3/17: Smiley-Neagle/Cummings; Vern, Frank Signs; Bell Bails; Camps Open; Latin Trip; Pops Moves Upstairs; KBL; RIP Feeney, Jewel; HBD Raul, John, Rod, Cito, Pete, Ralph & Hoffy

• 1877 - 3B Jesse “Hoffy” Hoffmeister was born in Toledo, Ohio. His one year in the show was with the Pirates in 1897, getting into 48 games and batting .309 while committing an unfortunate 31 errors at the hot corner. He then hurt his hand in the offseason, was sick in spring camp and ended up playing for Indianapolis of the Western League. He continued to play pro ball, but never again got a call back to the show and Hoffy retired after the 1906 season. 
• 1894 - 2B/OF Ralph Shafer was born in Cincinnati, Ohio. Ralph is the Pirates version of Moonlight Graham - he got into one game on July 25th, 1914 as a pinch runner during a 4-2 loss to the New York Giants at the Polo Grounds, and was left aboard. Shafer played for five minor league seasons for five teams, with a four year hiatus between 1917-20, before retiring for good. 
• 1919 - OF Pete Reiser was born in St. Louis. The veteran outfielder spent one season (1951) of his 10-year MLB stint in Pittsburgh, batting .271. He spent the next campaign with the Cleveland Indians before retiring with a bad shoulder. Pete then managed in the Dodger organization and coached at the MLB level for LA, the Cubs and the Angels before passing away at age 62. 

Pete Reiser - 1951 Bowman

• 1944 - OF Cito Gaston was born in San Antonio, Texas. In 1978, the Pirates purchased Gaston from the Atlanta Braves. The 34-year-old went 1-for-2 in the last week of the season, his last MLB appearances in an 11-year MLB career, before spending the next couple of campaigns in the Mexican League and later beginning a long run as the Toronto Blue Jays manager. 
• 1950 - Jewel Ens passed away at age 60 in Syracuse due to pneumonia. He spent his four big league years as a Pirates (1922-25/.290 BA) infielder - he played all four spots - albeit spending most of his time in the minors. Jewel was a Bucco player-coach (1923–25), coach (1926–29; 1935–39) and manager (1929–31). Ens was a member of the 1925 World Series champion Pirates and their 1927 NL champ club. He later went on to coach in the majors for three other teams and spent eight years as skipper of the Reds top farm club at Syracuse. 
• 1955 - The Pirate heaved a big sigh of relief when LF Frank Thomas ended his holdout and signed a deal. RHP Vern Law had also just ended his walkout and was in camp this day for the first time as Branch Rickey, known as a hard negotiator (neither contract amount was disclosed), got Fred Haney’s two top weapons to sign on the dotted line and back in the fold.
• 1956 - LHP Rod Scurry was born in Sacramento. Scurry tossed for the Bucs for six years (1980-85) featuring a nasty curveball, posting a line of 17-28-34 with a 3.15 ERA here before closing out his career with the Yankees and Mariners. The first round pick of 1974, like many players in the eighties, was a nose-candy fan during his playing days, and never could kick the habit even after undergoing rehab in 1984. He died in 1992 of cocaine-induced heart failure at age 36. 

Rod Scurry - 1984 Donruss

• 1965 - LHP John Smiley was born in Phoenixville, near Valley Forge. He spent his first six seasons (1986-91) in Pittsburgh with a 60-42/3.57 line. 1991 was his best season, going 20-9 with a 3.08 ERA and All-Star selection. In the off season, he was traded to Minnesota for Denny Neagle, and went on to win 126 games in his 12-year career. John retired after breaking his left arm while warming up as a Cleveland Indian in 1997; the injury effectively ended his career. 
• 1972 - The Bucs watered their Latin roots by  sweeping a three-game, pre-season series against the Cincinnati Reds in Maracaibo & Caracas, the first time that the Pirates had made a trip to play ball in Venezuela. The final game was delayed when kids hopped the fence to get Vic Davillo’s autograph during the action. It took about ten minutes to clear the field for play to resume. Beloved in his homeland, “Vitico” (Little Victor) starred in the Venezuelan League before turning pro and returned when his MLB career was done, playing until he was 50 years old. 
• 1973 - C Raul Chavez was born in Valencia, Venezuela. Raul was a backup catcher who played for six teams, including a stop in Pittsburgh in 2008 as a 35-year-old. He started 31 games behind the dish and hit .259, but refused a minor league assignment the following season, and signed on for one more big league campaign with Toronto in 2009 before retiring. 
• 1976 - Even though a new CBA hadn’t been pounded out, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn ordered the camps to open. The players had been locked out by the owners on March 1st and those who practiced did so voluntarily at whatever facilities they could find. Even though the camps were opened, the season started without a CBA in place, although no games were lost as the Opening Day was moved back just a tad to April 8th. The MLB/MLBPA eventually agreed on a new contract that included the first framework (a draft) for free agency. 

