2/29: Quiet Leap Day - Teke Signs, AJ Bunt Blooper; Maz Still On The Outside; Grapefruit Glasnost; HBD Bligh

• 1980 - Kent Tekulve was unsigned and didn’t report to camp when it opened on the 27th after going 10-3-31/2.75 in ‘79 and saving three World Series matches. But after a short holdout, he agreed to a three-year/$1.5M contract on this date. He made his first (and only) All-Star appearance during the season, but also had issues with nerve damage that limited his workload and threw off his delivery in ‘80-81. Even with that hurdle, Teke soldiered on solidly - during the deal’s span, he appeared in 208 games with a slash of 25-25-44/2.95. 

Teke - 2003 Topps Tribute

• 1988 - The Pirates practiced a little hardball glasnost by hosting the Soviet Union national baseball coaches, who were touring a handful of MLB spring training sites, at Pirate City. The Buc brass, led by Syd Thrift, shared some drills with the Russian coaches, showed them the difference between a two-and-four seamer and even taught them some plyometrics before gifting them with ball caps and baseballs, which were a rare (and much valued) commodity in the USSR. 
• 1996 - OF Bligh Madris was born in Las Vegas. The Bucs drafted him in the ninth round of the 1997 draft out of Colorado Mesa University. He began to get notice in 2021 in the upper levels and was red hot at Indy in ‘22, getting the call to Pittsburgh in mid-June. In his first game, he went 3-for-4 (the first Pirate to have three hits in his debut since Jason Kendall in 1996) with two RBI, a run scored and a stolen base. But Madris' bat went quiet and he was DFA’ed in September, with Tampa Bay claiming him. He later was sold to the Astros and is now part of the Detroit Tigers organization. Bligh trivia: he’s the first Palauan MLB player. 
• 2000 - Bill Mazeroski was passed over by the Veterans Committee for selection into the Hall of Fame by one vote. Maz told the Pittsburgh Press that “I don’t think about it. I haven’t worried about it for 64 years.” Billy didn’t have to bite his lip to hide his disappointment for too much longer - he was finally elected into the Hall a year later, proving there is room for a glove in Cooperstown. 
• 2012 - Newly signed AJ Burnett fractured his orbital eye socket after fouling a ball into his puss during a spring bunting drill. He required surgery and was out of action until April 21st. Fortunately, AJ recovered without a hitch, tossing a seven-inning, three-hit shutout against the Cards for a 2-0 win upon his return. Not only did he go on to win 16 games for the Bucs, but the practice for laying one down paid off - he dropped five successful bunts during the campaign, although the fans covered their eyes in trepidation every time Batman squared up.

2/28: Jack, A-Ram, Bob, Homer Sign; Cover Boy Clemente; Druggies Dinged; Barney Buys Into Philly; Price Goes Up; HBD Aroldis, Aaron, Lil, Jud, Moose, Cotton Top & Jack

• 1865 - P Jack Easton was born in Bridgeport, Ohio. He tossed in the MLB for five years, closing out with a three-game (one start) stint with the Pirates in 1894, posting a line of 0-1/4.12. He finished his pro career in 1897 at age 32 with Wheeling of the Interstate League. He worked in glass plants after his playing days, passing away young in 1903 of consumption (TB). 
• 1881 - IF Terry “Cotton Top” Turner was born at Sandy Lake in Mercer County. He only got seven at-bats for Pittsburgh as a 20-year-old rookie in 1901 after a two-day August audition, but after some seasoning on the farm, Terry carved out a 17-year MLB career, almost entirely as a Cleveland Nap/Indian. Turner’s calling card was as a master at “small ball.” He was a strong defender who led AL shortstops in fielding four times. On the attack, though he only had a .253 BA, Terry was a great bunter (he laid down 268 sac bunts) and a speedy, fearless runner who pioneered the use of the head-first slide while stealing 256 bases as a pro. His “Cotton Top” nickname came about because of his light hair. 
• 1881 - OF Harry “Moose” McCormick was born in Philadelphia. Moose had a scattered five-year career in the big leagues and was an early pinch-hitting stalwart, hitting .285 over his career. He played his 1904 rookie campaign in part with the Pirates, hitting .290 in 66 games. His post-baseball career was interesting - he served in the military during WW1 and was a salesman, ump & minor league manager before serving as the skipper at Bucknell & West Point. Moose rejoined the Army during WW2, heading up the physical training program at Mitchell Field and became a director of vets housing after the war. He also wrote a coaching manual (“The Fundamentals of Baseball” in 1931) and spent two years running a baseball exhibit at the New York World's Fair of 1939-1940. His nickname dated back to high school where he was a strapping 5’11”, 185 pounds. 

