2/24: DD, Smiley Sign; Honus' Day; Hank's Flick; Bucs On the Go?; HBD Hans, Coop, John, Earl, Steamboat, Bronson & Robert

• 1874 - Hall of Famer (he was part of the first class, with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, et al) Honus Wagner was born in Chartiers, now a part of Carnegie. Considered by many to be the greatest SS to ever play, he spent 18 years (1900-17) with Pittsburgh and played on a pair of World Series teams, winning in 1909. The Flying Dutchman won eight NL batting titles with a lifetime .328 BA. He drove in 100+ runs nine times and scored 100+ runs seven times. Wagner also served as a Pirate coach from 1933-51 and very briefly as a player/manager. 
• 1892 - LHP Wilbur Cooper was born in Bearsville, West Virginia. Cooper tossed for 13 years in Pittsburgh (1912-24), winning 202 games, the most in Pirate history, with a 2.74 ERA and 263 complete games to his credit. He and Carl Mays are the only two 20th century pitchers who worked over 3,000 innings with a sub-3.00 ERA that aren’t in the Hall of Fame. 
• 1898 - 2B John Henry Russell was born in Dolcito, Alabama. He played second and short for the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1932-33, batting between Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston while earning a 1933 All-Star bid. Russell was considered one of the Negro League’s premier defenders and earned his keep at the dish, hitting .276 for Pittsburgh per Seamheads. Russell finished his career the following season at age 36 with the Cleveland Red Sox. 
• 1907 - C Earl Grace was born in Barlow, Kentucky. He was a reserve catcher for the Bucs from 1931-35 with a .275 BA, coming over from the Chicago Cubs for C Rollie Hemsley. Earl handled a glove as well as he handled a bat. In 1932, he finished the season with just one error in 413 chances to establish a then-National League record with a .998 fielding average. Grace spent 15 seasons in pro ball, retiring in 1940 and becoming a Phoenix-based real estate broker who did some spare scouting for the Yankees. Trivia: Earl was traded three times in his career; all three deals were for another catcher. 

Steamboat Struss
1927 Riverdale Supers photo via Riverdale Historic Society

• 1909 - RHP Clarence “Steamboat” Struss was born in Riverdale, Illinois. In 1934, the Pirates brought Steamboat up from Little Rock, where he was the Southern Association’s strikeout leader. The 25-year-old “smokeball” artist got the start for the last game of the season and gave up six runs (five earned) in seven innings. Struss held the Cubs to seven hits, but six walks and a wild pitch that plated the winning run did him in (Bucco beatman Volney Walsh of the Press, who called him “Steamer,” recapped the game with a terse “He was too wild.”). Struss helped his own cause by smoking a two-run double. He pitched in the minors until 1941 in the Cub and White Sox systems but never got a second invite to the bigs. He picked up his nickname while playing in the bush leagues. 
• 1955 - Mayor Dave Lawrence declared it “Honus Wagner Day” in Pittsburgh to celebrate his 81st birthday and Hans held court at his house. Friends, politicos, old teammates and writers filled his living room, as did a barrage of birthday cards. It was also the last push needed to close the remaining $7,000 funding gap to complete a statue honoring him. The final funds rolled in and the Dutchman attended the dedication of his Frank Vittor statue outside of Forbes Field in Schenley Park on April 30th before passing away in December. His bronze has since followed the Pirates around, moving from Forbes Field to Three Rivers Stadium and now displayed outside PNC Park. 
• 1977 - RHP Bronson Arroyo was born in Key West Florida. A third round pick of the Bucs in 1995, Bronson debuted with the Pirates in 2000 and worked three seasons for Pittsburgh, splitting the time between starting and the pen while slashing 9-14/5.41. He’s put in more than a decade of MLB work since then, mainly with the Reds, before being derailed by TJ surgery in July of 2014. The 40-year-old came back to pitch a final season for the Reds in 2017, retiring after the year with 16 campaigns spent with four clubs on his big league resume. 

• 1981 - How close were the Bucs to leaving? The Pirates, bleeding money, filed suit in the Allegheny County Courthouse for the annulment of its lease at Three Rivers Stadium after receiving relocation overtures from New Orleans, Washington & Tampa. The case was resolved when the Galbreath family sold the team in 1985 to a public-private partnership after threatening bankruptcy. 
• 1988 - The Pirates signed RHP Doug Drabek ($160K) and LHP John Smiley ($100K) to contracts, with both Drabek and Smiley in their final year of pre-arb. Both eventually made up for lost income in spades by earning multi-million dollar deals later down the road in their careers. 
• 1993 - RHP Robert Stephenson was born in Martinez, California. He was the Reds first round pick in 2011 as a prep pitcher and debuted as a starter in 2016. Spotty as a rotation arm, he was converted to the bullpen in 2019. After a steady season as a set-up man, he was traded to Colorado and had another solid campaign in 2021. He got off to a rough start for the Rox the following season and was waived in August. The Pirates claimed him, and in 13 games he slashed 0-1/3.38, giving him a foot up on earning a bullpen spot this year. 
• 2000 - “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” had its local premiere at the Carnegie Museum of Art as part of the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival. The 1998 documentary featured archival shots, interviews and songs of Hammerin’ Hank’s era. Greenberg caught a lot of grief by being baseball's first Jewish superstar, and was considered by many Jews to be their equivalent of Jackie Robinson. The film was well received; it won a dozen various awards between 1998-2001.