12/11: Rhodes-Lawton, Foli-Harper, Dock-Doc, Wright-Petty, Ginger-Abby; Nova Dealt; Lyles, Charlie, Kelly, Bo Signed; Haney Hired; Sid, Arriba Honored; NYC Relo; Island Visits; HBD Joe, Derek, Jay, OB Twins & Dutch

• 1885 - C Art “Dutch” Wilson was born in Macon, Illinois. The backstop spent half a season with the Pirates in 1916, batting .258 in 53 games. The Bucs had purchased him from the Federal League’s Chicago Whales in February and traded him and 2B Otto Knabe to the Chicago Cubs for C Bill Fischer and OF Frank Schulte in July. Dutch played 14 big league seasons, mostly in the National League but with stints in the Junior Circuit and Federal League, too. 
• 1906 - The Pirates traded veterans OF Ginger Beaumont, LHP Patsy Flaherty and 2B Claude Ritchey to the Boston Beaneaters for IF Ed Abbaticchio. Beaumont had a great 1907 for Boston and followed with a pair of solid seasons. Flaherty and Ritchey also had two workmanlike years left in them. Abby stuck with the Pirates until 1910. He started for two years, but was a sub on the 1909 title team, backing up Hans Wagner and Dots Miller. He hit .253 in Pittsburgh. 
• 1928 - SS Glenn “Buckshot” (his arm was strong but not entirely accurate) Wright was sent to the Brooklyn Robins for LHP Jesse “The Silver Fox” (he didn’t make it into the big leagues until his 30s) Petty and IF Harry Riconda. Wright, one of the top SS of the era, suffered a major shoulder injury in 1929 which affected his play in the field, but didn’t hang up the spikes until 1935 with a lifetime .294 BA after 11 big league seasons. Petty was workmanlike in 1929, but the wheels fell off in 1930, and it was his final MLB season. Riconda got into eight games for the Pirates and then was sold to the minor league Kansas City Blues in June. 
• 1930 - The O’Brien twins, Eddie and Johnny, were born in South Amboy, New Jersey. Utilityman Eddie - he played SS, 3B, OF and even pitched 16 innings - spent five years (1952, 1954-57) with the Bucs, hitting .236 to go with a 3.31 ERA and a 1-0 record. Johnny was a Pirate for five years (1953, 1955-58) and was a middle infielder/pitcher. He put up a .260 BA and went 1-3 with a 5.61 ERA. The O'Briens were the first twins in major league history to play for the same team in the same game. On a side note, the brothers were also strong basketball players at Seattle University, and scored 84 points between them when SU beat the barnstorming Harlem Globetrotters in 1952. With teammate Dick Groat, they formed the best backcourt in baseball. 

O'Brien twins - 1954 Topps

• 1952 - Fred Haney was named as manager, replacing Billy Meyer. It was an unusual job search; Haney, the PCL Hollywood coach, was happy there (it was his home), but was the fall-back man when Branch Rickey couldn't land anyone on his short list. The Bucs finished in last place each season under Haney’s three year reign, compiling a 163-299 (.353) record, which was more an indictment of the Pirates' talent than Haney’s leadership. In 1957, he took a Milwaukee team that featured Henry Aaron, Eddie Mathews and Warren Spahn to the World Series title. 
• 1957 - Relocation rumors are old news to Pittsburgh and its small-market revenue stream. Team VP Tom Johnson denied a report from the Associated Press from the day before that had the Bucs moving to the Big Apple, saying “...Mr Galbreath (team owner John) received a feeler from New York Mayor Robert Wagner’s committee (to find a new NL team after the Dodgers and Giants moved to the coast)...I can assure you that Mr. Galbreath emphatically turned down the effort to move the Pittsburgh franchise. Pittsburgh is a great baseball city, something the fans have proved over and over again.” 
• 1965 - SS Jay Bell was born at Eglin AFB (Pensacola), Florida. Jay played SS for Pittsburgh from 1989-96, hitting .269, anchoring the infield of Jim Leyland’s 1990-92 division championship clubs and earning an All-Star spot in 1993. Bell also won a Gold Glove in 1993, breaking a string of thirteen straight National League Golden Gloves claimed by shortstop Ozzie Smith and the first GG by a Pirates SS since Gene Alley took back-to-back honors in 1966 and 1967. After a stint as a Reds coach, Jay is now a Yankee minor league manager. 
• 1968 - OF Derek Bell was born in Tampa, Florida. The Pirates signed Bell to a two-year/$10M deal in 2001; he hit .173 in the first campaign and was slighted when newswriters told him that he was going to face competition in camp to start in 2002. Bell replied “If it is (a competition), then I'm going into 'Operation Shutdown.' Tell them exactly what I said. I haven't competed for a job since 1991." Bell left the team on March 29th, was released on March 31st, and never played in the majors again. The Pirates ate the $4.5M still due to him as Bell pulled anchor on his yacht and sailed away. New York Post writer Tom Keegan described the incident by calling Bell "the perfect Pirate given that he lives on a boat and steals money." 

