3/9: Little League Classic; Rhoden Stays; Happy Jack Joins; Catcher Bingo; RIP Elbie; HBD Arky, Billy, Huddy, Benito, Terry, Ed, Jake, Ronnie, Joe & Tom

• 1872 - IF Tom Delahanty was born in Cleveland, Ohio. During his brief 19-game, three-year career, he made a quick one-game stop in Pittsburgh in 1896, going one-for-three, scoring and booting a ball at short. He finished the year with Toronto of the Eastern League, getting into one last MLB game with Louisville in ‘97. One of five Delahanty brothers who played in the majors, Tom spent the rest of his career bouncing around the minors through 1906, retiring eventually to Florida to run a general store and moonlight as a fishing guide. 

Billy Southworth - 1919 Strip Set

• 1893 - RF Billy Southworth was born in Harvard, Nebraska. He was a Buc from 1918-20, hitting .294, and then was traded as part of the package for Rabbit Maranville. Southworth reached the Hall of Fame thanks mainly to his managing chops; he won two World Series with the Cardinals. 
• 1897 - RHP Ralph Fenton “Joe” Dawson was born in Bow, Washington. After a brief taste of the show with the Indians in 1924, he pitched for the Bucs from 1927-29, mostly from the pen, and went 11-17-3 with a 4.15 ERA. Joe tossed a scoreless frame in the 1927 World Series and hit pretty well for a hurler with a .257 Pirates BA. He hung ‘em up in 1932 following a stint with the Kansas City Blues of the American Association, passing away in Texas at the age of 80. 
• 1900 - The Allegheny’s claimed Jack Chesbro, George Fox, Art Madison and John O'Brien from the Louisville Colonels. The four had been traded to the American Association team the month before for a dozen players, including Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Tommy Leach and Deacon Phillippe. At the time, Barney Dreyfuss owned the Colonels, who were due to be eliminated from the NL, and had a 50% silent interest in the Alleghenys back in the era when multi-ownership of franchises was allowed. So he came up with this scheme that in effect combined franchises. Chesbro was the keeper of the group with four good years as a Buc and then a strong career with the Yankees, winning 41 games for them in 1904; the other three didn’t make it to Opening Day. 
• 1912 - Hall-of-Fame SS Floyd “Arky” (for his birth state) Vaughan was born in Clifty, Arkansas. Vaughan compiled a .318 BA during a 14-year career with the Pittsburgh Pirates (1932-41) and Brooklyn Dodgers. He was named to nine All-Star teams during that span. Arky hit at least .300 in all 10 of his seasons with the Pirates, walked 937 times during his career, struck out just 276 times and in 1941, he became the first player to hit two home runs in an All-Star game. Arky was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1985. 

Arky Vaughan - Helmar Big League Brew

• 1932 - RHP Ronnie Kline was born in Callery, Butler County. He spent eight of his 17 big league years (1952, 55-59, 68-69) hurling for the Bucs, going 66-91-14/3.77 for Pittsburgh as a starter, swingman and reliever as his career went on. Called the “Callery Hummer,” he became the mayor of Callery after he left the slab. He remained there until he passed away at the age of 70. 
• 1932 - RHP Paul “Jake” Martin was born in Brownstown, near Charleroi. The 6’5”, 235 pounder was a local scholastic legend and signed a two-year bonus baby deal with the Bucs in 1955 on the advice of former Pirates hurler Ron Necciai, a Monongahela HS grad and Mon Valley neighbor. Fitting a common Bucco mold, Jake threw hard but was wild and his ride with the Pirates lasted for just seven appearances. He posted an 0-1 record with seven strikeouts, 17 walks and a 14.14 earned run average. He never had a chance to rebound. Jake injured his arm in August, was shut down and then sent to Cuba for winter league work. Somewhere during that span he tore the ligament in his elbow, ending his mound career. But Jake had no regrets over his short big league career. After he was long retired, he told writer Len Fiorito of Oldtyme Baseball that "I was with the team long enough to get on a baseball card and people still send me the card to sign." 
• 1944 - RHP Ed Acosta was born in Boquete, Panama. Acosta went through the Bucs upper levels in 1970 after coming over from Houston and started his MLB career with three late season appearances that weren’t very pretty (four runs in 2-2/3 IP). In August of 1971, he was traded with Johnny Jeter to the San Diego Padres for Bob Miller. He tossed for the Friars through ‘72, then spent two years as AAA depth and in Venezuela during the winter before calling it a day. 
• 1963 - LHP Terry Mulholland was born in Uniontown and went to Laurel Highland HS. Terry played for the hometown nine briefly, signing as a free agent and working 22 times in 2001 to a 3.72 ERA before being flipped to the Dodgers at the deadline for Mike Fetters. He was an MLB survivor - despite a 4.41 career ERA, he worked 20 years in the show, pitching until he was 43, while tossing for 11 teams and becoming one of the few pitchers to beat every major league club. 

