2/15: Drabek Signs; Watson Loses Arb; Vic Sold; Kiner Rumor Mill; Spring Shutdown; Game Switch; HBD Rob, Russ, Don, Barry, Al & Princeton Charlie

• 1867 - 3B “Princeton Charlie” (for the town, not the school) Reilly was born in Princeton, New Jersey. Charlie spent eight years in the show and was the Bucs starting hot corner guy in 1891, after jumping from the Columbus nine, along with pitcher Mark Baldwin, to join the Pirates. It didn’t end up a marriage made in heaven; he batted .219 and was released after the year. He picked up his hitting (his average was .265 over the second half of his career) and spent four years with the Philadelphia Phillies. Charlie had a 20-year pro run, including playing during the initial year of the PCL, and retired after the 1905 campaign at the age of 38. 
• 1892 - LHP Al Braithwood was born in Braceville, Illinois. Not much is known about Al as it appears he mostly hurled for semi-pro clubs, but his big league time was spent as a Pittsburgh Rebel in 1915. He was pretty sharp, too, tossing three perfect frames in two relief outings with a pair of whiffs, and compiling those three frames while only facing eight batters (we’re assuming he got a DP/caught stealing to his credit after inheriting a runner.) 

Vic Willis - 1909 Philadelphia Caramel

• 1910 - The Pirates sold RHP Vic Willis to the Cardinals. Vic was a 20+ game winner for the Bucs during his four-year stint, going 89-46 with a 2.08 ERA from 1906-09. But the 34-year-old Willis was running on empty. He won nine games for St. Louis, and 1910 was his big league swan song. 
• 1953 - The Pirates and Reds continued talking turkey regarding a possible Ralph Kiner trade, as the Bucs were eager to dump his $75,000 contract. The Reds, according to Les Biederman's Pittsburgh Press report, were dangling 1B Joe Adcock, IF Alex Grammas and 2B Grady Hattan along with a pair of TBD pitchers. Pirates GM Branch Rickey wanted either 1B Ted Kluszewski or SS Roy McMillan worked into the deal, a pair that Cincinnati GM Gabe Paul considered untouchable. Though Big Klu would join the Bucs on the downside in 1958 and Grammas would eventually coach in Pittsburgh, no agreement was reached. Kiner was moved in June when he was sent, along with Joe Garagiola, George Metkovich and Howie Pollet, to the Chicago Cubs for Bob Addis, Toby Atwell, George Freese, Gene Hermanski, Bob Schultz, Preston Ward and $150,000. 
• 1956 - Integration in baseball was a decade old, but the road was still a rocky ride. The Pirates and the Kansas City A's canceled a pair of exhibition games in Birmingham, Alabama, because of a city ordinance barring integrated play. The two teams moved their scheduled March 31st/April 1st spring games to New Orleans. 
• 1963 - RHP Barry Jones was born in Centerville, Indiana. He began his career in Pittsburgh after being selected in the third round of the 1984 draft. From 1986-88, Jones went on to post a 6-9-6/3.81 slash line with the Bucs before being traded to the White Sox for Dave LaPoint. After an eight-year career, he moved to Murrysville and spent several months helping to build PNC Park as a project manager for the concrete contractor. 

Barry Jones - 1988 Fleer

• 1980 - IF Don Kelly was born in Butler. Kelly went to Mt Lebanon HS and Point Park College before signing with the Bucs and making his debut in 2007, getting into 25 games and hitting .148. From 2009 onward, he played with the Tigers before joining the Marlins system briefly. In 2017, Don hung up the uni and became a Pro Scout/Assistant to Player Development for the Tigers. Kelly then moved along to Houston and came home to join Derek Shelton's staff in 2020 as his bench coach. He married Carrie Walker in 2007; his brother-in-law is Neil and his father-in-law is former big league pitcher Tom. The Kellys live in Wexford. 
• 1983 - C Russ Martin was born in East York, Ontario, Canada. The free agent pickup was with the Pirates from 2013-14, hitting .256 and rated highly behind the dish in all the defensive metrics and intangibles. The Toronto Blue Jays signed him to a five-year, $82M FA contract during the 2014 off season after Russ had a career year at the plate. He last caught in 2019 as a Los Angeles Dodger. 
• 1987 - RHP Rob Scahill was born in Winfield, Illinois. The reliever was traded to the Bucs from the Rockies after the 2014 season for Shane Carle and got into 28 games with a 2.62 ERA in 2015. He’s since been with the Brewers and the White Sox, with his last MLB outing in 2018. 
• 1990 - The owners refused to open spring training camps without a new Basic Agreement with the Players' Association, beginning a lockout that lasted 32 days and delayed the start of the regular season by one week. The beef was over an owner's plan to cap payroll at 48% of the league revenues; the MLBPA and Donald Fehr wanted no part of a cap. They eventually settled on “Super Two” arb, a raise in the minimum salary and adding an extra player to the active roster as the cap plan was sentenced to death by committee. 

Doug Drabek - 1992 Topps For Kids

• 1992 - On the Saturday before a scheduled Monday arb hearing, RHP Doug Drabek and the Pirates agreed on a $4.5M contract, after first rejecting a four-year, $18.5M deal. DD had been seeking $4.9M and the Bucs counter was $3.685M, so DD won this round after making $3.335M in 1991. The righty won the Cy Young in 1990, went 15-14/3.07 in 1991 and would go 15-11/2.77 in 1992, so he was well worth the price. 
• 2017 - In the only Pirates arb hearing of the off season, LHP Tony Watson and the FO argued about the paycheck before a three-man hearing panel. The Pirates offered Tony $5.6M; Watson countered w/$6M. On the following day, it was announced that the Bucs had won the decision, but it was still a nice bump for Watson, who earned $3.45M in 2016. It proved too rich for the Bucs’ taste; they traded Tony to the Dodgers at the deadline for youngsters SS/3B Oneil Cruz & RH closer Angel German, giving the closer’s job to Felipe Rivero. Watson has worked for three teams since Pittsburgh while Cruz was the Pirates keeper and is on the verge of breaking into the majors this year.