the AAA Columbus Jets. In 1963, Baker was promoted to coach with the Bucs. He was the second black coach in the big leagues, following Buck O'Neil by a half-season. Gene then closed out his career as a Pirates scout. 
• 2003 - The Pirates signed IF Abraham Nunez to a one-year, $625K contract in his eighth season with the club. He hit .236 in 2004 (just about at his .238 Bucco career clip), was released and signed a deal with the Cards for 2005. He played well for them, hitting a career-high .285, but returned to earth during his final three campaigns with the Phils and Mets, finishing up his career in 2008. 

S-Rod - 2015 Topps Heritage

• 2014 - The Pirates picked up utilityman Sean Rodriguez from Tampa Bay for minor league RHP Buddy Borden to replace newly minted starter Josh Harrison on the Buc bench. Rodriguez hit a career low .211 in 96 games for the Rays in 2014, but set career highs in home runs (12) and RBI's (41). He became available after being DFA’ed when the Rays signed RHP Ernesto Frieri, who the Pirates had cut loose. S-Rod hit .246 for Pittsburgh in 2015 while playing every infield position and both corner OF spots but broke out in 2016, batting .270 with 18 HR. That led to a two-year/$11.5M deal with the Braves for 2017, short-circuited by a shoulder injury suffered in a car crash. The Pirates decided they wanted him back and sent minor leaguer Connor Joe to the Bravos in exchange for S-Rod in August. He was released a year later and played for Philly, moving to Miami in 2020.