12/14 From 1960: Lieber-Brown; Kitten Dealt; Lyle, Wil, Kingery Inked; Scott Picked; Dapper Roberto; Schmidt $; Tax Cut; Moonlighting; HBD Fraze & Jeff

• 1961 - RHP Jeff Mark Robinson was born in Ventura, California. He finished out his six-year career with a few weeks in the Bucco rotation after being claimed off waivers from Texas in June of 1992, getting seven starts (eight outings) with a 3-1/4.46 line and then being waived again in July. It was his last MLB campaign, and Robinson went on to become the pitching director, coach and instructor with the Natural Baseball Academy in Kansas. He just missed the three-year Pirates stint of fellow Golden State hurler Jeff Robinson (1987-89), saving all sorts of confusion of sportswriters, scorecard keepers and fans. The two were best identified by their middle initial - Jeff M was the starter and Jeff D the reliever. 
• 1961 - Baseball players may be rolling in long green now, but for many decades, even the stars had a postseason job. ElRoy Face earned a Post-Gazette sports column mention on this date by selling Christmas trees grown on his Indiana farm at the corner of Bouquet Street and Forbes Avenue in Oakland, a block from the ballyard where he plied his summer trade. He was a carpenter during the off season and it became his full-time job after he retired from baseball. 
• 1963 - The Pirates sent LHP Harvey Haddix to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for SS Dick Yencha and cash. The Kitten, then 38 and a reliever, spent the last two years of his career in Baltimore, going 8-7-11/2.63 before retiring because of arm problems, while Yencha never made it past AA. Haddix later followed his rookie mentor Harry Brecheen (as St. Louis teammates, veteran Brecheen was “the Cat” and his protege, the young Haddix, was “the Kitten”) as a pitching coach, working with the Mets, Reds, Red Sox, Indians, and Pirates before passing away in 1994. 
• 1966 - NL-MVP Roberto Clemente won his second Dapper Dan Man of the Year award (he won his first in 1961) in a romp, leaving the runner up, his skipper Harry “The Hat” Walker, in the dust by a 59-19 count. Clemente was the eighth Pirate in the past dozen years to claim the honor; teammate Vern Law was the 1965 awardee to give the Bucs back-to-back winners. 

Post Gazette 12/15/1966

• 1991 - 2B Adam Frazier was born in Athens, Georgia. He was selected from Mississippi State in the sixth round (179th overall) of the 2013 draft and was signed for the slot value of $240,600. Fraze was known for his 24/7 stick and it earned him a call up in 2016, slashing .281/.344/.412 during his five+ Bucco campaigns. He’s played a half dozen positions, but he claimed Josh Harrison's second base spot with a solid 2019 (.278 BA, +6 DRS) campaign. After an All-Star breakout in ‘21, he was traded to San Diego; at the end of the year, the Padres flipped him to the Seattle Mariners, and from there he went to the Baltimore Orioles. Fraze is currently a free agent. 
• 1993 - The State legislature cut the City’s amusement tax from 10% to 5%; one state senator said that the Pirates had informed him that without the lower rate that they could be forced to leave the City in two years. GM Mark Sauer told the Post Gazette that the team wouldn’t be cutting ticket prices (neither did the Steelers) and then ran down a financial wish list featuring revenue sharing and a salary cap from the MLB to go with a new stadium and lease for the team. Pirates ownership got three-out-of-its-four wishes granted eventually; good luck on the cap. 
• 1995 - Pittsburgh signed 35-year-old free agent CF Mike Kingery to a two year/$1.5M agreement, planning to use him as a platoon bat & glove guy off the bench player after fanning on efforts to land their top target, Lance Johnson, who inked a deal with the Mets. It didn’t quite work out; Kingery, who had been a .272 lifetime hitter before the contract, hit .246 in 117 games and was released after the season. He opened Solid Foundation Baseball School the year after he retired, and makes appearances with the Kingery Family, a gospel/bluegrass group. 
• 1998 - RHP Jon Lieber was traded to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for OF Brant Brown. Lieber tossed for nine more years in the show, winning 20 games for the Cubs in 2001 while Brown was one and done in Pittsburgh. After his breakout campaign, workhorse Lieber had TJ surgery in ‘02 and only reached the 30-start, 200 IP mark once more in his career. Brown’s slide downhill was just as dramatic. He hit .232 for the Bucs, then started the next year with the Florida Marlins after being traded for Bruce Aven. The Fish sent him back to the Cubs in June, where he couldn’t crack the Mendoza line to end his MLB days. 

Scott Sauerbeck - 1999 Sky Box Premium Rookie

• 1998 - The Pirates selected LHP Scott Sauerbeck from the New York Mets in the Rule 5 draft. Sauerbeck stuck with the Pirates until 2003, going 19-15-5/3.53 in his 4-1/2 year Bucco stint before he was traded to the Boston Red Sox. Sauerbeck missed 2004 after surgery, and after a fairly ineffective campaign in 2006, the LOOGY’s Major League career ended. 
• 1999 - “Wil Cordero, a good hitter who has had difficulty staying healthy and out of trouble, signed a $9M, three-year contract yesterday with the Pittsburgh Pirates, his fourth team in four years...” per the Associated Press. But Cordero proved to be a good pick up, as the left fielder banged 16 HR with 51 RBI before he was traded in late July to the Indians for Alex Ramirez (who wasn’t such a great addition - he hit .209 and was out of baseball the following year) and Enrique Wilson, a reserve infielder who hit .262 in 1-1/2 Pirates seasons. Cordero had one more strong year left in him as a Montreal Expo in 2003. 
• 2001 - The Giants did what the Bucs couldn’t afford to do by signing RHP Jason Schmidt to a four-year/$31M contract (it became official on the 18th) after the Pirates had flipped him to the G-Men at the deadline of his 2001 walk year for Ryan Vogelsong. Jason wasn’t done mastering the art of the deal; he signed a three-year/$47M agreement with the Dodgers in 2006 after this contract expired. He earned about $92M in his career, with $8M from his five Bucco years. 
• 2010 - The Pirates agreed to terms with 1B Lyle Overbay on a one-year/$5M contract; he was waived in August after hitting .227. The Bucs also signed 32-year old OF Matt Diaz to a two-year deal worth up to $5M with bonuses. He was sent back to the Atlanta Braves, his prior club, at the deadline for RHP Eliecer Cardenas after hitting .259 with no homers. Following 2012 thumb surgery, Matt announced his retirement after the ‘13 season.