- 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 Jersey nine, including his one All-Star year. Leon was a defensive specialist behind the dish with a rifle arm who made up for his quiet bat by mastering small ball, becoming an expert bunter and hit & run guy, a unique skill set for a backstop.
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| Hal Rice - 1954 Topps |
- 1924 - OF Hal “Hoot” (his middle name was Housten) Rice was born in Morganette, West Virginia. After several seasons with the St. Louis 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 Chicago 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.
- 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 - 51-year-old RF Hazen “Kiki” Cuyler passed away from a heart attack 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 battling over attitude; his contract was also weighing heavily 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.
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| Del Crandall - 1965 photo Jay Publishing |
- 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 worth the denari - he was the MVP runner-up after hitting .299 with 44 homers and 119 RBI in ‘73 and slashed .301/25/96 in ‘74.
- 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 he was named the organization’s top prospect in 1995. 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 San Diego 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 indie 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 an everyday player for just one year during his eight big league seasons before his last MLB campaign of 1993. He played in the minors afterward and retired after spending 1996 in the Mexican League. Utilityman Lloyd McClendon signed before his contract reached an arb judge. He had asked for $295K, the Bucs countered with $170K, and Lloyd won the bidding battle by settling for $260K.
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| Cecil Espy - 1992 Fleer Ultra |
- 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.
- 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 later managed in the Yankee and Angel systems.
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