2/8: Frankie, Bo, Walkie Sign; Josh, Buck HoF; Danny, Joe Dapper Dans; French Cookin'; Charity Begins At Home; RIP Rays (Kremer & Brown); HBD Felix, Bob, Monty, Cookie & Whitey

• 1886 - SS Roy “Slippery/Whitey” Ellam was born in West Conshohocken, Pennsylvania. Roy first got a shot in the show in 1909 with the Reds as a 23-year-old; he had to wait until 1918 to get a second look with the Pirates. He got an audition after the Pirates had swung a deal with Indianapolis of the American Association for him, getting 105 PAs, but he had more walks (17) than hits (10) and batted just .130. After the season, Ellam returned to his long-time base of operations, the Southern Association, and played out his 19-year pro career as an infielder and player-manager, retiring in 1930 to become a hometown contractor. 
• 1918 - LHP Arthur “Cookie” Cuccurullo was born in Asbury Park, New Jersey. He was called up in 1943 after posting a 20-win season for the Eastern League Albany Senators. Cookie spent his three-year MLB career as a Pirate with a line of 3-5-5/4.55 in 62 games, nine of which were starts. Cuccurullo was one of many ballplayers who filled in during the war years and returned to the minors afterward when players returned from the service; 1945 was his final MLB campaign. 
• 1922 - 2B Romanus “Monty” Basgall was born in Pfeifer, Kansas. Monty started with Dodgers, flew off to the Army Air Corps and was signed by the Bucs upon his return from the service. He was a yo-yo player for the Bucs from 1948-51, hitting just .215 as he went back and forth from the minors to the show. He was in the Pirate system until 1958, ending his pro career as a player/manager at Waco, Beaumont and Lincoln. He went on to become a scout and coach for the Dodgers. His nickname was based on his middle name of Montgomery. 

Larry French - 1934 Goudey

• 1934 - The Pirates were looking for infield help, per the Pittsburgh Press’ beat guy Volney Walsh, and Brooklyn had a surplus of what they wanted, but the Dodgers' insistence on LHP Larry French as the return squelched the deal. And it was no wonder that da Bums were focused on Larry; the lefty posted a 51-42-6/3.00 slash from 1931-33 and was in the early stages of an 11-year double-digit wins string. But he wasn’t untouchable; after winning 12 games with a 3.58 ERA in ‘34, the Bucs shipped the southpaw, along with Freddie Lindstrom, to the Chicago Cubs for Guy Bush, Babe Herman and Jim Weaver. Bush and Weaver together won 48 games in three years (Guy lasted for two campaigns and Jim three) as Pirates; French earned 51 victories during the same span for the Cubs and won 95 times in his seven year stay in the Windy City. 
• 1943 - 1B/OF Bob Oliver was born in Shreveport, Louisiana. The Bucs signed him out of American River College in 1963 and he got a brief (0-for-2 in three games) September call-up in ‘65. Pittsburgh shipped him to the Twins after the 1967 campaign for Ronnie Kline to launch Bob on a seven-year run in the Junior Circuit beginning in 1969. Oliver worked as a baseball instructor at his academy and other schools before passing away in 2020. His son Darren followed his footsteps to the show, pitching for 20 MLB seasons and now is a Texas Ranger exec. 
• 1959 - Manager Danny Murtaugh and GM Joe Brown were honored at the annual Dapper Dan dinner. Murtaugh was the top awardee, recognized for publicizing Pittsburgh sports (he beat out the Steelers’ QB Bobby Layne) and Brown was honored for his contributions to Pittsburgh sports while players Bob Friend, Bill Mazeroski (who missed due to his dad’s death), Roy Face and Frank Thomas were also given awards for outstanding performances in 1958. In a sidebar to the main event, old Bucco hurler Wilbur Cooper was inducted into the Pittsburgh Sports Hall of Fame, with former teammate Pie Traynor being his presenter. 

