11/3: Deac Wins Cy; Thompson's 5-Year Deal; Jesse-Aki Trade; No Cigar For Waner; Housekeeping '11 & '17; Japanese Tour; DC Frolics; RIP Matty & Mike; HBD Meow, Homer, Ed, Fred, Harry & Jim

• 1856 - RHP Jim McCormick was born in Thornliebank, Scotland. He ripped off eight consecutive 20+ win seasons (including years with 45, 40, 36 & 31 wins) before he closed out his career with the Alleghenys in 1887 following a trade with the White Stockings that sent George Van Haltren and $2,000 to Chicago. He was sadly over the hill when he got here, posting a 13-23/4.30 line, the first time in his decade of MLB that his ERA was north of 2.80, though he still ended his career with 265 victories. He retired after the year at the age of 30 to become a businessman. As a rookie for the NL Indianapolis Blues, he became the first native Scot to get into a big league game in 1878. McCormick was one of the forgotten dominators of the deadball era; Baseball Reference compares his career to that of Pittsburgh ace Pud Galvin among early mound stars. 
• 1866 - RHP Harry Staley was born in Jacksonville, Illinois. Staley pitched in Pittsburgh from 1888-91, tossing for the Alleghenys, Burghers and Pirates. His overall Steel City record was 51-58 with a 3.21 ERA. He was a workmanlike pitcher, and one who knew his way around the batter’s box. On June 1st, 1893, Staley (then a Boston Beaneater) had nine runs batted in, hitting two three-run homers off Louisville’s Billy Rhines. It set the record for most RBIs in a game by a pitcher, a mark that stood for over 70 years until equaled by Atlanta Braves pitcher Tony Cloninger in 1966. 
• 1871 - P (no one noticed which hand he used) Fred “John” Hayner was born in Janesville, Wisconsin. As a Chicago prepster in 1890, 18-year-old Fred had an in-game tryout with the floundering Pittsburgh Alleghenys, in town to play the Colts at West Side Park. Fred fizzled as he tossed four innings and was lit up for nine runs (six earned) and that was the extent of his big league career. He eventually ended up a sports writer for the Chicago Daily News, and in 1901, along with George Rice, began using the name “Cubs” for the Chicago ball club, supposedly because of the team’s youth. It was officially adopted a few years later and is still Chicago's by-line. So if you ever want to win a free beer by betting that a Pittsburgh pitcher helped name the Cubs... 

Ed Lennox - 1910 Coup'n Cigarettes

• 1883 - 3B James “Ed” (middle name Edgar) Lennox was born in Camden, New Jersey. After a four year MLB career, Ed played for the Pittsburgh Rebels from 1914-15, batting .311. While a Rebel in 1914, Lennox hit for the cycle to become the only Federal League player to pull off that feat. He also swatted pinch-hit home runs in consecutive games the same season, a deed that was unmatched until Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers repeated it in 2016. 
• 1898 - OF Homer Summa was born in Gentry, Missouri. He began a 10-year MLB career in 1920 with the Pirates, going 7-for-22 (.318) in 10 games. He later served as a platoon outfielder with a lifetime BA of .302, playing for the Cleveland Indians before closing out his run with two years in Philadelphia with the A’s. His parents were a little over optimistic when they named him Homer; he only hit 18 round-trippers during his big league decade. 
• 1917 - RHP Len “Meow” Gilmore was born in Fairview Park, Indiana. Gilmore pitched 11 minor league seasons between 1938-52 for nine teams, going 128–94/3.66 in 332 outings after starting out at Indiana State Teachers College. The Bucs gave him his MLB taste when he started the second game of a twinbill against the Philadelphia Phillies at Shibe Park on the last day of the 1944 season. Gilmore allowed seven earned runs on 13 hits, with no walks or strikeouts in eight innings of work, but more importantly, got to add the title of major league pitcher to his resume. Following his days on the slab, Gilmore worked for the Oklahoma City Fire Department, retiring as a captain. Per “Indiana-born MLB Players,” Len got his nickname from a West Coast service station franchise named Gilmore that had a lion as its logo. Somehow its tagline “Roar with Gilmore” morphed into a meow. He did use all nine of his lives, thought, surviving to the ripe ol’ age of 93. 
• 1934 - Dizzy Dean, with a 30-7 record, was selected as the NL MVP, with the Pirates Paul Waner finishing a distant second despite a .362/14/90 slash. It was part of a six-year run (1932-37) that saw Big Poison earn MVP votes five times, including three Top Five finishes. 

