10/28: Bo Goes; Cutch, Shark Honors; Wakefield RoY; Leyland '92 MoY; 2019 Housecleaning; Manager Search; Pot Split; Bye Milo; RIP T-Bone; HBD Diego, Corban, Nate, Big Bob, Gair, Canena, Fireman, Percy & Big Bill

• 1867 - C “Big” Bill Wilson was born in Hannibal, Missouri. He played pro ball for 15 years, mostly in the minors, spending 1890 with the Alleghenys, which had been hard hit by defections to the Players League (he hit .214 and caught, played 1B and some OF) and then with the 1897-98 Louisville Colonels. He was argumentative and got into several donnybrooks during his career, stepping up to the world of crime when he retired. He was alleged to have been a member of Detroit’s “Purple Gang” and served time in Leavenworth. “Baseball” Wilson, as he was known to his associates in crime & law enforcement, met a brutal end when he was knifed in a St. Paul speakeasy in 1924. 
• 1899 - LHP Percy Lee Jones was born in Harwood, Texas. Percy closed out his nine-year career, (seven spent with the Cubs) in Pittsburgh where the 30-year-old went 0-1/6.63 in nine games in 1930 before being sent down. He became a Pirate in an April deal with the Boston Braves for Burleigh Grimes. 
• 1917 - LHP Joe Page was born in nearby Cherry Valley and was raised in the mining town of Springdale. He was signed by the Yankees in 1940, starting out for the Class D Butler Yankees. Joe’s career turned in 1947 when NY flipped him from a starter to reliever, and he had several strong seasons before 1951 when his arm died, including winning the 1949 World Series’ MVP. He worked in the minors to overcome the loss of his bread-and-butter heater, coming up with a sinker (and almost assuredly a spitter, too). The Bucs gave him a shot in 1954, but after a quick start he was rocked (11.17 ERA in 9-2/3 IP) and released. He returned home to Springdale and ran a pair of local watering holes. Joe was known as “Fireman,” not only because he was a reliever but because he used to sport a red FDNY tee-shirt in the clubhouse. He was also called the “Gay (as in light-hearted) Reliever” by his bud Joe DiMaggio because of his love of the night-life. 

Fireman Page - 1954 photo Barney Stein/Fine Art America

• 1924 - The Pirates got $16,545 for placing third in the NL race - they finished 90-63, three games behind the NY Giants - for a bonus of $570 for the 27 players who earned a full share with a little left over for the staff and short-timers. The cash bonus was determined by World Series revenues. 
• 1925 - OF Luis Ángel "Canena" Márquez Sánchez was born in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. One of the first Puerto Rican players in the MLB, he played for both the Homestead Grays (1946–1948) and briefly for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1956), going 1-for-9 with four walks as a Buc. Though he played just two MLB seasons and 68 games, he spent 14 years in the minors, with another four seasons in the Negro League. His hometown baseball stadium is named for him. 
• 1931 - IF Gair Allie was born in Statesville, North Carolina. The Pirates signed Allie out of Wake Forest in 1952 where he went to school with Arnie Palmer. He got a lengthy look in 1954, but hit just .199 in 121 games, and his chance to challenge in camp the following season was dashed by a broken ankle. He played well in the Southern League after he recovered and had a solid 1956 in AAA Hollywood, then lost a year to the service. Gair never put together a strong season after his return from the military and retired in 1961.
• 1935 - Big lefty Bob Veale was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He pitched 10-1/2 years for the Pirates (1962-72) with a line of 116-91/3.06 and 1,652 strikeouts. Veale led the league with 250 K in 1964 and had over 200 whiffs four times in his career; his 276 punchouts in 1965 are still a club record. He also led the league in walks four times. After his retirement from pitching in 1974 after a shoulder injury, he returned to his hometown, serving a few years as a coach for the Braves and Yankees. Veale stayed connected to baseball by working as a groundskeeper at Rickwood Field, a ballyard he played on as a youth. In 2006, Veale was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame. 

