- 1882 - C Jay “JJ/Nig” Clarke was born in Anderdon Township (now Amherstburg) Ontario. Jay had a long career, starting in organized ball in 1902 and retiring in 1927, with some time off for duty in the Marine Corps during WW1. He played parts of nine years in the big leagues, making his last MLB stop in Pittsburgh in 1920. He got into three games, went 0-for-7 and was sent to the farm in late April. His moment in the sun came in 1908 when he caught a perfect game tossed by Addie Joss of the Cleveland Naps. Fun fact: According to lore, Clarke hit eight homers in eight at-bats in a 51-3 romp for the Texas League Corsicana Oil City squad over the Texarkana Casket Makers. Spoiler alert: the field he played on wasn’t meant for pro games but was used as a Sunday blue-law work-around, and the fence in right was estimated to be no more than 200’ from home, a lefty’s delight. Jay died on June 15th, 1949, 47 years to the day that he hit his eight home runs. He was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Baseball HoF in 1996.
- 1884 - 1B Jim (also known as “Joe,” his middle name) Nealon was born in Sacramento. He’s one of the sadder Buccos “coulda-been” stories. Nealon played from 1906-07 for the Pirates, and in his rookie season tied for the NL RBI lead (83) while hitting .255. Jim hit .257 the next season, then contracted tuberculosis. He went back home to California, played a couple of years of minor league ball and died of typhoid pneumonia in San Francisco in 1910 at the age of 25.
- 1905 - In one of their better deals, made official OTD after being agreed to the previous day, the Bucs picked up Hall-of-Famer RHP Vic Willis from the Boston Beaneaters for journeymen UT Dave Brain, IF/OF Del Howard, and RHP Vive Lindaman. Willis won 20+ games in each of his four years (1906-09) in Pittsburgh, with a slash of 88–46/2.08, and was part of the 1909 World Series championship club. The “Delaware Peach” (he went to Delaware College) was a workhorse throughout his career, completing 388 of his 471 starts. Brain started two years for Boston, then faded and retired after the 1908 campaign. Howard ended up a part-time guy, lasting through the 1909 season. Lindaman won 35 games in three years, then was let go after 15 outings in 1909.
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| Vic Willis - Helmar Cabinet II |
- 1906 - IF Wallace “Bucky” (a childhood nickname) Williams was born in Baltimore and moved to Pittsburgh at the age of six months. After stints with the Pittsburgh Keystone Juniors and Monarchs, he played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords (1927–32; 1937-39) and the Homestead Grays in 1936. Bucky also played for his employer (he was a ladle liner) as part of the Edgar Thomson Steel team after his pro career; his sandlot squad once defeated the Grays in an exhibition game. He went to Holy Rosary and Crescent Elementary before leaving school for work, and rests now in Calvary Cemetery. He was named an honorary member of the Negro League Hall of Fame before passing on at the age of 102.
- 1937 - The Bucs sent OF Bud Hafey, 1B Bernard Cobb, C Tom Padden and cash to the St. Louis Cardinals for OF Johnny Rizzo. Hafey and Padden each spent time in the minors before getting one last MLB campaign while Cobb never advanced past the farm. Rizzo had a great year in ‘38, swatting 23 HR and batting .301, then set the franchise record for RBI in a game when he chased home nine runs in 1939 against his ol’ mates, the Cardinals. He hit .283 in his two years plus with the Bucs before he was shipped to Philly for Vince DiMaggio in early 1940.
- 1944 - Pirate manager Jim Leyland was born in Perrysburg, Ohio. Leyland was the fiery, chain-smoking manager of the Bucs from 1986 to 1996. He won two Manager of the Year awards (1990 and 1992) and finished as runner-up in 1988 and 1991. Under Leyland, the Pirates went to the NLCS three straight seasons (1990-92) but lost all three, with the latter two going the full seven games against the Atlanta Braves. He did win a title in 1997 as the skipper of the Florida Marlins and also managed the Colorado Rockies and Detroit Tigers. Leyland lives in Mt. Lebanon, helping the Tigers as a local scout, and joined the Hall of Fame in 2023.
- 1946 - IF Art Howe was born in Pittsburgh. A star pitcher and quarterback at Shaler HS, he went to Wyoming to play football but flipped full-time to baseball after an injury. He went undrafted, returned home to Pittsburgh, got a job with Westinghouse and played semi-pro baseball on weekends in the Federation League. But the 24-year-old had a good day at a Pirates ‘71 tryout camp and the duly impressed hometown club inked him the next day. He began his big league career with Pittsburgh in 1974-75 as a utility infielder, batting .195 before being traded to the Astros, where he became a regular for six seasons beginning in 1977. He played for MLB 11 years with a .260 BA, managed for 11 more years, winning a pair of American League West titles with the Oakland A’s (he also skippered the Houston Astros and New York Mets), and worked scouting/coaching gigs for several clubs before retiring for good in 2008.
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| Vic Janowicz - 1953 Topps |
- 1952 - Bonus baby Vic Janowicz was officially signed to a $25,000 contract agreed to earlier in the month with the Pirates, and he had to be carried on the MLB roster for two years because of the bonus amount. Janowicz was a Heisman-winning running back at Ohio State in 1950, but Pittsburgh saw his future in baseball. Vic hit .252 as a catcher in 1953, but dropped to .151 at 3B the following year, for a combined line of .214 with two HR and 10 RBI in 215 PA. He then left the team and jumped to pro football’s Washington Redskins, where he started at halfback. It looked like a great career move as he was second in the NFL in scoring in 1955 before a car accident ended his sports calling.
