3/2: Roberto Signs; Ollie, Jay Pout; Barkley Battle; Japanese Umps; RIP Howie; Lotsa HBDs - Johan, Junior, Miguel, Jim, Brandon, Abie, Don, Frank, Rip, Bill & Chick

• 1879 - RHP Joe “Chick” Robitaille was born in Whitehall, New York. He spent his two year MLB career as a Pirate (1904-05), slashing 12-8/2.56 before being released in August 1905. Chick signed on with the Washington Senators the following season as a free agent, but never returned to the big leagues. 
• 1886 - The American Association met and overruled Denny McKnight, AA president and also owner of the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, over who held the rights to 2B Sam Barkley, then voted to suspend Barkley for signing with Pittsburgh. The issue turned around St. Louis Browns owner Chris von der Ahe, who had sold Barkley’s rights to Pittsburgh in January; Baltimore had sent him $1,000 for Barkley’s contract after a verbal agreement but it arrived after the Steel City deal. The case was eventually resolved by allowing Barkley to play for the Alleghenys, which sent Milt Scott from Pittsburgh to Baltimore as compensation,while von der Ahe got to keep Baltimore’s check to give everyone a piece of the pie, essentially completing a three-team deal. After all that horsetrading, Barkley hit .248 in his two years with the club, splitting time between first and second base. 

Denny McKnight - 1909 photo via Hall of Fame

• 1891 - C Bill Fischer was born in New York City. Bill spent the last two seasons of his five year career in Pittsburgh (he was traded to the Bucs by the Chicago Cubs in July 1916 as the Pirates were stockpiling catchers to spell the aging George Gibson) and hit .277 in 137 games before hangin’ the spikes up after the 1917 campaign. Fischer had a career year in 1915 playing for the pennant-winning Chicago Whales of the Federal League, when he batted .329. 
• 1898 - RHP Floyd “Rip” Wheeler was born in Marion, Kentucky. After winning 23 games in the minors, the Bucs called him up in late 1921. He gave up three earned runs in three frames and opened 1922 in the minors. He got one more inning in Pittsburgh before joining the Cubs, where he yo-yoed between the show and the farm for a couple of seasons. Rip quietly concluded his career after three more minor league years in 1928 at age 30 playing for Evansville. 
• 1918 - 1B/OF/PH Frank Colman was born in London, Ontario. He played for the Bucs from 1941-46, getting just 373 PA and hitting .233. In 1947, Frank’s career ended with the Yankees when a leg injury followed by surgery finished his MLB playing days. Frank caught on as a player-manager in the minors for a while, then bought the team he started out on, the London Majors. Frank later founded the Eager Beaver baseball group for kids, and was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1999 as a ballplayer and ambassador of the sport. 
• 1924 - OF Cal “Abie” Abrams was born in Philadelphia. He spent 1953 in Pittsburgh as the starting RF, hitting .286 with 15 HR, and was traded early in 1954 to Baltimore for P Dick Littlefield. Abrams hit .269 over his career, but drew 304 walks to just 290 whiffs and ended up with a .386 lifetime OBP in eight seasons with the Dodgers, Reds, Pirates, Orioles and White Sox. Abie ran a college bar after retirement and then became a celebrity host for a cruise liner. 

Cal Abrams - 1954 Topps

• 1936 - RHP Don Schwall was born in Wilkes-Barre. A two-sport college star (he was All-Conference hoopster) at Oklahoma, he won the AL Rookie of the Year honors in 1961 with the Red Sox, beating out teammate Carl “Yaz” Yastrzemski. He settled into journeyman status and was converted to the bullpen later in his career by the Bucs. He was a Pirate from 1963-66, going 22-23-4 with a 3.23 ERA. Don retired to Pittsburgh’s North Hills and worked as a broker. 
• 1956 - Second-year man Roberto Clemente ended a short holdout (camp began on the 1st; he reported that night and signed a contract the next day, the last Pirate to do so) by agreeing to a $7,500 salary, a bump from his rookie check of $6,000. He hit .255 in his first campaign and laid claim to right field, with 110 outfield starts (a handful were as a center fielder) and the 20-year-old went on to hit .311 in his sophomore season while on his way to breaking out in 1960. 
• 1960 - RHP Howie Camnitz, 78, passed away in Louisville, Kentucky. He pitched nine years (1904, 1906-13) for the Pirates, with a line of 116-84-13/2.63, went to Philly briefly and returned to toss for the Federal League Pittsburgh Rebels in 1914-15, slashing 14-19-1/3.32. Camnitz was the ace of the 1909 World Series champs, and though he didn’t have a good Fall Classic, his 25-6-3/1.62 regular season was a big reason the Bucs won the flag. He threw for 235+ innings for seven straight seasons (1908-14), won 20+ games three times, and was on the same staff as his brother Harry in ‘09. Howie retired after his Rebels stint with a bum wing and became a car salesman. 
• 1985 - IF Brandon Wood was born in Austin, Texas. A first round pick of the Los Angeles/Anaheim Angels in 2003 (23rd overall), he spent parts of five seasons with the Halos. The Bucs claimed him in April of 2011 off waivers and he got into 99 games that season, batting .220 with seven homers while playing all four infield positions (primarily third base). He was with four other organizations after that campaign, but '11 was his last season in MLB. After being cut in camp by the Padres in 2014, he played a year of indie ball before he hung up his mitt and became a minor league manager in the San Diego system. Wood now runs a training academy in Billings, Montana.