Willie Stargell - 1983 Fleer

• 1983 - After retiring the year before, Willie Stargell landed a job as special assistant to the GM (Pete Peterson), and was a counselor at large for the club during camp, then roaming the minors to dish out mechanical and mental advice to his young charges. But the Pittsburgh-Pops connection snapped when Willie was fired after the season (as were Tanner and all the rest of his staff). He was miffed that he hadn’t received an interview for the vacant manager's job, and after the snub, he joined Chuck in Atlanta, where he worked until 1996. In ‘97, he returned to Pittsburgh after Kevin McClatchy reeled him back home, again as a special assistant. Captain Willie didn’t get much coaching done in that final stint - he suffered from a host of medical issues and passed away in 2001 on Opening Day at PNC Park, just two days after his statue was unveiled. 
• 1986 - KBL announced that it would broadcast a minimum of 50 Pirates games over the year, using the on-air team of Mike Lange, Greg Brown and Steve Blass. That was in addition to the 40 games KDKA-TV was covering, using a booth of John Sanders, Alan Cutler, and Blass, a busy man. On the radio side, KDKA’s crew of Lanny Frattare and Jim Rooker called all the games. Neither the stations nor the Bucs gave out the financial details of the contracts. 
• 1992 - The Pirates traded LHP John Smiley (on his birthday!) after a 20-8 All-Star season to the Twins in exchange for LHP Denny Neagle and OF Midre Cummings, sweetening the pot for Minnesota by tossing in $800,000. Smiley told Bob Hertzel of the Pittsburgh Press that “I’m extremely shocked. My contract had to play a little part in this” and was probably right. He had agreed to a guaranteed $3.44M deal, a $2M raise over his 1991 pay, on February 18th, just hours ahead of his arbitration hearing, and was a year from free agency. GM Ted Simmons said no way, telling the paper that “Salary was a non-issue,” and it was just a “daring and aggressive” deal. Smiley, who had been a Pirate since being drafted in 1983, went on to toss eight more seasons, mostly with the Reds, while Neagle won 43 games in his 4-1/2 year Bucco stint and would pitch until 2003. Hot prospect Cummings ended up a bench player who posted parts of 11 MLB seasons on his resume. 

Derek Bell - 2002 Topps Heritage

• 2002 - Robert Dvorchak, the beat writer for the Post-Gazette, spied OF Derek Bell sitting at his locker, stopped by and asked a couple of questions about the right field competition. Bell was having none of it. He told the writer "Ask Littlefield and ask Mac if I'm in competition. If it ain't settled with me out there, then they can trade me. I ain't going out there to hurt myself in spring training battling for a job. If it is [a competition], then I'm going into 'Operation Shutdown.' Tell them exactly what I said. I haven't competed for a job since 1991." Bell was coming off an injury-bitten 2001 campaign, playing 44 games, hitting .173 and still owed $4.5M in salary. He was cut two weeks later, jumped into his yacht and set sail into the sunset of his MLB career. 
• 2014 - Long time (1966-86) Post Gazette Pirates beat writer Charley Feeney, known for calling everyone “Pally” (he didn’t have a good memory for names) passed away at the age of 89. He was inducted into the writer’s wing of the Hall of Fame in 1996. After the news, he told fellow sportswriter Ron Cook that “I'm in and Bill Mazeroski isn't. It's unbelievable." Maz joined him in the Hall five years later.