- 1959 - The Pirates began to clear their logjam at catcher by selling Hank Foiles to the KC Athletics for an undisclosed amount. That left them with Smoky Burgess, Hal Smith, Danny Kravitz and Bob Oldis behind the dish. Burgess and Smith shouldered the load; Oldis started three games and Kravitz none in 1960, and in fact Kravitz would be traded to Kansas City on June 1st for...Hank Foiles. It wasn’t a lengthy reunion; Foiles was traded to the Indians the next day.
- 1961 - Though none of the players had signed a contract for 1962 yet, the Pirates did have the John Hancock of all seven of Danny Murtaugh’s coaches - Frank Oceak, Ron Northey, Sam Narron, Bill Burwell, Lenny Levy, George Sisler and Virgil Trucks - who agreed to return for another campaign.
- 1962 - The Pirates shipped 30-year-old backup C Don Leppert to Washington for minor league righty Ron Honeycutt. It ended up a pretty minor deal; Leppert got into 123 games over two years for the Senators but hit only .207 while Honeycutt never advanced past Class AA.
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| Ted Savage - 1964 Topps |
- 1964 - The Bucs sent P Earl Francis and OF Ted Savage to the St. Louis Cardinals in return for OF’s Ron Cox and Jack Damaska (from Beaver Falls HS). Francis sputtered through his last big league season while Savage was the only player that had any MLB impact, serving as a bench bat through the 1971 season. Neither of the players the Pirates received made it to the majors.
- 1964 - ABC and MLB announced a two-year/$12M package for the rights to the Saturday Afternoon Game of the Week, with the pot being evenly divided among the clubs. The network loosened the blackout rule; it had previously been anywhere within a 50-mile radius of a big league city, but now would be limited to the hometowns of the two teams playing. Most teams were at least publicly ho-hum about competing with the televised games; the Pirates announced that they wouldn’t change any Saturday TV conflicts. It also marked the first time that TV money was split even-steven among the clubs.
- 1967 - Pittsburgh traded for RHP Jim Bunning, sending the Phillies pitchers Woodie Fryman, Bill Laxton and Harold Clem along with IF Don Money, who was the Phils regular 3B until Mike Schmidt arrived and then became an All-Star with Milwaukee. The popular Money had also been targeted by the White Sox, but the Pirates wanted RHP Joel Horlen in exchange, who Chi-town wasn’t about to surrender. Fryman lasted 18 years in the show and was twice named an All-Star. Bunning, who the Pirates hoped would put them over the top in 1968, stayed in Pittsburgh for 1-1/2 seasons, slashing at 14-23/3.84.
- 1971 - Bill Virdon made his only new hire as Bucco manager by promoting Charleston Charlies skipper Joe Morgan to his staff as an infield/batting coach. He kept four of Danny Murtaugh’s assistants - Frank Oceak, Don Leppert, Don Osborn and Dave Ricketts - for his own gang.
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| Jeff King - 1994 Fleer Extra Bases |
- 1994 - 3B Jeff King turned down a chance to become a restricted free agent and instead opted to sign a one-year guaranteed deal with the Bucs for $2.16M, a 10% pay cut. He accepted that he was coming off a sub-par year (.263/5 HR/42 RBI) and told Paul Meyer of the Post Gazette that “I was happy they (the Pirates) wanted me...I like it here and I wanted to stay.”
- 2002 - Well-traveled Matt Stairs (he played for three teams just in 2002) signed a one year/$900K contract with the Bucs, pending a physical (the official signing date was 12/18), and was penciled in as Craig Wilson’s platoon mate in right field. He had a strong season, hitting .292 with 20 HR despite just 305 AB, earning himself a three year/$3.55M contract with KC the following campaign. He retired after the 2011 season and joined another ex-Buc in the record books: Stairs played for more major-league teams (12) than any position player in big league history (technically, he was rostered on 13 teams but for just 12 franchises, as he played for the Montreal Expos/Washington Nationals). RHP Edwin Jackson holds the record for the number of teams that he suited up for, repping 14 clubs in 17 campaigns.
- 2003 - The Pirates lost five players in the Rule 5 draft - 1B Chris Shelton, OF Rich Thompson, LHP Frank Brooks, RHP Jeff Bennett and 3B/OF Jose Bautista (they traded RHP Kris Benson to get him back in July, 2004). Oddly, the Pirates had three openings on the 40-man roster, but GM Dave Littlefield told local media that the need to add free agents to the lineup for next season and thus have some openings was more important than keeping players the club believed would not make an immediate impact. The rest of baseball begged to differ as the five Pirate farmhands went in the first six picks of the draft. Littlefield also removed pitchers Duaner Sanchez and Matt Guerrier from the 40-man roster (and lost them both on waivers to the Dodgers and Twins) to protect Mike Gonzalez and John Grabow.
- 2021 - Indy’s pitching coach Joel Hanrahan announced that "After five years coaching with the Pirates I have decided to move on and look for other opportunities," catching on with the Nats as a farm coach. Hanny was Pittsburgh’s ‘21 Danny Murtaugh coach of the year, given out to the top assistant in the Buccos' minor league system. He spent four years (2009-12) as a two-time All Star back-ender in Pittsburgh, posting a slash of 10-8-82/2.59 with 265 punchouts in 229-1/3 innings of work, appearing in 283 games before being traded to the Boston Red Sox for his eventual replacement, Mark Melancon.
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