Ray Kremer - 1927 Exhibits

• 1965 - RHP Ray “The Frenchman” Kremer passed away at the age of 71 in Pinole, California, from heart problems. Ray spent his entire 10-year career as a Pirate, starting out as a 31-year-old rookie in 1924. A bout of rheumatism during a tryout with the Giants in 1916 seems to have erased him from the MLB radar. He went on to toss 2,100+ innings and post 100+ wins in the Pacific Coast League in the late 1910s and early 1920s, and the Bucs wisely gave him a second shot after a 357 IP, 25-16/3.08 Oakland campaign by purchasing his contract from the Oaks. He made up quickly for lost time as he won double-digit games while working 200+ innings for eight straight seasons, ending his big league days in 1933 at age 40 with a line of 143-85-9/3.76. Kremer twice won 20 games and led the National League in ERA in both 1926 and 1927. He retired and returned to his hometown in California to become a mailman. 
• 1965 - Another pitching legend passed away OTD, Hall of Famer RHP Ray Brown, who tossed for 13 years for the Homestead Grays. Noted for his variety of off speed offerings, he helped the Negro National League Grays to eight division/two World Championships in nine years, played in three All Star games and slashed 4-2/1.32 in his seven World Championship outings. Brown also helped himself with a .273 regular season BA for the Grays (he played some outfield when he wasn’t on the hill) and .281 average during the championship rounds. Ray traveled baseball’s circuit, also tossing in the Mexican, Puerto Rican, Canadian and Cuban leagues. 
• 1972 - C Josh Gibson and 1B Walter “Buck” Leonard were selected to become members of the Hall of Fame by the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues. Gibson, the “Black Babe Ruth,” played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords. His statue is at Nationals Park, where the Grays often played, and Ammon Field in the Hill District was renamed to honor him. The Grays’ Leonard batted behind him and became known as the “Black Lou Gehrig.” Dubbed by the media as the “Thunder Twins,” they were inducted into the Hall on August 7th. 

The Thunder Twins - image via MLB Network

• 1985 - OF Felix Pie was born in La Romana, Dominican Republic. After starting out with the Chicago Cubs, Pie had back-to-back solid campaigns for the Baltimore Orioles in 2009-10 but fell victim to a ruptured back. The Bucs signed him as a depth player in 2013. He was called up in late August and fizzled, batting .138, then took his game to Korea the following season; since 2014, he’s played in a variety of Asian, Latin and indie leagues. 
• 1988 - RHP Bob Walk avoided arb and signed a one-year/$450K deal. Walkie had put together a line of 8-2/3.31 in 1987 and settled between his asked-for $497,500 and the Buc offer of $375,000. 
• 1990 - Bobby Bonilla, in his second year of arbitration, became the first Pirate to take his case to an arb hearing since 1983. Bonilla took it on the chin and had to settle for $1.25M after seeking $1.7M; he pulled down $730 K during the season. The arbitrator found his four-year stat line to be middling in a comparison with 14 other players who had similar service/playing time. But Bo would end up OK financially; he’d get $2.4M in 1991 and then spent the next eight years knocking down between $5.1-$6.3M per campaign plus an annuity. 
• 2007 - Pirates Charities completed its first project when the East Liberty Boys & Girls Club opened the Pirates Community Baseball Center, a redo of some unused space that was converted to a baseball/softball training facility. The project cost $300K, with PC putting up $165,000 and the Roberto Clemente Foundation $65,000. The Pirates had donated to various charities under prior ownership, but Bob Nutting was the first to create a formal Bucco community structure. 

Frankie - 2013 photo/Associated Press

• 2013 - LHP Francisco Liriano was signed as a free agent. The Cisco Kid had agreed to a two-year contract worth $12.75M on December 12th, 2012, but broke his arm before the physical, voiding the deal. A new two-year agreement was reached with lots of incentives based on starts that would allow him to reach the original contract figures. Frankie came back May 11th, finishing 16-8 with a 3.02 ERA and was the NL Comeback Player of the Year. He followed that with a 7-10 slate in 2014 with a 3.38 ERA, netting a three-year contract during the off season. Frankie was shipped to Toronto at the 2016 deadline for Drew Hutchison, who was DFA’ed at the end of the 2017 campaign. Hutch spent 2019 in the minors, working for three orgs while the Cisco Kid tossed for the Bucs and then signed in the off season w/Philly. He retired in 2022.