Terry Mulholland - 2001 photo via All Star Collectibles

• 1965 - C Benito Santiago was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico. He closed out his 20-year career in Pittsburgh after the KC Royals traded him to the Pirates for Leo Núñez (actually, Juan Carlos Oviedo, but that’s another story). The Pirates let Santiago go after 23 at-bats to clear playing time for David Ross, who they had bought from the Dodgers. They pivoted quickly on that, sending Ross to San Diego for JJ Furmaniak at the deadline to give Ryan Doumit & Humberto Cota a crack at the job. After the musical chairs played out, it marked the beginning of the playing careers of his replacements but was the end of the road for Benito. 
• 1986 - GM Syd Thrift was dangling 33-year-old RHP Rick Rhoden on the trade market and met with reps of the Phils, Braves and Padres, jawing for a possible swap per Charley Feeney of the Post Gazette. No deal came together that spring and Rick stayed with the team. Good thing, too - he earned his second All Star berth by posting a 15-12/2.84 slash to fatten his market value. Rhoden then went to the New York Yankees in late November as part of the package that landed Doug Drabek for the Pirates after some contractual finangling. 
• 1987 - RHP Daniel “Huddy” Hudson was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. A solid starter in his earlier years, a pair of TJ surgeries limited him to 12 outings between 2012-14 and a transition to the bullpen. He made 134 appearances (7-5-9/4.50) in the two following seasons with Arizona, featuring a 96 MPH fastball, and in December, 2016, the Pirates signed him to a two-year/$11M free agent deal with $3M more available in possible bonuses as a back end arm. After a hot-and-cold campaign (2-7/4.38), he became part of the Corey Dickerson deal with Tampa in 2018. From there, he went to the Washington Nats and is now an LA Dodger. 
• 1994 - 1B Elbie Fletcher passed away at age 77 in his hometown of Milton, Massachusetts. Elbie joined the Pirates in June of 1939 in a deal with the Boston Braves to replace long-time 1B Gus Suhr, who was traded a few weeks after Fletcher’s arrival. Fletcher manned the spot from then through the 1947 campaign, with a couple seasons lost to the Navy during WW2. He didn’t have much power but was an on-base machine (.403 OBP/128 OPS+ as a Bucco) and a slick fielder. He split his career between Boston and Pittsburgh, spending six years, including his rookie and final seasons, in Beantown. 

Little League Classic - 2017 Topps Now

• 2017 - The Commissioner announced that the first MLB Little League Classic would be played between Cardinals and Pirates on August 20th at Williamsport’s BB&T Ballpark (formerly known as Bowman Field), the second-oldest minor league ballpark in the United States, opening in 1926. The regular season game, originally scheduled to be played at PNC Park, took place in conjunction with the Little League World Series. The Pirates won the game 6-3; Josh Bell homered and chased home four runs to help Ivan Nova claim the win in front of 2,600 fans.