2/23 From 1970: Martin-Vander Wal; Mondesi, Spanky, Tiante Sign; Chico Loses; No WBC For Russ; Rock on TV; RIP Vic; HBD Jaff & Jason

• 1974 - RHP Jason Boyd was born in St. Clair, Illinois. He began with the Bucs in 1999 and ended it with them in 2004 after outings in Philly, Cleveland, and San Diego. Jason didn’t help himself much - he had a 1-0/4.91 line for the Bucs, broke his hand later in the season after punching the rubber when he was pulled from a minor-league game and had gotten into a couple of 2003 off-season fights. He spent 2005 in the Texas system before ending his pro ball tenure. 
• 1978 - Vic Harris, longtime OF/manager for the Homestead Grays, passed away at age 72 in San Fernando, California. Vic was born in Florida and moved to Pittsburgh, attending Schenley HS in Oakland. As a player, Harris started with the '22 Keystones and spent 18 years with Homestead after his 1925 debut, hitting .304. In nine years as player/manager (with eight league titles) beginning in 1936, he led the Grays to a 406-281 mark, per Seamheads. He even got in a season with his cross-town rivals, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, hitting .339 in 1934. 

Vic Harris - Helmar Oasis

• 1981 - RHP Luis Tiant signed a minor league deal with the Bucs for a guaranteed $125K. He tossed in Class AAA Portland until August, when the 40-year-old El Tiante was called up, going 2-5 with a 3.92 ERA down the stretch. He was released at the end of the season and tossed in Mexico in ‘82, where he was purchased from the Plataneros de Tabasco in August by California. He appeared in six games for the Halos to end his MLB career after 19 seasons and 229 wins. 
• 1988 - C Mike Lavalliere, coming off a season that saw him hit .300, throw out 45% of the attempted base thieves running against him and win a Gold Glove, signed for $215K. Despite the strong campaign, Spanky’s negotiating leverage wasn’t very strong - he was still a year away from arbitration. He was rewarded when his salary more than doubled for the next year. 
• 1990 - OF’er Jaff Decker was born in Phoenix. A first-round pick of the Padres in 2008 out of high school, he put in a couple of stop-gap stints in Pittsburgh in 2014-15, getting in 28 games and hitting .214, but with a strong .371 OBP. He then hopscotched organizations and retired after the 2018 season. Jaff got his unique first name thanks to a slip of the pen; he was supposed to be named after his uncle Jeff, but the name was misspelled by a nurse and Jaff it became. 
• 1991 - 2B Jose Lind lost his arb case, seeking $950K but instead awarded the Pirates offer of $575K. Chico was considered one of the best glove men at his position, but hit just .257 and slumped badly at the end of the year. The paycheck was an improvement over the $250K he earned in 1990, and he would come back in 1992 to win his next arb battle to even the count. LHP Randy Tomlin ($120K) and RHP Vicente Palacios ($125K) also signed new deals for the season. 

Jose Lind - 1991 Fleer Ultra (reverse)

• 2000 - The Bucs dealt Al Martin to the San Diego Padres for OF John Vander Wal and pitchers Jim Sak and Geraldo Padua. The Mariners had also been making a pitch for Martin since the winter meetings and finally got their guy when the Padres sent him to Seattle in July at the deadline. Martin played three more years as a platoon guy (career .289 BA v RHP, .218 v LHP) while Van der Wal lasted the better part of two seasons for the Bucs before being traded to the Giants and playing through the 2004 campaign. Sak and Padua never made it to the show. 
• 2004 - The Pirates, whose FO tried to pry OF Raul Mondesi from the Yankees the year before, reeled him in with a one-year/$1.75M free agent deal. Mondesi was off to a good start, hitting .283 w/two homers and 14 RBI, when he left the team in May to return to the Dominican Republic to fight a lawsuit; he never came back. The Pirates terminated him a couple of weeks later, citing breach of contract. His game plan to switch employers worked as he signed with the Angels at the end of the month, where he tore a quad and was released from that contract for not showing up for rehab. He finished his 13-year MLB career with a 41-game stint with the Braves in 2005. He went into Dominican politics afterward, and in 2017 was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $1.3M for mishandling of public funds while mayor of San Cristóbal. 
• 2005 - John Wehner made the move from hitting instructor at Altoona to road-crew color man for Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh. He took over for Steve Blass, who decided that he was just going to work home games. The Rock only got to make a couple of cameo spring auditions after applying late in the process, but he aced them to join Lanny Frattare, Greg Brown and Bob Walk in the broadcast booth. He still serves as an AT&T SportsNet analyst on both radio and TV. 

The Rock - 2008 team issue card

• 2013 - C Russell Martin withdrew from the Canadian team roster of the World Baseball Classic because he wasn’t allowed to play shortstop. Both the Pirates and the Canadian team were uncomfortable with the switch, while Martin, who had signed a two-year/$17M deal with the Pirates, told MLB.com that “...I simply didn’t want to catch,” citing concern about the pre-season tournament wear and tear. He had caught in 2009 for the Canadian WBC nine.