Derek Bell -2001 Fleer Tradition

• 1973 - The Pirates agreed to play two exhibition games in San Juan for the next five years to help fund a Roberto Clemente Sports Complex. It was a team effort - the Expos, Yankees, Mets and Red Sox (twice) agreed to play the series and Eastern Airlines picked up the travel arrangements. General manager Joe Brown said “We are overwhelmed by the cooperation.” The Sports City opened in Carolina, a suburb of San Juan, on land donated by Puerto Rico in 1974, and is now involved in a battle with the government over who will control the site. 
• 1974 - Roberto Clemente was named to the Black Athletes Hall of Fame. He, Roy Campanella and Pop Floyd were the only black baseball players included among the 14 honored. The official presentation was made in March in Las Vegas. 
• 1975 - The Yankees acquired RHP Dock Ellis, LHP Ken Brett and 2B Willie Randolph from the Pirates for RHP Doc Medich. Randolph suited up for 17 more seasons, was named to six All-Star teams and played in four World Series, but was blocked in Pittsburgh by Rennie Stennett, who, as fate would have it, broke his leg in 1977 and left Pittsburgh after 1979. Dock pitched for five teams over the next four years, ending his career with a final stop in Pittsburgh in 1979 after two solid years (29-20/3.41) in 1976-77. Brett remained workmanlike over the next six seasons, tossing for a half-dozen clubs. Doc went 8-11/3.51 in his only Pirates campaign, then was traded to Oakland (and not gladly; he was attending Pitt medical school at the time) as part of the Phil Garner deal, spending four of his next six campaigns with the Texas Rangers. 
• 1980 - RHP Joe Blanton was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Pirates bought the veteran reliever from Kansas City at the 2015 deadline and he went 5-0/1.57 in his time with the Bucs, turning a strong 21-game stretch run into a $4M free agent contract with the Dodgers. His last campaign was in 2017 with the Nats, and he now runs a vineyard in California. 

