10/20: Cobra, Frankie Trade Talks; Ray Miller Hired; Pirates QB; '70 Shuffle; Fireman Coming; Barnstorming; HBD Jose, Jerry & Jocko

• 1864 - UT John “Jocko” Fields was born in Cork, Ireland. Jocko played everything on the field (mainly OF & C), hitting .265 as a member of the Alleghenys (1887-89), the Burghers of the Players’ League (1890) and the Pirates in 1891, his last major league season. Jocko played in the minors through 1896, then held jobs with the railroad and county before passing away in 1950. 
• 1888 - In what may have been the first and surely the grandest international barnstorming tour ever undertaken, Albert Spaulding, with a team of Chicago players (including Mark “Fido” Baldwin & John Tener, both whom would later pitch in Pittsburgh) and and “All-America” team (The Allegheny’s Fred Carroll was on that nine along with future OF/manager Ned Hanlon), left Chicago and played exhibitions in the US West, then took a liner to play in Hawaii, New Zealand, Australia, Ceylon, Egypt, Italy, France, England, Scotland and Ireland before getting back home for more exhibitions, finally wrapping it up 53 games later on April 20th, 1889. 

Fred Carroll - 1897 Goodwin/Old Judge

• 1948 - RHP Hugh Casey announced that he would sign with the Pirates for the upcoming season after being released by the Brooklyn Dodgers at the end of the 1948 campaign. It was a big deal for the Bucs as Casey led the NL in saves twice, the latest being in ‘47. But “Fireman,” who was 35, had been troubled by a bad back and only lasted until August with the Bucs, going 4-1-5/4.66 before being released and claimed by the Yankees in his last big league campaign. 
• 1948 - In his “Village Smithy” column in the Pittsburgh Press, sports editor Chester Smith shot down the Frankie Gustine-to-the-Cubs rumors that had been floating around. He wrote that the Cubs had a longtime interest in Gustine to fill its hole at third base, so they offered C Clyde McCullough and an unspecified pitcher or two for Gustine to Pirates GM Roy Hamey during trade talks dating back to the World Series. Hamey replied that McCullough would have to be joined by pitchers Hank Borowy and Cliff Chambers for him to consider a deal, and that price ended the convo. But Smith should have left the fortune-telling to Nostradamus; the Bucs sent Gustine (and Cal McLish) to the Cubs for McCullough and Chambers six weeks later. Though coming off an All-Star season and just 29-years-old, Frankie only hit .226 as a Cub in ‘49 and would last one more MLB season. McLish turned into a workmanlike hurler, twirling 11 more big league seasons and winning 89 games after the deal. Chambers pitched two plus seasons for the Bucs, going 28-28/4.33 before being traded to the Cards in 1951. McCullough put in four Pirates campaigns, starting over 300 games and hitting .258. Borowy, btw, had his contract purchased by the Bucs in 1950 and tossed poorly for two months (1-3/6.39) before he was sold to the Tigers. 
• 1961 - Ump Jerry Meals was born in Butler. He came up on a MLB fill-in basis in 1992 and earned a regular spot on the blue crew in 1998; he’s been a crew chief since 2015. Jerry has worked the WBC, two AS games, nine division/league championship series and a WS. Meals has had his share of controversial calls, including the missed play at the plate against the Braves in 2012 that began the Pirates spin around the drain and birthed the “Jerry Meals says he’s safe” meme. He lives in Ohio just across the PA state line and graduated from Salem HS (OH). 

Frank Taveras - 1972 Topps

• 1970 - The Pirates did a bit of roster shuffling, selling OF Angel Mangual to the A’s to conclude the earlier Mudcat Grant deal, sending RHP Gene Garber to Columbus and placing C Milt May on the military reserve list while promoting SS Frank Taveras, UT Rimp Lanier and LHP Brad Gratz to the 40-man roster, which was filled the next day by the additions of RHP Bruce Kison and OF Mel Civil. The Mangual sale also ended the recent pow-wows with Oakland; the Bucs had already snagged Grant from Charlie Finley, and speculation that the teams were working on multiplayer swap featuring Reggie Jackson were put to rest; it ends up the Bucs did just fine in ‘71 without him. 
• 1970 - Dan Marino and John Elway weren’t the only pro football quarterbacks that had baseball scouts sniffing around them. UPI reported that the Pirates, along with the Yankees, Mets and Reds, had contacted Notre Dame QB Joe Theismann to gauge his interest in MLB. The college 3B was coy, saying that he’d be interested if his football career didn’t pan out. He was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 39th round of the 1971 draft, but that gridiron thing did pan out pretty well for Joe, even with time honing his craft in the CFL and that brutal leg-snapping NFL finale.
• 1980 - RHP Jose Veras was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. Jose tossed for nine years and eight teams, stopping in Pittsburgh during the 2011 campaign, posting a 2-4-1/3.80 line in 79 appearances. The reliever last pitched in the indie leagues in 2016 followed by a short stint in the Dominican Winter League that appears to have been the end of his pro road. 
• 1981 - Dan Donovan of the Pittsburgh Press wrote that the New York Yankees, about to lose Reggie Jackson to free agency in a mutual decision and looking for a big bat replacement, had interest in Dave Parker, and for a pitcher and prospects, the Bucs were all ears. But it ended up all smoke and no fire. Jackson did leave, signing a five-year deal with the California Angels, but the Cobra stayed in Pittsburgh through 1983 and the end of his contract (it was said that the Yankees were put off by his physical condition). Parker then signed a two-year agreement with his hometown Reds.

Ray Miller - 1991 Upper Deck

• 1986 - Ray Miller was hired as Jim Leyland’s pitching coach, the fourth Bucco PC in four years (Ron Schueler, Grant Jackson and Harvey Haddix preceded him). He had been the Orioles’ pitching guru for eight years (1978-85) before taking on the managing job at Minnesota. Miller was fired by the Twinkies in September, freeing him up for the Pirates job. He stopped the merry-go-round, holding the position through 1996 before rejoining the O’s after Leyland jumped to Florida.