11/10 Through the 1960s: 7-Man Deal With Reds; Rowe, White to Pgh; Turf City; HBD Junior, Speed, Earl, Little Globetrotter & Fred

• 1867 - C Billy “Little Globetrotter” Earle was born in Philadelphia. Billy was one of the better hitting catchers of his era (and capable at other positions) with a career .286 BA who spent brief parts of 1893-94 in Pittsburgh batting .287 as a replacement backstop when regulars Connie Mack, Joe Sugden & company went down. But he only got into 142 games in his five-year career. Earle was a spiritualist who it was claimed could hypnotize people. Other players were said to have feared his “voodoo,” “evil eye” and all-around rep as a jinx. Be that as it may, Billy never had any out-of-the ordinary encounters with his teammates but was probably kept at a distance due to a more mundane curse - he was addicted to morphine. He finally cleaned himself up with rehab in 1898, thanks to an intervention by John McGraw and financial support for treatment provided by his Cincinnati teammates per Baseball History Daily. He went on to play, manage and coach in the minors through 1911, living to the ripe old age of 78. He got his nickname as a member of Albert Spalding’s 1888 worldwide baseball tour. 
• 1867 - IF Fred Roat was born in Oregon, Illinois. Fred spent a dozen seasons in the minors, with a pair of stops in the show. He got a cup of coffee with the Chicago Colts in 1892 after being part of the 1890 Alleghenys, batting .223 in 57 games. Fred retired after the 1899 campaign and led a quiet life back home. 
• 1888 - The Boston Red Stockings sold Jack Rowe and Deacon White to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. Both players had solid resumes (White entered the HoF), but were on the downside of the hill and lasted just a year with the Alleghenys. White, 41, was a Hall-of-Famer who hit .253 in 55 games playing 3B/1B for Pittsburgh, while Rowe, 32, played 75 games at SS, batting .259. The move didn't come without some maneuvering - Rowe and White had become owners of the International League's Buffalo Bison franchise and refused to report to the Pirates so they could play on their own team. The principle that they really were pushing is that they believed they should share in whatever fee their old club received for their services. It was resolved when the pair joined the Pirates with fat salaries and a cut of the selling price that Pittsburgh had paid Boston. However, the trading and selling of ballplayers was an issue that wouldn’t go away and contributed to the formation of the Players League in 1890. 

Deacon White's Hall of Fame Plaque

• 1890 - OF/P Eddie Eayrs was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts. He got his start with the Bucs in 1913, getting two of his four games on the hill, giving up six runs (two earned) in eight IP while going 1-for-6 at the dish as a 22-year-old signed out of Brown. He didn’t return to the show until 1920-21 with Boston and Brooklyn, mainly patrolling the pasture. Eayrs did have a long pro career, playing outfield in the Eastern League until 1927, when he finally unlaced the spikes for good at age 36 after compiling a .309 lifetime BA on the farm. 
• 1897 - The Pirates sent veterans OF Elmer “Mike” Smith and RHP Pink Hawley along with $1,500, to the Reds for five players - C/1B Pop Schriver, OF Jack McCarthy, P Billy Rhines, 3B Bill Gray and 2B Ace Stewart. Of the players the Bucs received, Stewart never played a game, McCarthy, Gray and Rhines lasted a season or two in Pittsburgh, and Pop stayed with the Pirates for three years, batting .260 as a part timer. Smith hit .342 for the Reds and Hawley went 27-11 in 1898 for the Reds. That would be their last hurrah as neither had strong campaigns afterward and retired after the 1901 season. 
• 1914 - OF Claude “Speed” Whatley was born in Griffin, Georgia. He played for the Homestead Grays from 1939-43, noted for his blazing speed (hence the nickname) and small-ball wizardry at the plate. Speed hit .300+ in two of his four Grays’ campaigns before leaving for the NY Black Yankees. He spent his last season with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1946. Speed defeated Olympic champ Jesse Owens in a promotional race before a game in the thirties (whether he was given a head start, generally part of Owen’s schtick, is unclear), but either way his moniker was well earned. 
• 1964 - IF Junior Noboa was born in Azua de Compostela, Dominican Republic. He got his final two at bats as a Bucco in 1994, going 0-for-2 to close out an eight-year MLB career. Junior spent one more year in the minors, served as batting coach for the Dominican National teams and now works in the Arizona Diamondbacks front office as Vice President of Latin Operations, helping land Miguel Montero, Gerardo Parra, Ender Inciarte, Carlos Gonzalez, and José Valverde.

York's Memorial Stadium 1968 Astroturf Treatment - photo by Charles Lentz

• 1967 - The Pirates announced a $25-30,000 deal with Monsanto Corporation to cover the infield of the Bucs’ Eastern League affiliate York (Memorial Stadium) with artificial turf. The experiment would determine if Astroturf would be an acceptable alternative to grass for the proposed Three Rivers Stadium. The co-tenants of TRS, the Steelers, indicated that they would favor an artificial surface (they changed their minds, thx to player input, when Heinz Field was designed; ditto for the Bucs and PNC Park). It worked out OK at TRS, though not so much for the York Pirates - their franchise folded after the ‘69 season and Memorial Stadium was used by the local softball players before the turf finally wore out after a decade of use.