10/30 From 1980: Lloyd Wins Gibson; '20 Churn; Howard Claimed; Cutch Wins Clemente; Price Cut; Bullington Signed; BB, AVS AS; Sauer Prez; HBD Ian

• 1981 - RHP Ian Snell was born in Dover, Delaware. He spent parts of six seasons (2004-09) as a Pirate starter, showing promise but never quite getting over the hump with a line of 33-46/4.75. Ian was demoted to Indy in 2009, at his own request, and traded to Seattle a month later. He bombed there and was DFA’ed in June of 2010, ending his MLB career, despite a couple of comeback efforts. 

Ian Snell - 2009 Topps Heritage

• 1991 - Mark Sauer was named club president/CEO after Carl Barger left for the Florida Marlins to deal with upcoming big-name free agency and negotiations to cut Pirates expenses at TRS without much financial ammunition. Sauer oversaw the cost-cutting that gutted the Pirates' 1990-92 powerhouse teams as per the orders of the Pirates' public-private ownership to reduce payroll, losing players like Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Doug Drabek and Andy Van Slyke. He was eased out of action by the Kevin McClatchy group and resigned in the summer of 1996; McClatchy took his spot. 
• 1992 - Outfielders Barry Bonds and Andy Van Slyke were named to the Associated Press All-Star team. Bonds’ line was .311 BA/34 HR/103 RBI and he would later be named the NL-MVP. AVS hit .324 and scored 103 times. But the eminent early-1990s club was coming apart. BB was an FA and signed with the Giants in December. AVS went on to have an All-Star year in ‘93, only to be curtailed by a broken collarbone just before the break, and then had a subpar ‘94 during the strike-shortened season. After that campaign, he moved on to Baltimore. 
• 2002 - The Pirates signed the first overall pick of the draft, RHP Bryan Bullington, to a $4M deal, the most they had ever paid a draftee. The 22-year-old from Ball State was expected to be a power arm but never panned out; labrum surgery cost him the 2006 season and he was never the same pitcher afterwards. The Pirates cut him in 2007 after just three starts and six games in the show, and he failed to stick in later stints with Cleveland, Toronto and Kansas City. 
• 2003 - The Pirates announced price cuts for their 2004 tickets, slicing $3/ducat off full season ticket plans, a dollar off for partial fans and a sliding discount scale for single-game tickets. “We still haven’t delivered anything that we’re supposed to deliver,” Kevin McClatchy told Robert Dvorchak of the Post Gazette. “We have to do better on the field.” The move was estimated to require an extra 100,000 fans to break even, but McClatchy figured the cuts would boost the gate. 

Cutch & Clemente Award - 2015 photo/Sports Illustrated

• 2015 - Andrew McCutchen became just the second Pirate to win the MLB’s Roberto Clemente community service award, following Willie Stargell, who took the honor in 1974. Cutch was presented the trophy during pre-game ceremonies before the third game of the World Series between the Mets and Royals at Citi Field. Andrew won the Pirate’s RC Award a record four straight times (2012-15), and holds the club mark of five in all, also taking the prize in 2009. Among his causes were the Make-A-Wish Foundation, the Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh Foundation, the Homeless Children's Education Fund, the Light of Life Rescue Mission and Habitat for Humanity. He also started the local “Cutch’s Crew” for at-risk inner-city kids. Even after he was traded, McCutchen returned to Pittsburgh to sponsor a week of community projects. 
• 2019 - LHP Sam Howard was claimed by the Bucs from the Rockies. He was prone to the occasional meltdown outing; while he averaged better than a K per inning, he was bitten by walks and homers that blew up his ERA. Still, the lefty mostly provided the Pirates with some solid mid-game work in 2020-21. He was waived in 2022 and is now tossing in the Tiger system. 
• 2020 - In a short season that still saw 11 players end up on the 60-day IL, the Pirates had to make more moves than Salome to straighten out their postseason 40-man roster. They added C Michael Perez from Tampa Bay, then outrighted holdover backstops Luke Maile and John Ryan Murphy to make Perez the early backup to Jake Stallings. They also lost LHP Brandon Waddel to the Twins and RHP Nick Tropeano was claimed by the Mets off waivers. IF Kevin Kramer, RHP Yacksel Ríos and OF Jason Martin were returned from the injured list and outrighted off the 40-man roster. Before the cuts were made, pitchers Keone Kela and Derek Holland had declared free agency to start the culling of the herd. 

Michael Perez - 2021 image/Pirates

• 2021 - Former Pirates player, coach and manager Lloyd McClendon received the 2021 Josh Gibson Legacy Award at a celebration held at the Wyndham Grand hotel. The Gary, Indiana native’s career began as “Legendary Lloyd” as a little leaguer and included playing eight years for three MLB teams, coaching for two more, and managing three others. Mac was also the first full time African American manager/head coach of any of Pittsburgh’s three major sports teams.