2/11: Bye TRS; Crandall, Burleigh Deals; Tony, Brian, Eric, Doug, Danny, Cecil, Lloyd Sign; Bell, Brett Arb; Pops Paid; DD Jay; Scout Scramble; RIP Chuck, Kiki; HBD Trey, Hoot & Leon

• 1912 - C Leon Ruffin was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Leon spent three seasons (1931-33) of his 14-year Negro/Mexican League career with the Pittsburgh Crawfords, with the first campaign serving as a backup, the next as a starter, and the final year as trade bait, being shipped to Newark in May. That was a recurrent theme in his ball playing days; he served four different tours of duty with the Eagles, including his one All-Star year. He was a defensive specialist with a rifle arm who made up for his quiet bat by mastering small ball, becoming an expert bunter and hit & run guy. 
• 1924 - OF Hal “Hoot” (his middle name was Housten) Rice was born in Morganette, West Virginia. After several seasons with the Cards serving as Stan Musial’s backup, he joined the Bucs for the 1953-54 seasons and started in left field for Pittsburgh after the Ralph Kiner trade. He hit .311 in that year’s audition, but was batting under .200 in June of 1954 and was shipped to the Cubs in what was his last MLB campaign. Rice gave up three years of baseball during WW2, winning a Purple Heart as a tank commander. 

Hal Rice - 1954 Topps

• 1928 - Pittsburgh sent RHP Vic Aldridge, who was fishing for a raise from owner Barney Dreyfuss, to the NY Giants for RHP Burleigh Grimes. Old Stubblebeard won 42 games in 1928-29 for Pittsburgh before being sent to the Braves after reaching a contract impasse. He returned in 1934 for his third Pittsburgh stint to finish his MLB career as a Pirate, the team he started with in 1916. The Hall of Famer won 48 of his 270 career victories as a Buc. As for Aldridge, he held out until late May, had a terrible year (4-7/4.83) and was sent to the Dodgers in August. He refused to report to Brooklyn, opting to retire from baseball instead. 
• 1950 - RF Hazen “Kiki” Cuyler passed away from a heart attack at the young age of 51 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Kiki spent the first seven seasons of an 18-year Hall of Fame career as a Pirate, but left on salty terms. He and manager Donie Bush banged heads; his contract was also weighing on the Bucco purse strings, and the two issues created a perfect storm that got him benched and traded. After his playing days, Kiki managed in the minors and coached for the Cubs & BoSox. He also ran a still-existent restaurant, Ki Cuyler’s Bar & Grill, in his hometown of Harrisville, Michigan. 
• 1965 - The Pirates traded youngsters 1B/OF Bob Burda & RHP Bob Priddy to the San Francisco Giants for veteran backstop Del Crandall. Burda played for six MLB seasons, primarily off the bench, hitting .227 in 381 games while Priddy tossed for seven more seasons for five clubs as a long man/spot starter with a slash of 22-36/4.01. Crandall was about at the end of the road at age 35, and hit .214 in 60 games. He was released at the end of the season and played through 1966 with the Indians to end a 16-year career. 
• 1974 - Willie Stargell eclipsed Roberto Clemente to become the Pirates highest paid player to date when he inked a one-year/$165K deal. Captain Willie was MVP runner-up after hitting .299 with 44 homers and 119 RBI in ‘73. 

Trey Beamon - 1997 Circa (reverse)

• 1974 - OF Trey Beamon was born in Dallas. The Bucs took him out of high school in the second round of the 1992 draft, and after the 1995 season, he was named the organization’s top prospect. But Trey never made much of a dent in MLB, spending 24 games with the Bucs in 1996 (.216 BA) before being traded to the Padres as part of the Mark Smith package. He got into a few dozen games with SD and was shipped to the Tigers, and that 1998 season would be his last in the bigs. He played in 98 games and hit .253 without a long ball. He played in the minors and indy leagues until 2006. 
• 1974 - 48 players filed to settle their contracts through the newly instituted arbitration system. The only Pirate player to argue his case at a hearing was pitcher Ken Brett; he asked for $45,000 and the Bucs countered with $35,000. Brett lost but bore no grudge; he went on to have his only All-Star season in ‘74 and re-upped with the Pirates in 1975. 
• 1991 - OF Cecil Espy signed with the Bucs as a NRI free agent for an undisclosed amount. He spent two seasons in Pittsburgh as a reserve outfielder, hitting .254, with much of 1991 spent on the farm at Buffalo. He was a first round pick of the White Sox in 1980 (eighth overall) but was a regular just one year during his eight big league seasons, with his last MLB campaign being in 1993. He played in the minors afterward and retired after spending 1996 in the Mexican League. Utilityman Lloyd McClendon also signed rather than face arb. He had put in for $295K, the Bucs countered with $170K, and per Baseball Reference, Lloyd won the negotiation by settling for $260K, close to his original asking amount. 
• 1992 - The Bucs won their arb case against SS Jay Bell, who had to accept an $875K paycheck rather than the $1.45M he was after. Bell turned down a reported settlement of $1.175M a few days prior, calling it a “great offer” but deciding to go through the process. The infielder felt his .270 BA, 16 homers and 96 runs scored would help carry the day; the Pirates countered that his batting stats were pretty much league average, and that his 24 errors were tops among NL shortstops. 