Jud Wilson - Helmar T207

• 1897 - IF Ernest Judson (Jud or Boojum) Wilson was born in Remington, Virginia. Jud played for the Homestead Grays (1931-1932, 1940-1945) and had a brief stop with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1932. The Grays’ captain and Hall of Fame infielder compiled a .351 lifetime BA. He was indifferent with the glove and feisty - his Hall of Fame bio describes him as “ill tempered and fearless” - but was one of the best pure hitters the Negro Leagues ever produced. Satchel Paige gave him his nickname when he yielded a line drive off Wilson's bat that zipped by his head. After that, Satchel called Jud by the sound the ball made: "Booh-ZHOOM!" per Dave Sheinin of the Washington Post. 
• 1899 - RHP Ulysses Simpson Grant (“Lil”) Stoner - he got the nickname in his youth because his brother couldn’t pronounce Ulysses - was born in Bowie, Texas, the 17th of 18 children. Lil threw seven years for the Tigers; he was workmanlike, winning 10 or more games three times, but could never meet his highly-touted expectations. After that run, he got a brief look in Pittsburgh in 1930 (5-2/3 IP, three runs, seven hits) before being sent to Fort Worth. He had a bounce back campaign there at age 31, but failed a brief audition in Philly the following season and was out of pro ball altogether after the 1932 campaign. Stoner was quite the Renaissance Man - he was an excellent cook (his teammates sometimes called him the “Bowie Baker” because of his culinary skills), became famed for his flower-raising abilities (he was often called on to judge shows) and was an Enrico Caruso opera fan per Bob Hurte of SABR. 
• 1903 - A syndicate headed by Philadelphia socialite James Potter that included Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss bought the Phillies for $170,000 and brought in former Bucco Chief Zimmer as a player/manager. Though they sold the team two years later, ownership interest in more than one team, with its inherent conflicts of interest, wasn’t prohibited until 1910. 
• 1905 - Pittsburgh signed LHP/C Homer Hillebrand as a free agent. The 25-year-old saw action with the Bucs over the next two seasons, posting an 8-4-1/2.53 line in 17 games and batting .237 in 18 more games at first, outfield and behind the plate. The Pirates used the versatile Hillebrand on the slab because of his rifle at backstop; it was a mixed blessing as he was an effective pitcher but limited by arm soreness. Homer had to retire after a partial 1906 campaign because of his bum wing. He tried to make a comeback in 1908, but fell short. The lefty was a Princeton guy and a true 4-H’er - his full name was Homer Hiller Henry Hillebrand. 

