12/30: Babe-for-Babe; Torres, Thomas Sign; Mission #2; RIP Rex; HBD Tyler, Sean, Jim & Ovid

• 1888 - LF Ovid Nicholson was born in Salem, Indiana. Ovid had a six-game MLB career, and showed a nice stick as a 24-year-old rookie, going 5-for-11 with a walk during the last two weeks of September, 1912. He was a good contact hitter and speedster (he once stole 110 bases during a minor league season) but never got another shot at the show. He left baseball after the 1917 season to join the service, got married the following year and, except for one campaign in the 20s as a player/manager, lived out his life as a businessman. 
• 1890 - IF Jim Viox was born in Lockland, Ohio. Viox played from 1912-16, starting at second base from 1913-15. His five-year career was spent as a Bucco, and he put up a .272 lifetime BA. The Buc infielder had a good eye, drawing 100 more walks during his career than strikeouts. He left during the purge of 1916, when the Bucs, in a downward spiral since 1912, made major changes to the roster (it didn't help - the Pirates weren’t a contending club again until the 1920s). In a 506-game career, Viox had a .361 OBP, countered by *ouch* a minus-114 defensive runs rating per Total Baseball. He never played MLB ball again and became a minor league player/manager, including skippering the 21-year-old Pie Traynor at Portsmouth of the Class B Virginia League. 
• 1943 - The Phillies traded 1B Babe Dahlgren to the Pirates for C Babe Phelps and cash. Dahlgren hit .271 with 176 RBI in his two-year stay with the Bucs. “Well traveled” described Dahlgren to a tee as he played for eight teams in his 12-year career, and he was best known as the player who replaced Lou Gehrig in 1939. The deal was a win for Pittsburgh as Phelps, 34, never played again after the trade (he had gone on-and-off the voluntary retired list since 1941). He had logged a solid career, though, being named to the NL All-Star Team from 1938-40 while his .367 batting average in 1936 for Brooklyn remains the highest for any catcher of the modern era. Babe was a nickname given to oversized (or baby-faced) players. Dahlgren at 190 pounds was just large. But Phelps was a 6’ 2” jumbo who tipped the scales at 235 lbs. with a stance and swing, not to mention physique, that were similar to Babe Ruth’s. He also answered to a second, less kindly moniker later in his career: “Blimp.” The trigger for the deal was Uncle Sam; the Pirates All-Star first sacker Elbie Fletcher was drafted, creating a hole at first until his return in ‘46. 

Frank Thomas - 1954 Dan Dee

• 1953 - 3B Frank Thomas, who bickered with Branch Rickey over salary as a matter of habit, was the first Bucco to sign his contract for 1954. After batting .255 with 30 homers and 102 RBI, his new salary was undisclosed but guesstimated to have doubled from $6,000 to $12,500. 
• 1985 - RHP Sean Gallagher was born in Boston. He came to Pittsburgh in July of 2010 from San Diego and was given every chance to show his stuff during 31 outings, but the impression he left wasn’t the one he wanted as he finished with a 6.03 ERA, 1.748 WHIP, 5.8 walks per nine and the only two balks of his big-league career. He was sent to Indy in 2011, and though he later landed minor league deals with the Reds and Rox, 2010 was the last of his four MLB campaigns. 
• 1989 - LHP Tyler Anderson was born in Las Vegas Valley, Nevada and was a Rox first-rounder (#20 pick) in the 2011 draft. He signed with the Pirates in February, 2021 after working five seasons for the Rockies and Giants, posting a 22-27/4.65 line with the contradictory rep as a ground ball guy who was susceptible to the long ball. Anderson also came with an injury history (2018 was the only year he made 20+ starts until ‘21), but had a healthy spring. Tyler went 5-8/4.35 for the Pirates and was sent to Seattle for two minor league guys at the deadline, C Carter Bins & RHP Joaquin Tejada. He then signed with the Dodgers in 2022 for $8M and was worth it, posting a line of 15-5/2.57. He moved crosstown this season, agreeing to a three-year/$39M deal with the Los Angeles Angels. 
• 2001 - The Pirates signed RHP 29-year-old Salomon Torres as a minor league free agent. He had retired after the 1997 campaign to coach, but came back after a successful year in Korea and the Dominican. Torres started a six-year run in Pittsburgh after spending most of the year in AAA Nashville, appearing in 358 games while posting a solid slash of 26-28-29/3.63 as a Buc, covering everything from starter to closer, before being flipped to the Brewers. 

Solly - 2003 Upper Deck 40 Man

• 2004 - Pirate bird dog and later scouting director Rex Bowen passed away in New Smyrna, Florida, at age 94. After a minor league playing and managing career, Rex scouted for the Pirates from 1950-1967 (the last 12 years as director) after starting out with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He signed Bill Mazeroski, Maury Wills, Dick Groat, Bruce Dal Canton, Gene Freese and George Freese among others. He later joined the Reds as special assistant to the GM and consultant. In 2000, Baseball America named him one of the top 10 scouts of the 20th Century. 
• 2004 - Per BR Bullpen: Aid originally destined for Nicaragua to commemorate the anniversary of Roberto Clemente's tragic flight 32 years ago, was sent instead to the earthquake and tsunami victims of the Pacific Rim. Roberto Clemente Jr., who with the help of the Project Club Clemente, collected two tons of supplies and raised nearly $20,000 in efforts to reenact his father's unfinished mission, decided to postpone that symbolic flight and instead diverted the relief to help those in immediate need. Junior didn’t forget his original task - he raised another planeload of relief aid for Nicaragua that he delivered on 12/31 of 2005.