11/10: Choi, Barajas, Shriver, Rowe, White Deals; King Signs; Marte's 1st GG; Willie #2; '88 IF Rumors; '22 Housekeeping; RC Honors; Mac Meeting; Turf Test; HBD Matt, Junior, Speed, Eddie, Fred & Billy

• 1867 - C Billy “Little Globetrotter” Earle was born in Philadelphia. Billy was one of the better hitting catchers of his era (and capable at other positions) with a career .286 BA who spent brief parts of 1893-94 in Pittsburgh batting .287 as a replacement backstop when regulars Connie Mack, Joe Sugden & company went down. But he only got into 142 games in his five-year career. Earle was a spiritualist who it was claimed could hypnotize people. Other players were said to have feared his “voodoo,” “evil eye” and all-around rep as a jinx. Be that as it may, Billy never had any out-of-the ordinary encounters with his teammates but was probably kept at a distance due to a more mundane curse - he was addicted to morphine. He finally cleaned himself up with rehab in 1898, thanks to an intervention by John McGraw and financial support for treatment provided by his Cincinnati teammates per Baseball History Daily. He went on to play, manage and coach in the minors through 1911, living to the ripe old age of 78. He got his nickname as a member of Albert Spalding’s 1888 worldwide baseball tour. 
• 1867 - IF Fred Roat was born in Oregon, Illinois. Fred spent a dozen seasons in the minors, with a pair of stops in the show. He got a cup of coffee with the Chicago Colts in 1892 after being part of the 1890 Alleghenys, batting .223 in 57 games. Fred retired after the 1899 campaign. 
• 1888 - The Boston Red Stockings sold Jack Rowe and Deacon White to the Pittsburgh Alleghenys. Both players had solid resumes (White entered the HoF), but were on the downside of the hill and lasted just a year with the Alleghenys. White, 41, was a Hall-of-Famer who hit .253 in 55 games playing 3B/1B for Pittsburgh, while Rowe, 32, played 75 games at SS, batting .259. The move didn't come without some maneuvering - Rowe and White had become owners of the International League's Buffalo Bison franchise and refused to report to the Pirates so they could play on their own team. The principle that they really were pushing is that they believed they should share in whatever fee their old club received for their services. It was resolved when the pair joined the Pirates with fat salaries and a cut of the selling price that Pittsburgh had paid Boston. However, the trading and selling of ballplayers was an issue that wouldn’t go away and was a major contributor to the formation of the Players League in 1890. 

Deacon White - 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

• 1890 - OF/P Eddie Eayrs was born in Blackstone, Massachusetts. He got his start with the Bucs in 1913, getting two of his four games on the hill, giving up six runs (two earned) in eight IP while going 1-for-6 at the dish as a 22-year-old signed out of Brown. He didn’t return to the show until 1920-21 with Boston and Brooklyn, mainly patrolling the pasture. Eayrs did have a long pro career, playing outfield in the Eastern League until 1927, when he finally unlaced the spikes for good at age 36 after compiling a .309 lifetime BA on the farm. 
• 1897 - The Pirates sent veterans OF Elmer “Mike” Smith and RHP Pink Hawley along with $1,500, to the Reds for five players - C/1B Pop Schriver, OF Jack McCarthy, P Billy Rhines, 3B Bill Gray and 2B Ace Stewart. Of the players the Bucs received, Stewart never played a game, McCarthy, Gray and Rhines lasted a season or two in Pittsburgh, and Pop stayed with the Pirates for three years, batting .260 as a part timer. Smith hit .342 for the Reds and Hawley went 27-11 in 1898 for the Reds. Neither had particularly strong campaigns afterward and both retired after the 1901 season. 
• 1914 - OF Claude “Speed” Whatley was born in Griffin, Georgia. He played for the Homestead Grays from 1939-43, noted for his blazing speed (hence the nickname) and small-ball wizardry at the plate. Speed hit .300+ in two of his four Grays’ campaigns before leaving for the NY Black Yankees. He spent his last season with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1946. Well named: Speed defeated Olympic champ Jesse Owens in a promotional race before a game in the thirties (whether he was given a head start, generally part of Owen’s schtick, is unclear). 
• 1964 - IF Junior Noboa was born in Azua de Compostela, Dominican Republic. He got his final two at bats as a Bucco in 1994, going 0-for-2 to close out an eight-year MLB career. Junior spent one more year in the minors, served as batting coach for the Dominican National teams and now works in the Arizona Diamondbacks front office as Vice President of Latin Operations, helping land Miguel Montero, Gerardo Parra, Ender Inciarte, Carlos Gonzalez, and José Valverde. 