Homer Hillebrand - 1905 Chicago History Museum/Getty

• 1926 - The Pirates announced an increase in ticket prices at Forbes Field: with tax included, box seats jumped to $1.75; reserved $1.50; grandstand $1.10 and bleachers remained the same at $.50. When the ballyard closed in 1970, ticket prices ranged from $3.50-$1 at The House of Thrills. 
• 1960 - LF Bob Skinner wasn’t happy about it, but he became the last Pirate to sign a contract on the opening day of camp at Fort Myers. He had a 40-point drop in BA from 1958 to ‘59 (albeit .321 to .280) and the team clipped his salary from $18,000 to $15,000. His pay would continue to yo-yo in his remaining three years in Pittsburgh, as he made $21K in ‘61, $18 K in ‘62 and $31 K in ‘63, before being traded away and settling on a pay scale in the mid-20’s range during his final five seasons with Cincinnati and Saint Louis. 
• 1970 - Roberto Clemente was featured on the cover of The Sporting News for the story “Swan Song?” TSN needn’t have worried about The Great One fading into the sunset; the 35-year-old Arriba hit .352, earned a spot on the All Star team for the division-winning Buccos and won a Gold Glove. 
• 1986 - Commissioner Peter Ueberroth gave seven players who were admitted drug users, including ex-Pirates Dave Parker (Reds) and Dale Berra (Yankees), a choice of a year's suspension without pay or being assessed hefty fines (10% of their salary to a drug program) plus career-long drug testing‚ along with 100 hours of drug-related community service, as a result of the Pittsburgh Cocaine trial. Parker, then with the Cincinnati Reds, and Berra, with the New York Yankees, unsurprisingly took the fine/testing/community service penalty. Lee Lacy (Orioles) and Al Holland (Yankees), likewise ex-Bucs, were issued lesser fines equal to 5% of their salary and had to perform 50 hours community service. 

Aaron Thompson - 2011 photo via Steiner Sports

• 1987 - LHP Aaron Thompson was born in Santa Fe. A first round pick (#22 overall) of the Marlins in 2005, the Pirates picked him up off waivers during the winter of 2010, and he made his MLB debut in August, 2011. He got into four games (7-2/3 IP, 7.04 ERA) and was released at the end of the year. He later popped up briefly in the Twins bullpen (2014-15). He was let go after 2015, played a year of indie ball, spent another season in Mexico, and then retired in 2017. 
• 1988 - LHP Aroldis Chapman was born in Holguin, Cuba. The Pirates signed the 14-year vet and seven-time All Star to a one-year/$10.5 M contract as a bridge man and experienced closer behind David Bednar to add another brick to an already-sturdy bullpen back end. 
• 2002 - The team agreed to terms with 3B Aramis Ramirez on a back-loaded, three-year contract extension through 2004 for $9.5M. The Bucs traded him to Chicago, along with Kenny Lofton, in mid-2003 for IF Bobby Hill and a farmhand before the big money fell due. A-Ram finished his career with the Bucs in 2015, retiring after 18 MLB campaigns with a .283 BA, 368 HR and 1,417 RBI.
• 2006 - The team and SS Jack Wilson worked out a three-year/$20.2M contract extension through the 2009 season with a limited no-trade clause and an $8.4M club option for 2010. He was sent to Seattle before the 2009 deadline. Injury-plagued in his later years (he only played 90+ games once from 2008-12), Jack retired after the 2012 campaign and now is a college coach.

2/27: Cole Train, Josias, Big Daddy Sign; Mule Sold; Posey, Pie HoF; Candy Comeback; Early Pace-Of-Play; Bucs Grieved; HBD Craig & Matt