Mike Smith - Ars Longa Art Card

• 1945 - P/OF Elmer “Mike” Smith passed away at age 77 and was buried at Union Dale Cemetery in the North Side. He was born in old Allegheny City and spent half his career (1892-97, 1901) in Pittsburgh. Smith started out with the Reds, where he was a pitcher known for his heater, but by the time he became a Pirate in ‘92, his pitching arm was shot. No diff; Pittsburgh wanted him as an outfielder, using him in just 17 games on the hill (he’d only toss once more as a Pirate afterward) but spending 124 contests in the pasture. It was a good positional switch; Elmer could hit, and finished with a .325 BA/.415 OBP during his Bucco years. Mike played for four teams in his 14-year career, but kept his permanent home on the North Side on 510 Madison Avenue. After leaving baseball in 1906, Smith worked as an inspector for the Pittsburgh Bureau of Highways. 
• 1960 - Vern Law, who finished 20-9 with 18 complete games and a 3.08 ERA, was voted the Cy Young Award winner, easily outdistancing runner-up Warren Spahn. It was a year to remember for The Deacon - he was an All-Star, earning the victory for one of the two Midsummer Classics in ‘60, and was also the winning pitcher for two of the Bucs’ World Series victories. 
• 1971 - PA senators Hugh Scott and Richard Schweiker, winners of a bet made on the 1971 Fall Classic between them and Maryland senators Charles Mathias Jr. and J. Glenn Beall, Jr., rode elephants in front of the Capitol. The losers led the pachyderms while toting peanuts for snacks and shovels to clean the street behind the Pennsylvania paraders. 
• 1982 - 1B Jason Thompson agreed to a five-year/$5.5M contract with the Pirates ($200K/year in bonuses, $1.2M deferred). The 28-year-old followed with three seasons in which he failed to hit .260 or 20 HR, and was traded to Montreal after the 1985 campaign for a minor league player. The change of scenery didn’t help and the Expos released him in June after 30 games while the Pittsburgh/Montreal FOs ate the final year of his deal as he couldn’t catch on with anyone else. 

Go East, Young Man: Bill Madlock - 1980 Topps

• 1979 - An MLB All Star team embarked on an 18-day tour of Japan. The squad was split into NL & AL sides, with seven of the nine scheduled exhibitions being between the leagues with two more games against All Star Japanese nines. The World Champ Bucs were well represented, with Dave Parker, Bill Madlock, John Candelaria, Jim Bibby and Bert Blyleven on board along with former Pirate Craig Reynolds and Chuck Tanner serving as one of skipper Tommy LaSorda’s coaches. It was the largest contingent of MLB players to take a foreign trip. 
• 2009 - The Pirates sent RHP Jesse Chavez to Tampa Bay for 2B Akinori Iwamura, who at $4.85M became the Pirates’ highest paid player. Iwamura was gimpy, out of shape and benched in June with a .172 average. Iwamura was replaced rather handily by Neil Walker, a converted minor league 3B/C, then released in mid-September. After 10 games with Oakland, Aki was out of MLB. Jesse is still around and tossed for the Atlanta Braves in 2022-23 (he’s a free agent now) while Neil played for Miami and the Phils before retiring after the 2020 campaign.
• 2011 - Matty Alou passed away in Santo Domingo at the age of 72 of diabetes complications. He was the middle man of one of the top MLB brother acts, between Felipe and Jesus. He came to the Bucs in 1965 from the Giants, and under the tutelage of Harry “The Hat” Walker and the prodding of Roberto Clemente, he turned into one of the great slap hitters of the era. In his first year as a Pirate, he led the NL with a .342 average as his hermano Felipe came in second at .327, the only time in baseball history that brothers finished 1-2 for the batting title. He hit .338 in 1967 (third in the NL), .332 in 1968 (second in the circuit) and .331 in 1969, leading the league with 231 hits and 41 doubles. He made two All-Star teams during that span, before being dealt to the Cards. In a 15-year big league career, his BA was .307. Following the 1974 season, he played three years in Japan and managed in the Dominican Winter League. In 2007, the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame inducted Matty. 
• 2016 - RHP Neftali Feliz, OF Matt Joyce, RHP Ivan Nova, LHP Zach Phillips, UT Sean Rodriguez and RHP Ryan Vogelsong were non-tendered by the Bucs after the season and became free agents, along with LHP Kelvin Marte, RHP Justin Masterson and OF Danny Ortiz, who were let go a few days later. Only Nova remained with Pittsburgh by signing a three-year/$26M deal, although Clint Hurdle’s security blanket, S-Rod, would return to the fold via trade in August. 

Matt Joyce - 2016 photo via MLBPA

• 2017 - There wasn’t much contract churn for the Pirates after the season. They exercised their team option on CF Andrew McCutchen and bought out the options on C Chris Stewart (younger torch-bearer C Elias Diaz was out of options) and LHP Wade LeBlanc (who was outrighted to Indy and faced a crowded field of lefty relievers) while 1B/OF John Jaso and RHP Joaquin Benoit had already declared for free agency. Cutch was the only starter in the mix and the other losses were expected. Andrew’s 2018 contract of $14.75M was the largest single-year deal that the Pirates have ever been entirely committed to; AJ Burnett’s contract for $16.5M from 2012-13 was primarily paid for by the NYY. The club tendered their small though costly arb-eligible gang of RHP Gerrit Cole, SS Jordy Mercer, RHP Felipe Rivero and RHP George Kontos. Jordy & Felipe were the only ones of the option/arb posse to make it through the season with the Pirates.