2/25: Womack-Boyd; Lawton Signs; Slow Down...; Mexican Pipeline; MLB Exempt & CBA Stuff; HBD Aaron, Phil I, Xavier, Jim, Syd & Phil S

• 1893 - LHP Phil Slattery was born in Harper, Iowa. He got his only sip from the MLB well in 1915, doing nicely as a Bucco. In three outings covering eight frames, the 22-year-old pitched scoreless ball, giving up just five hits and a walk. His Pirates stop was in between stints with Marshallville of the Central Association, and that’s where he returned to after his September audition in Pittsburgh. Phil worked in the Central League through 1921 when he retired. 
• 1906 - Pampered players department: The Pittsburgh Press reported that for spring drills in Hot Springs, manager Fred Clarke decided to “...do away with the running in from the park to the hotel after afternoon practice. The road is a hard (and) one the players injured their legs while sprinting. If the men rode in open cars, they caught cold. Clarke will try to have a closed car held...until practice ends.” The team opened camp March 14th, barnstormed through a seven-game exhibition schedule starting April 4th and started playing for keeps with a Pirates squad who was presumably sniffle-free and with fresh legs on April 12th. 

Sid Thrift - Associated Press photo

• 1929 - Pirate GM Syd Thrift was born in Locust Hill, Virginia. Thrift had been out of baseball for nine years when he was the surprise hire for general manager in 1985. He brought in dark horse Jim Leyland as manager and dealt veterans like Don Robinson, Tony Pena and Rick Reuschel in exchange for young prospects like Doug Drabek, Andy Van Slyke, Mike LaValliere, Mike Dunne, Chico Lind and Jeff Robinson. Thrift's term ended after the 1988 season when he was fired after noisily butting heads with his front office overseers. Syd may not have been Mr. Personality, but he’s credited for laying the foundation for the team's success in the early nineties under Jim Leyland. 
• 1931 - RHP Jim Dunn was born in Valdosta, Georgia. His only MLB work was done with the Bucs in 1952; in three outings, he went 0-1/3.38 in 5-1/3 IP as a 21-year-old. He started in the Pirates system after being signed in 1951 out of Alabama, and the Pirates lost him in the 1955 minor league draft. He pitched solidly in 1955-57, going through three levels with the Bucs and Cubs, but hit the wall in AA in 1958 and retired a year later at age 28. 
• 1957 - In a big day for MLB, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 6-3 that baseball is the only professional sport exempt from antitrust laws, withstanding a challenge from the NFL. Ever since, congressmen (mainly from areas without teams) have threatened to rescind the exemption, but baseball has managed to dodge the bullet so far. The case was Radovich v. The National Football League, and the NFL tried to sway the court to give it the same antitrust status as baseball, but the Supremes ruled that it was a matter for legislative, not judicial, action. 
• 1973 - A new three-year CBA was reached between MLB and the MLBPA. Included items were a $15,000 minimum salary, salary arbitration, and the '10 and five' rule, which allowed a player with 10 years in the major leagues, the last five with his current team, to veto a trade. The players were briefly locked out of camp before the deal was agreed upon. 

• 1981 - The MLBPA voted for a strike authorization on May 29th if free agent compensation wasn’t settled. It wasn’t, and the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, the first work stoppage to result in regular season games being canceled, began on June 12th after an NLRB hearing couldn’t resolve the long-simmering issue. It forced the cancellation of 713 games before the two sides reached an agreement on July 31st and play resumed on August 10th, with the Pirates getting just 102 games in, the fewest in baseball. The 1981 campaign was split into first and second half winners w/playoffs and the compensation issue was never resolved satisfactorily. The negotiations were so toxic that when peace returned, MLBPA’s Marvin Miller and MLB negotiator Ray Grebey refused to shake hands or even pose with one another; the animosity would lead to more stoppages and the 1994-95 strike that canceled an entire season. 
• 1985 - OF Xavier Paul was born in Slidell, Louisiana. After a couple of seasons with the Dodgers, the Pirates claimed him in 2011. He hit .254 in 121 games and was released in the offseason, playing three more years as a reserve for the Reds and Diamondbacks while also bouncing around in the minors, Mexico and the indies before retiring after the 2018 campaign. 
• 1987 - RHP Phil Irwin was born in Germantown, Tennessee. The U of Mississippi hurler was drafted in the 19th round of the 2009 draft on the recommendation of scout Darren Mazeroski and posted a promising minor league resume. He was called up for a spot start in 2013 but his rookie year was short circuited when he injured his arm after his return to Indy, requiring ulnar nerve surgery (he had a forearm issue in 2012 which was likely the first sign of the damage). Phil came back to work in the Arizona Fall League but never was the same. He was DFA’ed by the Pirates in 2014 and claimed by the Rangers. He made one start for them and spent his last pro season in Korea in 2015. 

Phil Irwin - 2014 photo Elsa/Getty

• 1989 - Chuck Lamar, a Pirates scouting supervisor, engineered a three-year working agreement with the Mexico City Red Devils, following a mutually beneficial one-year option deal between the clubs. The Reds delivered Mexican players to the Pirates through contract swaps and provided scouting while Pittsburgh sent three players, usually guys on the AAA bubble, to Mexico City for the season. The arrangement lasted for 14 years overall and provided the Pirates with players like Francisco Cordova, Ricardo Rincon and Esteban Loaiza while it lasted. 
• 1996 - LHP Aaron Fletcher was born in Geneseo, Illinois. The lefty was drafted by the Nats in the 2018 draft during the 14th round and traded to Seattle in 2019 as part of the Hunter Strickland deal. He was whacked around (12.38 ERA) in 10 appearances in 2020-21, waived and claimed by the Pirates. The reliever broke camp with the Bucs in 2022 after a sharp spring performance, replacing Sam Howard in the pen after he started the season on the IL. He went 0-1/6.94 in nine outings, was waived in July and claimed by the San Francisco Giants. 
• 1999 - The Pirates traded 2B Tony Womack to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a PTBNL (RHP Jason Boyd, who was sent over in August) and minor league OF Paul Weichard. The original deal (Womack/Al Martin for Bernard Gilkey) was scotched when Gilkey wouldn’t agree to contract revisions. Womack led the NL in steals for three straight seasons, two with the Bucs, and played on Arizona and St. Louis World Series clubs. Mike Benjamin was supposed to keep the spot warm until Warren Morris was ready for everyday action, but the deal instead led to an unsettled situation at second with Morris, Pat Meares, Pokey Reese and Abraham Nunez holding down 2B until Jose Castillo’s arrival in 2004. Boyd got into four games as a Pirate while Weichard was a teenage lottery ticket who was often hurt and in four Pirates seasons never got past AA. 

Matt Lawton - 2005 Topps Heritage

• 2005 - OF Matt Lawton signed a one-year, $7.75M deal with the Pirates. The Bucs traded him at the deadline to the Chicago Cubs for Jody Gerut. He had a solid half season for Pittsburgh, hitting .273 with 10 HR and 44 RBI before being flipped. It was his last hurrah; he played 11 games in 2006 for the Seattle Mariners to close out his 12-year, seven-team career.