• 1901 - So ya think that the pace-of-play/20-second clock is just a recent debate? After a Philadelphia meeting, the National League Rules Committee told umpires that a ball should be called if the pitcher does not throw to a ready batter within 20 seconds; they wanted to keep the game moving along at its two-hour tempo. Among other changes, the rule-makers directed umpires to chastise players who fouled off good pitches. This wasn’t intended so much to keep the game moving as a measure to save the owners the cost of replacement baseballs. 
• 1926 - The Pirates sold 22-year-old OF George “Mule” Haas to the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association. The Buccos had a set outfield at the time, but should have been a little more patient with Mule. After two years with the Crackers and a .323 BA in 1927, the Philly Athletics bought him for $16,000 and he stayed in the majors for 11 years. Mule hit .292 lifetime by batting .280 or better for eight of his next nine campaigns, including three .300+ seasons. 
• 1948 - 3B Pie Traynor was elected to the Hall of Fame by the baseball writers. The infielder spent his entire 17-year career with the Pirates, where he compiled a .320 lifetime batting average and never had a season where he struck out more than 28 times. Traynor was best known for his glove at the hot corner, where he recorded 2,288 putouts and started 308 double plays. He was formally inducted on June 13th, 1949, and accepted with a succinct 40-word speech. Pie stayed in the City after his career and is buried in Homewood Cemetery. 
• 1968 - 1B/OF Matt Stairs was born in St. John, New Brunswick. Matt made a stop in Pittsburgh in 2003, hitting .292 with 20 homers before moving on to KC as a free agent. Stairs was a vet at relocating; in his 19 big league campaigns, he played for a dozen different franchises. He is just one of five Canadian players with 200+ HRs and was elected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 2015. He was nicknamed “Stairsmaster," a play on his name. Matt was also known as the “Wonder Hamster.” He told Joe O'Connor of the National Post that “I have no idea what the Wonder Hamster was all about. That was from a fan in Oakland.” He did offer that "I'm short and chubby. I get up there and I'm a little guy" so it’s likely that his physique may be the moniker’s genesis. After he racked the bat for the last time, Matt worked with Boston as a TV game analyst, then went to Philly as a batting coach in 2016. He moved to San Diego after the 2017 season following Pete Mackanin’s dismissal and lasted a year; he’s been out of MLB since then. 

Matt Stairs - 2003 Topps Home Field Advantage

• 1977 - OF/PH Craig Monroe was born in Texarkana, Texas. The vet hadn’t had a solid year since 2006, but the Bucs inked him as a free agent in 2009, hoping for a bounce back from the 32-year-old. They didn’t get it; he hit .215 with three homers and was released on July 1st, ending his MLB career. A Tiger broadcaster for the past decade, Monroe is the analyst on Bally Sports Detroit. 
• 1985 - The Pirates signed 35-year-old RHP Rick Reuschel to a one-year NRI deal (it became official the next day). The FA had gone 5-5/5.17 with the Cubs and inked a contract with Pittsburgh after a bid to join the Giants fell through, with both he and the Bucs looking at a possible long relief role. Big Daddy did get into six games as a reliever, but ended up starting 85 times in 2-1/2 seasons with Buccos, slashing 31-30-1/3.04 over that time and earning an All Star berth. He was then traded to the team that didn’t originally want him, San Francisco, where he worked 4-1/2 more years, winning 36 games in 1988-89 and another All Star spot before hangin’ up the spikes in 1991 at the age of 42 to close a 19-year career. 
• 1993 - LHP John Candelaria mounted a comeback with the Pirates at age 39 after leaving the fold in 1985 and then tossing for seven other clubs. But he ran into problems quickly, one of which was being arrested on this date for DUI. He apologized, promised it wouldn’t happen again, and then nailed down a bullpen spot in camp. But Father Time had caught up to the Candy Man - he was released in early July after 24 outings/8.24 ERA, ending his career after 19 seasons. 
• 2002 - The Pirates re-signed RHP Josias Manzanillo to a minor league contract worth $550K at the MLB level. Jose had shot himself in the foot after turning down arb, where it was estimated that he could be awarded $2M, to seek a multi-year, free agent payday that never materialized. He fired his agent and told Robert Dvorchak of the Post-Gazette “I really don't understand how this thing works. I only know that I'm here. Things worked out that way.” But after two strong Pirates seasons (5-4-2/3.39 from 2000-01), he fizzled in 2002 after elbow surgery, was released in August and out of the league after the 2004 campaign. 