Jim Negrych - 2006 Bowman First

• 1985 - 2B Jim Negrych was born in Buffalo, New York. He never made it to the show but was a local story during his career. The Pirates drafted two-time All-American Negrych out of Pitt in the sixth round of the 2006 MLB Draft as the first Panther drafted since the Bucs selected P Larry Lamonde in 1981 (Dan Marino ‘79 & Ken Macha ‘72 were prior picks). In 2008, Negrych was the Pirates minor league player of the year and was a Carolina League All-Star, then with Atoona and again with Indy he was named an MiLB.com Organizational All-Star. But he topped out at AAA and bounced around several organizations, earning upper level honors but no promotions. Jim took his game east to the Chinese League for a couple of seasons, helped coach at Pitt, managed the New England College League Keene Swamp Bats and is now a regional scout for the Cards. 
• 1995 - IF/OF/DH Miguel Andujar was born in San Cristobal, Dominican Republic. After a breakout campaign for the Yankees in 2018 (.297/27/92) that saw him finish second in the Rookie-of-the-Year vote, he faded badly (he hit .230 with a 61 OPS+ from 2019-22) and was waived in late September of 2022 by New York. The Bucs claimed him, hoping that a change of scenery and some steady plate visits will help fill the Pirates right-handed hole at DH. Andujar was a surprise DFA before ‘23 camp, but passed through waivers and is in Bradenton. 
• 1996 - At St. Petersburg's Al Lang Field, two Japanese umpires worked the Pirates-Cards exhibition game along with two U.S. umpires as part of an exchange program that also had American umpires working games in Japan. "I thought they (the Japanese) did a good job," said Pirates manager Jim Leyland. "And even if they didn't, you couldn't argue with them." Scott Zucker of UPI added that “(Tony) LaRussa offered that his only Japanese conversation consists of shaking his head 'yes' or 'no.' Keeping LaRussa quiet should be enough to keep any umpire, no matter what his nationality, happy.” The Bucs won the contest, 11-2, behind Denny Neagle’s first spring start without any international incidents. 
• 1997 - RHP Junior Fernandez was born in Santo Domingo Centro, Dominican Republic. He was an on-and-off member of the Cards roster from 2019, going 1-1/5.15 in 50 games. He was waived in September and claimed by the Bucs, getting into three games. He only gave up a hit, but walked four (in his MLB career, he averages six free passes per game) in 3-1/3 IP with two K. 

Johan Oviedo - 2022 photo Pirates/MLB

• 1998 - RHP Johan Oviedo was born in La Habana, Cuba. He was inked by the Cards in 2016 and made his big league debut in 2020. The Cards used him out of the pen by 2022, but he was returned to the rotation by the Bucs, who acquired him as part of the Jose Quintana deadline deal. Johan got seven outings as a Pirate, going 2-2/3.23 and looking at a possible starting job in 2023. 
• 2005 - LHP Ollie Perez, 23, and OF Jason Bay, 26, refused to sign their pre-arb contracts, dissatisfied with the raises proposed by the Pirates after their 2004 performances. Perez got $381,000, a $60,000 increase (the largest pre-arb raise ever given by the Bucs) and Bay received $355,000, a $50,000 bump over 2004’s salary. Ollie was coming off a 12-10/2.98 campaign while Rookie of the Year Jason hit .282 with 26 homers and 82 RBI.