11/14: Doug '90 Cy Winner; Cobra '78 MVP; Luplow/Moroff, Garcia Deals; AJ, Steve, RJ Contracts; Rojek Joins; Youth Served in '68; '80 Reentry; Muse Retires; HBD X-Man; Paul, Weepin' Willie, Jim, Fred, Sam & Otto

• 1864 - 1B/OF Otto Schomberg (Shambrick) was born in Milwaukee. Otto played three big league seasons, beginning with the Allegheny in 1886, hitting .272 in 72 games. After the campaign, the Alleghenys traded Schomberg with $400 to the St. Louis Maroons for Alex McKinnon. Schomberg was a one-trick pony; his fielding was subpar and he slumped in 1888 for Indianapolis. Added to the mix was an injury and a mild bout with malaria. After that, he was delegated to minor-league and semi pro clubs, even umpiring, but did pretty well for himself after baseball. He was a successful lumberman and parlayed profits from that business into other investments. Otto prospered and was a delegate to the Republican convention. 
• 1867 - IF Sam Gillen (Gilleland) was born in Allegheny City (North Side). He broke out as a 25-year-old at Macon of the Southern Association in 1893, batting .343, and got a brief look by the Pirates during that campaign, going 0-for-6 with some shaky glovework - his hit tool was his calling card - in three games. Sammy went back to the minors for three years and kept raking, getting a call from the Phils in 1897, hitting .259 with a .353 OBP. It wasn’t enough to impress, though, and in August he found himself back in the minors. He played on the farm through the 1899 campaign before hanging up the spikes. Sam died young in 1905 at age 37 and was buried in Union Dale Cemetery. 
• 1881 - C/1B Fred Carisch was born in Fountain City, Wisconsin. Playing between 1903-06, the reserve hit .229 for the Pirates. Fred became the center of a storm in 1923, when as a Tigers' coach and non-rostered, he was forced to catch when his team's final receiver was ejected. A protest was filed, but the Cleveland Indians rallied to win in the 10th, making the point moot. 
• 1881 - OF Jim Wallace was born in Boston. He played seven MLB games for the Pirates in 1905 as a right fielder and batted .207 in his brief career, going 6-for-29. Jim never got another shot; he spent seven seasons in the minors after his Bucco stint and batted above .250 just once. 

Claude Willoughby - 1931 photo via Baseball Birthdays

• 1898 - RHP Claude “Weeping Willie” Willoughby was born in Buffalo, Kansas. Willie closed out his seven year career in Pittsburgh, going 0-2/6.31, in nine outings. We assume the Weeping Willie moniker came about because of his performance - he had an ERA of 4.99 or higher in his final six campaigns, though he did have winning records (6-5, 15-14) in 1928-29. He was also known as “Flunky” for reasons we couldn’t uncover. 
• 1947 - The Bucs bought SS Stan Rojek, 29, from the Dodgers with plans to make him the starter in Pittsburgh; he was available as he was blocked by Pee Wee Reese in Brooklyn. He played 156 games and hit .290 in 1948, but his bat faded after that season, he became a backup in 1950 and was traded to the Cardinals in 1951. They also purchased 1B Big Ed Stevens from the Brooklyn Dodgers, who played here from 1948-50 and hit .253 as a Pirate. 
• 1967 - RHP Paul Wagner was born in Milwaukee. A 12th round draft pick in 1989, he pitched for the Pirates for six campaigns from 1992-97, mainly as a starter, and went 26-40/4.58 during that span. Wagner came close to capturing a little magic - in 1995, he had a no-hitter broken up against the Colorado Rockies with two out in the ninth on an Andrés Galarraga single. He pitched through the 2003 season and now runs a training camp in Wisconsin, Paul Wagner Power Pitching. 
• 1968 - The Pirates were in the midst of a youth movement that would set their core for years, allowing Donn Clendenon, Manny Mota, Maury Wills and Al McBean (all 30-years-old or more) to go in the expansion draft. Manager Larry Shepard, in a Pittsburgh Press chat with sports’ editor Les Biederman, had rave reviews about youngsters Richie Hebner (20), Bob Robertson (21) & Manny Sanguillen (24), while withholding judgment on 21-year-old Al Oliver. He was equally excited about the young starting pitchers - Steve Blass (26), Dock Ellis (23) and Bob Moose (20). Add to the mix Jerry May (24), Dave Cash (20) and Freddie Patek (23), and you had a crew who by 1971 took a World Championship and would fuel a strong competitive run throughout the 70’s as the “Lumber Company.” 

