1/31 From 1970: Bonds, Smiley, Riddle, Suppan, Darwin, Backman Sign; Smoker, Ryan Deals; Lopez, Beckley, Kelley HoF; Media Matters; HBD Guillermo

• 1971 - The Hall of Fame Special Veterans Committee selected two Bucs from the early days to the Hall, 1B Jake Beckley and OF Joe Kelley. Beckley played for the Alleghenys, Burghers and Pirates from 1888-96, hitting .300. He banged a modest 43 HR, but legged out 113 triples in that span. Kelley got a cup of coffee with Pittsburgh in 1892, hitting just .239. The Pirates dumped him, and he went on to have a dozen consecutive .300+ seasons beginning the following year, playing mostly for the Baltimore Orioles. They were inducted on August 9th. 

Jake Beckley - undated photo via the Baseball Hall of Fame

• 1974 - The Pirates traded SS Jackie Hernandez to the Phils for C Mike Ryan. Hernandez was released by Philadelphia in April and was re-signed by the Bucs, spending a year in the minors before closing out his career with a couple of seasons in the Mexican League. Ryan was little used, going 3-for-30 in Pittsburgh, then spending two seasons on the farm before tossing the mask for the last time. Mike (not to be mistaken for the Altoona manager of the same name, who was an OF’er) managed a little for the Bucs and then went on to a two-decade coaching run with Philadelphia. 
• 1977 - The Special Veterans Committee selected C Al Lopez for the Hall of Fame. Lopez caught for Pittsburgh from 1940-46, hitting a modest .254. But he was best known for his glove and ability to handle a staff, going on to manage the Indians and White Sox when his playing days ended. He was inducted on August 9th. 
• 1986 - The Pirates announced a couple of changes in their KDKA-TV coverage: John Sanders remained as the play-by-play man while Alan Cutler took over the analyst job and Steve Blass, who was also on the radio side with Lanny Frattare and Jim Rooker, was added as a part-time color commentator. 
• 1990 - The Pirates signed 30-year-old IF Wally Backman to a $600K free agent deal (they also had to compensate the Twins, his former club, with a second-round draft pick) to help ease Jeff King’s load at third base. He filled the bill, starting 68 times at the hot corner and hitting .292 during the campaign in his last solid MLB season; he even started with a bang when he collected six hits during a nine-inning game in late April. Wally went to Philly in the off-season and hit .243, finishing out his playing career after the 1993 campaign and beginning a stormy second life as manager. 

Wally Backman - 1991 Topps

• 1991 - LHP John Smiley agreed to a $1.05M deal with the Bucs, getting a bump from his 1990 $840K salary. He had a rough ‘90 campaign, with shoulder surgery in the off season, followed by a broken finger in May, leading to a 9-10/4.64 slash line. But he recovered from his battle scars and roared back during the ‘91 campaign, going 20-8/3.08. 
• 1991 - OF Guillermo Heredia was born in Matanzas, Cuba. Guillermo jump-started his MLB career the hard way; he defected from Cuba in 2015. The Pirates signed the FA to a major league contract early in 2020, presumably to serve as a depth outfielder, as he did for Seattle and Tampa Bay. In parts of four seasons, he scored high marks as a defensive corner outfielder while batting .240 with an 82 OPS+. But he was seldom used in Pittsburgh, hit .188, and was released, to be claimed by the Mets. 
• 1992 - The Pirates signed OF Barry Bonds to a one-year contract worth $4.7M, the largest one-year deal in baseball history at the time. Bonds won his second MVP trophy and the Bucs won their division, so it was money well spent. His next contract was with the SF Giants, and it was another record-breaker at seven years/$43M. 
• 1995 - The Bucs ended their 40-year affiliation with KDKA Channel 2 and switched to WPXI Channel 11. The drivers were thought to be that KD switched networks to CBS, causing preemption issues on the weekend, and to boot, was losing money airing the Buccos on the TV side. The deal didn’t affect their long-time radio agreement, though. WPXI agreed to broadcast 16 weekend games, so long as they didn’t involve replacement players, and the main distributor, cable station KBL, held the rights for 75 other contests. 

Danny Darwin - 1996 photo Mitchell Layton/Getty

• 1996 - With camp around the corner, 40-year-old RHP Danny Darwin agreed to ink a minor-league deal worth $550K (MLB rate) with the Pirates rather than retire after suffering through a horrendous 3-10/7.45 season w/Texas and Toronto in ‘95. Lo and behold, he was 7-9 with the Bucs but posted a sterling 3.02 ERA and was sent to the Astros before the deadline. He then tossed two more campaigns before hangin’ ‘em up after the 1998 season as a 42-year-old.
• 2003 - Free agent RHP Jeff Suppan was signed to a $500K deal. After a solid summer (10-7/3.57), he was flipped to the Red Sox at the deadline as part of the Freddy Sanchez/Mike Gonzalez deal. Steady Freddy was a Pirate All-Star while Gonzo eventually became the closer. “Sup” went on to toss for eight more seasons, capping a 17-year MLB career in 2012. He’s a KC Royals minor-league pitching coach now. The Pirates also inked RHP Pat Mahomes (the pappy, not the QB) to a minor-league contract. He was called up twice from AAA Nashville during the season, got into nine games (one start) and slashed 0-1/4.88 in his last MLB outings. He continued tossing in the minors/indie leagues through 2009.
• 2018 - The Pirates sent minor league lefty Daniel Zamora to the New York Mets for LHP Josh Smoker. Zamora went 1-1/4.08 for NY in 2018-19 while averaging 12K per nine innings, albeit while spending most of his time in AAA. He was DFA’ed in 2021, went to Seattle and is now a free agent. Smoker was waived by Pittsburgh and then Detroit after giving up seven runs in 5-2/3 IP while striking out two, walking five and giving up a pair of homers. He closed out 2019 pitching in the indie leagues and hasn’t gotten a call since. 

JT Riddle - Topps 2020 Update

• 2020 - Pittsburgh signed utilityman JT Riddle, 28, to a one-year, $850K MLB contract. He played for parts of three seasons (2017-19) for the Marlins, with a slash of .229/.269/.368, mainly as a shortstop but with some time in center field, too. He came to Pittsburgh with no remaining options, so it was a sink-or-swim deal. He tread water through the season, but hit just .149 and was DFA’ed in October, later signing a minor league deal with the Twins. He opted for free agency after getting six at-bats and being DFA’ed/outrighted by Minnesota after the ‘21 campaign.