Junior Noboa (Mets) - 1992 Topps Stadium Club

• 1967 - The Pirates announced a $25-30,000 deal with Monsanto Corporation to cover the infield of the Bucs’ Eastern League affiliate York (Memorial Stadium) with artificial turf. The experiment would determine if Astroturf would be an acceptable alternative to grass for the proposed Three Rivers Stadium. The co-tenants of TRS, the Steelers, indicated that they would favor an artificial surface (they changed their minds, thx to player input, when Heinz Field was designed; ditto for the Bucs and PNC Park). It worked out OK at TRS, though not so much for the York Pirates - their franchise folded after the ‘69 season and Memorial Stadium was used by the local softball players before the turf finally wore out. 
• 1971 - Willie Stargell (.295/48/125) was MVP runner-up to Joe Torre, who led the NL in RBI (137) and batting (.363) while hitting 24 HR. Torre received 318 points to Stargell's 222. It was still a pretty good campaign for the Pirates slugger; Willie won a World Series and the MLB home run title. 
• 1982 - C Matt Pagnozzi was born in Miami, Arizona. Pagnozzi got in pieces of five MLB campaigns, including a 2011 stop in Pittsburgh as one of eight catchers used by the Bucs. Matt hit .250 in his five games (the Pirates didn’t pick him up until mid-September). He packed up the tools of ignorance after the 2015 season and 13 campaigns in the majors, minors and Dominican. 
• 1988 - Per the Post Gazette’s Paul Meyer, the Pirates, looking to shore up the their infield, offered FA 2B Steve Sax a three-year deal, albeit he would move the 3B, that his agent called “competitive” (it was thought to be in the $1M/year range) and per the Press were talking not only to Sax but perhaps also the Cubs about acquiring SS Shawon Dunston. Sax was given a sweeter offer by the New York Yankees and opted to cast his fate in the Big Apple. Dunston was dangled but pulled back, staying with Chicago through 1995, although he did join the Buccos for 18 games in 1997. The Pirates went with youth as their Plan B; 23-year-old Jay Bell and 25-year-old Chico Lind manned the middle in ‘89 and Bobby Bonilla remained the everyday 3B. 

Jeff King - 1995 Flair

• 1995 - 3B Jeff King, 30, passed up a chance to test the market and signed a two-year/$5M contract with the Pirates. He was worth every cent in 1996, hitting .271 with 30 homers and 119 RBI, then was sent to KC. Jeff played out his final three seasons as a Royal before retiring to his cattle ranch in Montana. 
• 2000 - New manager Lloyd McClendon met with nine of his core players - Brian Giles, Kevin Young, Adrian Brown, John Vander Wal, Keith Osik, Todd Ritchie, Mike Williams, Jason Schmidt and Jose Silva - to lay out his agenda and try to get “buy-in” from the players after a 93-loss season, three days after Jason Kendall, Giles and Young had met with GM Cam Bonifay to give their thoughts on righting the Bucco ship. But even with the kumbaya session, a fresh field boss and a new ballyard to romp in, it was the same ol’ Bucs. Despite the preseason rah-rah, they finished 62-100 in 2001; Lloyd survived but GM Cam Bonifay was canned. 
• 2011 - The Pirates signed free agent C Rod Barajas to a one-year/$4M contract with a club option for 2013 ($3.5 million with no buyout). Hot Rod hit .206 and threw out just a half dozen baserunners all year. His option wasn’t exercised, ending his MLB road, and he’s now a minor-league manager. 
• 2015 - Starling Marte was named a Gold Glove Award winner for the first time. Marte led all NL left fielders in fielding percentage (.995), making just one error in 196 total chances. He also led all National League outfielders with 16 assists, the most by a Pirates OF’er since Jose Guillen (also 16) in 1998, with 15 coming without a relay man. Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole were also GG finalists, but lost out to AJ Pollock and Zack Greinke. 

JT - 2018 Pirates photo

• 2018 - Jameson Taillon was honored at the Rotary Club’s Chuck Tanner banquet with the Memorial Award while Lanny Frattare took the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his 33 years as “Voice of the Pirates.” Sandy Dengler was awarded the Sally O’Leary Distinguished Woman in Baseball trophy after spending 20 years with Tampa Bay (and she also served as the Buccos Bradenton complex coordinator before that). Bob Melvin of the Oakland A’s won the Manager of the Year, and Kent State’s Jeff Duncan was named the College Coach of the Year. 
• 2022 - The Pirates acquired 1B Ji-Man Choi from the Tampa Bay Rays in exchange for 24-year-old Bradenton RHP Jack Hartman. The 31-year-old Choi had a career line of .239 BA/61 HR/225 RBI in 486 games while playing for the Angels, Yankees, Brewers and Rays. He spent the last four+ seasons with the Rays, hitting .233 BA/11 HR/52 RBI in 113 games in 2022. The position was a black hole for Pittsburgh, who used 10 players to fill the spot in the past campaign. Ji-Man slumped badly in the last half of the year and was scheduled to have his elbow cleaned out later in the month. He hit .205 with six homers here before being traded with Rich Hill to San Diego at the deadline and is now a free agent. Hartman was a fourth-round pick by the Buccos in 2020 who had TJ surgery late that year and returned to mound action in 2022. The 24-year-old Rays reliever worked last season in Class A, going 4-3-3/3.38 in 43 outings with 61 K. 
• 2022 - The Bucs made a bundle of moves: they reinstated OF Canaan Smith-Njigba, RHP Colin Holderman, RHP Yerry De Los Santos, RHP Blake Cederlind and RHP Max Kranick from the 60-day IL to the 40-man roster; it was MLB deadline day to return the long-term injured to the roster, where they had been protected but not counted against the 40-man limit during the season. Cederlind, RHP Peter Solomon, RHP Beau Sulser, C Jason Delay, LHP Eric Stout and C/1B Zack Collins were waived off the list, cleared and then were outrighted to Indy, with Stout and Collins opting to become free agents. More change was just around the bend as the team was five days away from the league deadline to finalize their now-full 40-man roster before the Rule 5 draft.