Dave Parker - July, 1978 Pgh. Press photo

• 1978 - RF Dave "The Cobra" Parker won the NL MVP, topping runner-up Steve Garvey of the LA Dodgers 320-194 in the vote parade. Parker had 30 HR with 117 RBI and led the league with a .334 batting average, a .585 slugging percentage, and 340 total bases. That was despite the fact that he missed two weeks after breaking his jaw in a home plate collision with the Mets' John Stearns and returned wearing a hockey, later switched to football-style, facemask, thought to be the first time such a contraption was worn in an MLB game. It was a good day for collecting hardware; Willie Stargell won TSN’s Comeback Player of the Year Award with a batting line of .295/28 HR/97 RBI. 
• 1978 - OF Xavier Nady was born in Salinas, California. Nady played for the Bucs from 2006-08, hitting .301 as a Pirate. He had been on Pittsburgh’s radar for awhile - GM Dave Littlefield tried to pry him from the Padres in 2003, and settled on Jason Bay instead when SD wouldn’t deal Nady. The Friars were equally high on him - Nady went straight to the majors without playing minor league ball in 2000, though the stay didn’t last long, as he was sent to the farm after one game. The Bucs finally landed him in 2006 from the Mets for Ollie Perez and Roberto Hernandez. He’s been known as “X” or the “X-Man” since his days with NY. 
• 1980 - In the final Free Agent Re-Entry Draft, the Bucs John Milner opted out of contract to test the waters, but the Pirates managed to bring him back via a new deal (they had kept a retainer on his rights). The Bucs claimed bidding rights on a dozen players including Dave Winfield and Don Sutton, and signed none. But they did eventually get 1B/OF Willie Montanez, who they had on their list as a potential replacement if they had lost Milner. Willie signed with the Expos, but joined the Pirates in August when they traded The Hammer to Montreal. 
• 1988 - Charlie Muse publicly announced his retirement from the Pirates in a Pittsburgh Press piece written by Bob Hertzel. Muse, 71, a jack of all baseball trades, had worked for the Bucs since 1950 as a scout, ticket-office boss, Director of Operations for Three Rivers Stadium (1974-76) and finally as Travelling Secretary. Before that, he had managed Duquesne University’s nine, skippered in the minors, served in the Army twice, and was a driving force in the final design and more importantly, the players’ acceptance of the batting helmet. 

Doug Drabek - 1990 Pirates poster

• 1990 - RHP Doug Drabek, who posted a 22-6 record and a 2.76 ERA, was named the NL Cy Young winner and became the first Pirate since Vern Law in 1960 to take home the award. He received 23 of 24 first-place votes and 118 of a possible 120 points in balloting by the Baseball Writers Association of America. Left in the dust were Ramon Martinez of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who was second with the other first-place vote and 70 points, and Frank Viola of the New York Mets was third with 19 points. No other Bucco hurler has won the honor since. 
• 1990 - After his walk year, OF RJ Reynolds was seeking a three-year/$4M deal to re-sign with Pittsburgh; the Pirates countered with a two-year/$1.5M offer, a pretty big gap. The impasse was resolved by a third option when RJ signed a $1.3M contract with Yokohama of the Japanese League. It worked out OK for Reynolds; he got his three seasons, albeit all in Japan, then spent his final 1994 campaign in Mexico before retiring at age 35. 
• 1991 - 3B Steve Buechele, coming off a season hitting .262 w/22 HR & 85 RBI, rejected the Pirates contract offer for four-years/$10M after earning $775K during the ‘91 campaign. It was a career year for him, although most of his numbers were put up at Texas, as he hit .246 in 31 games as a Bucco after a deadline deal. But it worked out relatively well for him - he eventually signed for four-years/$11M. It didn’t prolong his Pittsburgh stay by much, though - he batted .249 in 80 games in 1992 and was shipped to the Cubs for LHP Danny Jackson in July. 
• 1996 - The Pirates sent 2B Carlos Garcia, 1B/OF Orlando Merced and P Dan Plesac to the Toronto Blue Jays for P Jose Silva, IF Abraham Nunez, and OF Craig Wilson plus prospects SS Brandon Cromer, P Jose Pett and P Mike Halperin. Merced had four good seasons left, Plesac played through 2003 and Garcia, who was the Jays main target, ended up as an AL bench guy and lasted three more years in the show. Silva spent five years as a Buc, but his line during that span was 24-28-4/5.44, while Wilson (2001-06/.268 BA/94 HR) and Nunez (1997-2004/.238 BA) were in and out of the lineup during their Pittsburgh stays. The prospect players never advanced past the minor league level.

AJ - 2014 Bowman

• 2014 - RHP AJ Burnett returned to the Pirate flock, signing a one-year contract valued at $8.5M after a dismal season (8-18/4.59) in Philadelphia. He told the media that “This is where I want to finish my career, playing for this team and for this city. I want to win a ring, and I want to do it in Pittsburgh.” Burnett left $4.25M on the table for the reunion by turning down a player option worth $12.75M with Philadelphia to become a FA, and had his agent negotiate solely with the Pirates. AJ had pitched in 2012-13 for the Bucs, winning 26 games with a 3.41 ERA before moving across the state. The 38-year-old finished with another solid season, going 9-7/3.18, though slowed down by a late year injury, and was named to his first All-Star team after 17 seasons. 
• 2018 - The Pirates sent OF Jordan Luplow and IF Max Moroff to the Cleveland Indians for IF Erik González and RHP’s Tahnaj Thomas and Dante Mendoza. Luplow, 25, a third-round pick in 2014 and Minor League PoY in 2017, had a chance to break camp with the Bucs in 2019 with Gregory Polanco injured while Moroff, also 25 & a 16th-round high school pick in 2012, had been bypassed on the Pirates depth chart. Both had auditioned with the big club. J-Lo hit .194 in 64 games in 2017-18 while Maxie batted .193 in 84 games played from 2016-18. Gonzalez (.263 lifetime BA) was out of options and expected to stick as a utility man who had played six positions for the Tribe, while the two pitchers were 19-year-old lotto tickets. Gonzalez had a solid September in a year mostly lost to injury and became a semi-regular SS/3B in 2020, but a subpar 2021 saw him sent to Indy and then move to the Miami organization; he then played in the White Sox system in 2023 before opting for free agency. Luplow has made six MLB stops as a strong platoon guy who’s also now a free agent while Moroff remained mainly in the minors as depth; he hasn’t played since suffering a bum shoulder in ‘21. RHP Tahnaj Thomas was converted to the pen and showed some promise; he‘s currently a minor league FA, as is Mendoza.