Jay Bell - 1993 Studio

• 1994 - SS Jay Bell took home the Dapper Dan Sportsmen of the Year award at the annual dinner at the Hilton Hotel after hitting .310 and scoring 102 runs during the 1993 season. It was a very good year for Jay - he also was named an All-Star for the first time, won a Golden Glove award for his fielding, and started it off by signing a five-year/$20.1M deal in April. Bell played for the Bucs from 1989-96, and returned in 2013 as the hitting coach before joining the Reds as their bench coach the following year. He’s now a manager in the Yankees system. 
• 2001 - Three Rivers Stadium, the home of the Pirates since 1970, was imploded before a full complement of TV cameras and thousands of onlookers. Roberto Clemente's 3,000th hit, Mike Schmidt's 500th home run, the 1994 All Star game and a couple of World Series championships were part of the park's 30-year baseball legacy.
• 2003 - New GM Dave Littlefield cleaned house in his scouting department by firing Mickey White, Brandon Bonifay, Ken Parker and George Zuraw, all top guns under former GM Cam Bonifay. They knew their time was short; Littlefield had raided the Marlin staff for three scouts earlier and brought in a fourth Fish, Doug Strange, a former Bucco, to replace them. The Florida scouts were in a state of flux as the team was in the process of being sold to Jeffrey Loria and Littlefield swooped in to give them a home. 
• 2006 - Jackie Bowen was hired for a second stint as Bucco scouting suit, becoming an assistant to Dave Littlefield and later national scouting supervisor after working from 1985-90 as a Bucco area scouting supervisor. He then moved on, working for the Reds, Giants and Mets, before returning home - he was the grandson of super scout Rex Bowen and had been raised in the City’s South Hills, graduating from Mt. Lebanon HS and Pitt. 

Danny Kolb - 1997 photo Nick Laham/Getty

• 2007 - The Pirates inked eight-year veteran righty Danny Kolb (Gary’s cousin) to a minor league deal. He pitched three games for the Pirates in June, each with a one inning-two hits-one earned run line, and he spent the rest of the season with AAA Indianapolis before being released, pitching briefly for the Mets in 2008 before taking his final MLB bow. 
• 2008 - IF Doug Mientkiewicz (aka “Eye Chart” thanks to his last name) signed on as a FA for $750K. The 34-year-old utility guy had a fairly solid year, hitting .277 in 125 games, and went to LA in 2009, closing out his 12 year career. He managed in the Tigers minor league system after stints with the Dodgers and Twins, and now operates a chartered boating business in the Florida Keys while helping out with coaching his son’s HS team.. 
• 2011 - Manager Chuck Tanner died at the age of 82 in New Castle. Captain Sunshine led the club from 1977-85 (the Bucs traded Manny Sanguillen to the A’s for Chuck’s services), winning the World Series in 1979 with the “We Are Family” gang and spending 10 more years as skipper for the White Sox, Athletics and Braves. The Coke Trials and consecutive last-place finishes in 1984-85 pushed him out of town, but he came back in 2007 as a Special Assistant to the GM.
• 2016 - The Pirates signed veteran LHP Eric O’Flaherty, 31, to a minor league deal with a camp invite that was worth $1.75M if he made the roster. He had been a strong bullpen piece until a 2013 elbow injury laid him low. The lefty didn’t make the Bucco 25-man list, but he did break camp with a MLB deal after the Pirates sold him to Atlanta in late March. O’Flaherty had enjoyed his best years there, going 13-7/1.99 in 295 games for the Bravos between 2009-13, but the reunion tour was less successful - in two seasons, he got into 61 games with a line of 1-4/7.28, was released in July of 2017, and retired before the 2018 campaign. 

Eric O'Flaherty - 2016 Getty photo

• 2021 - The Pirates filled a couple of bench holes by signing FA’s C Tony Wolter and OF Brian Goodwin to minor league/NRI deals. Wolters, 28, started for the Rockies in 2019-20 and hit .230. He's a lefty batter with a .238 lifetime BA in five MLB campaigns. He signed for $1.4M, but didn’t make the cut - he was released at the end of camp and was claimed by the Cubs; he’s currently a FA again. Goodwin, 30, played five big league seasons with a .250 career BA and was another left-handed swinger. He's played all three OF spots and was with the Angels and Nats in 2020, hitting a combined .215 for the two clubs. His contract was worth $1.6M w/$900K in possible bonuses. He lasted until May as a AAA insurance policy, was released and went to the White Sox. He’s also a FA in 2022.