Tim Foli - 1980 Topps

• 1981 - SS Tim Foli was traded to the California Angels for Brian Harper. Foli was on the downside of his career while Harper spent three years in Pittsburgh as a utilityman, hitting .243. Crazy Horse (he was a fiery 100%'er) Foli returned in 1985 in a trade with the Yankees, but hit just .189 and was released in June. He became a coach for several teams (Rangers, Brewers, Reds, Royals, Mets, and Nats) after his playing days, managed in the minors, and now is a Christian speaker. The Bucs pulled off two swaps on the day, also sending 1B Doe Boyland to the Giants for veteran hurler Tom Griffin. Boyland was a seldom-used prospect who went 2-for-19 in short Pittsburgh visits over three years and never appeared in another MLB game. Griffin, who was starting his 14th season in the show in his age 34 season, was coming off an 8-8/3.76 campaign but went 1-3/8.87 for the Pirates and was released in mid-May, ending his major league days. 
• 1990 - Sid Bream, who overcame three knee operations to help the Pirates capture the NL East championship, was named the winner of the 26th annual Hutch Award. The award goes to a player who overcomes adversity to go on to further accomplishments, named for Fred Hutchinson. Bream hit .270 with 67 RBI after sitting out most of the 1989 campaign. It was his last bow as a Buc, as Bream had signed with the Atlanta Braves as an off-season FA the week before. 
• 2002 - Pittsburgh brought back RHP Brian Boehringer, 33, inking the reliever to a two-year contract with an option and $3.8M guaranteed. Boehringer was coming off a 4-4-1/3.39 campaign and appeared in 70 games, but he didn’t have to worry about that option coming into play. Brian went 6-5/5.42 in 2003-04 and was bought out at season's end, finishing his MLB career. 
• 2004 - The Bucs swapped out LHP Arthur Rhodes to Cleveland for OF Matt Lawton less than a month after they had acquired him from the A’s. Cleveland also sent the Pirates an undisclosed amount of cash to help offset Lawton’s $7.2M salary. Lawton hit .284 with 10 HR and 44 RBIs before being flipped for the Chicago Cubs' Jody Gerut at the 2005 trading deadline. 

Don Kelly - 2007 Fleer Ultra

• 2006 - Pittsburgh signed hometown utility guy Don Kelly, born in Butler and a Mt. Lebanon HS/Point Park College alum (he still lives in Mars with wife Carrie, Neil Walker’s sister), to a minor league contract. But it wasn't a home-sweet-home reunion; he got into just 25 games with the Bucs during his rookie 2007 campaign and hit .148 during his only local stint. Kelly seasoned in the minors for a year and then went on to play eight MLB campaigns with Detroit & Miami in a bench role, coached and scouted for the Astros and is now Derek Shelton's bench coach. 
• 2013 - RHP Charlie Morton signed a contract extension for three years plus an option. He received $4M for 2014 (his last arb year), $8M in 2015 & 2016 plus a club option for 2017 of $9.5M and a $1M buyout, with $500K in possible bonuses. Morton went 15-21/4.21 the next two seasons, was traded to Philly, got hurt and inked a deal with the Astros. He won a WS game there and signed with Tampa Bay, where he became an All-Star in 2019. Charlie went 9-9 in 2020 and then signed with Atlanta in 2021, the organization he began his MLB journey with. Reportedly debating retirement, the Bravos picked up his $20M ‘24 option so he looks like he’ll be back for another round.  
• 2018 - The Pirates shipped RHP Ivan Nova to the Chicago White Sox for prospect RHP Yordi Rosario, 19, and $500K international slot money. Nova was streaky since arriving from the NY Yankees at the 2016 deadline, stingy with walks but generous with homers allowed, and put together a 25-25/3.99 line with the Bucs in his 2-1/2 seasons. Rosario, from the Dominican Republic, was a lotto ticket projected as an eventual back-end starter as the Bucs restocked their lower level farm pitching. Nova pitched in Korea and the Dominican League in 2022 while Rosario was in the Angels system and released after the 2021 campaign. 
• 2018 - In another winter meeting deal, the club announced that it had signed free agent RHP Jordan Lyles (it became official on the 17th after his physical), 28, a guy with not much of a track record despite eight years in the league (31-52-2/5.28) with four other clubs, to a one-year/$2.05M deal. The converted starter did have a solid 2018 from the pen (1-0/3.32 in 28 outings), so that performance, no discernible split between L/R hitters, and an increased use of curves and sinkers won him a contract. The Pirates opted to start him, and after a hot beginning to 2019, he faded and was sent to the Milwaukee Brewers. In 2020, he jumped ship to the Texas Rangers for two campaigns, went to the Baltimore Orioles and is now in his second year at Kansas City.