Bob Veale - 1965 Bazooka

• 1955 - Dixie Walker, manager of minor-league Rochester, pulled his hat out of the Bucco manager’s ring, telling Joe Brown that he was happy as part of the Cardinal organization and decided to stay after earlier expressing an interest in the job. His brother, Harry “The Hat” Walker, was also a skipper in the Redbird system and would take the Pirates helm a decade later in 1965. Bobby Bragan, an early front-runner, got Fred Haney’s job and lasted just through the 1957 campaign. 
• 1979 - Radio announcer Milo Hamilton, who replaced Bob Prince in the booth but not in the hearts of the Bucco faithful, told the media that he was leaving the Pirates after four years, as soon as his contract expired at the end of the year. He made the move official the next day by announcing a deal with the Cubs, for whom he had broadcast earlier in his career. He was let go there in 1984 after clashing with Harry Caray before finding a home in Houston. He broadcast from Space City through 2012 on the final leg of his road to a Ford Frick media award. 
• 1981 - OF Nate McLouth was born in Muskegon, Michigan. Drafted in the 25th round of the 2000 draft, he spent his first five big league years (2005-09) with the Bucs, hitting .256 and earning an All-Star spot in 2008. McLouth was traded to the Braves for Gorkys Hernandez, Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke after his AS season when his value was high and Andrew McCutchen was ready to step in to play center field. Nate finished his 10-year career with Washington in 2014. 
• 1988 - Utility man Corban Joseph was born in Franklin, Tennessee. The younger brother of Caleb, he had cups of coffee with four different organizations before the Pirates claimed him late in the 2019 campaign from the Giants. He only hit .169 in his MLB stops, but had a .371 BA with 13 homers while spending most of the 2019 season in the PCL. He reverted to form to bat .182 in an August/September stint with the big club and was released in the offseason. 

Bobby Bo - 1992 Upper Deck

• 1991 - Bobby Bonilla became a free agent. In his six years with Pittsburgh (1986-91), Bobby Bo slashed .284/.357/.481 w/114 HR, 500 RBI, four All-Star nods and was twice a top-three finisher for the MVP. He signed with the Mets for five years/$29M, making him the highest paid player in baseball at the time. He got deferred money from that deal and more from a buy-out of his second contract that pays him $1.19M annually until 2035. A couple of other Bucs, 3B Steve Buechele and P Bob Kipper, also declared for FA. Buechele returned to the fold while Kip signed with the Minnesota Twins. 
• 1992 - Jim Leyland was named the National League Manager of the Year by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the second time, receiving 20 of 24 first-place ballots to outpoll Felipe Alou of the Expos. Pittsburgh won 96 games and the division, only to be derailed by Atlanta in a seven game NLCS. Leyland would remain with the Bucs through the 1996 campaign, never winning more than 75 games after roster deconstruction began in the ‘92 offseason, then moved on to Florida, Colorado and Detroit. On the same day, RHP Tim Wakefield was named The Sporting News Rookie Pitcher of the Year. 
• 1997 - IF Diego Castillo was born in Barquisimeto, Venezuela. A Yankee prospect, the Pirates picked him in 2021 as part of the Clay Holmes trade. He spent most of that year in AA, but his performance the following spring earned him a spot on the roster when camp broke. He got into 96 games for the Bucs, hitting .206 with 11 dingers in 262 ABs while playing every IF spot and RF. After a minor league swap, Diego now plays in the Arizona Diamondbacks system. 
• 2015 - CF’er Andrew McCutchen and closer Mark Melancon were named to The Sporting News' National League all-star team. Cutch hit .292 with 23 HR and 96 RBI, making his fourth straight appearance on the list, while Mark the Shark, who set a Pirate record and led the majors with 51 saves while appearing in 78 games & posting a 2.23 ERA, was a first-time awardee. It was a big day for Melancon; he also took home the 2015 Trevor Hoffman NL Reliever of the Year award. 

Mark the Shark - 2015 Topps All Star

• 2018 - Pirates scout Tom “T-Bone” Baker passed away at his Huntington, WV, home at age 75. Baker had served as a regional scout for the Pirates from 1990-2013 when health issues bumped him to part-time status; he also worked as a systems engineer until retiring from that gig in 1997. He and his dog “Scout,” who attended the games with him, knew every ballyard in the area inside and out as T-Bone played for Huntington HS and Marshall University. 
• 2019 - The Pirates made it a clean front office sweep by dismissing GM Neal Huntington after earlier relieving manager Clint Hurdle and President Frank Coonely. Kevan Graves, one of the Pirates' assistant GMs, served as interim GM while the Pirates conducted a search for Huntington’s position, resulting in Ben Cherington’s hire two weeks later. The other newbies brought aboard were President Travis Williams, from of all places the Penguins, who was officially named as Coonelly’s replacement starting on November 1st and Derek Shelton, who was chosen manager on the 27th.