Cum Posey - Helmar Oasis

• 2006 - Homestead Gray player, manager and owner Cumberland “Cum” Posey was selected for membership by the Hall of Fame’s Special Committee on the Negro Leagues, along with 1B/3B Jud Wilson of the Grays/Pittsburgh Crawfords and RHP Ray Brown of the Grays. Included in the class was OF Pete Hill, who was born (or at least raised from an early age) in Pittsburgh and first played for the Keystones. The Pittsburgh posse was inducted on July 30th. 
• 2016 - Gerrit Cole signed a contract for $541,000, the same amount he made in 2015 with $531,000 in base pay plus a $10,000 bonus for making the All-Star team. He was a pre-arb player with no control over negotiations, and claimed that when he bickered for a bigger paycheck after a 19-win/2.60 ERA/202 K All-Star campaign, the Bucs countered by offering him the minimum of $507,500 if he didn’t take their offer. The Pirates FO was looking ahead to the baseline of his first arb year (Cole Train got $3.75M in 2017) and Gerrit had already pocketed an $8M signing bonus. Cole said “I understand the business of this game, but it is hard to accept…” adding he would carry no hangover from it going into the season. It did demonstrate that the Pittsburgh purse strings were tight, and Cole was sent to Houston in 2018, where he signed for $6.75M. 
• 2018 - The MLBPA filed a grievance against four teams - the Pirates, Marlins, Rays and A's - complaining that they weren’t properly spending their revenue sharing monies “in an effort to improve its performance on the field” as specified in the CBA. The Pirates were targeted after dealing Andrew McCutchen and Gerrit Cole for a pack of pups. MLB backed the Bucs, and GM Neil Huntington said “...our revenue sharing receipts have decreased for seven consecutive seasons, (while) our major league payroll more than doubled over that same period.” The grievance is still in limbo as the gulf between the financial have and have-nots grows.

2/26: Simon-Starr; CBA Agreement & Full Camp; Tossin' Tommy; Early Players Union; HBD Joe, Stan, Sonny, Vic, Preacher, Wobby & Sam

• 1863 - IF Simeon Henry Jean “Sam” LaRocque was born in St. Mathias, Quebec. Sam played fairly regularly for Pittsburgh in 1890, getting into 111 games w/481 PA, hitting .242, but after just one outing in 1891 was shipped to Louisville, where he ended his pro career. Sam remained active in the minors afterward, working as a player/manager through the 1907 season. 
• 1891 - 2B/PH Jack “Wobby” Hammond was born in Amsterdam, New York. A star high school athlete signed by the Indians out of Colgate, he got three brief stops in the show, his last being a nine-game, three-for-11 (.273) stand with the Bucs in 1922 when he was 31. Wobby showed a good stick in the minors, but mostly played at Class A. He retired from the American Association Kansas City Blues the year after his Pirates debut, hitting .300 in his final pro hurrah. 
• 1901 - After a bout of American League raids and player league-jumping, the National League suits sat down with Pirates catcher Chief Zimmer, the president of the Players Protective Association. The two sides agreed to contract concessions for NL players who stayed home, including recognition of the union, a one-year reserve clause and minor league clarifications. Zimmer promised to suspend members of the union who jumped leagues in return. The summit didn’t work; the players expected more leeway and continued to chase a more lucrative paycheck from the AL while the union, beset by both sides, folded after the 1903 season. 
• 1909 - The Pirates traded IF Charlie Starr to the Boston Doves for a PTBNL, C Mike Simon, who was sent to the Bucs a few days later. 1909 was Starr’s last season while Simon was a Bucco backup for the next five years, compiling a .244 BA and tossing out 45% or more of base stealers four of his five campaigns. Mike spent his last two campaigns in the Federal League. 

Mike Simon - 1912 T207

• 1916 - LHP Elwin “Preacher” Roe was born in Ash Flat, Arizona. Preacher worked early in his career with the Pirates from 1944-47, where he was 34-47/3.73. He started off with two strong years, but an off season cracked noggin in 1945 from a tussle with a basketball ref was followed by a pair of poor campaigns. Preacher was traded to the Brooklyn Dodgers and bloomed (a spitter added to his arsenal was said to have helped him mightily), earning four All-Star berths and pitching in three different World Series. There are two versions of how he got his childhood nickname. One story is that he was an ornery kid, and his grandma called him "Preacher" in hopes that he would eventually behave like a man of the cloth. The other more likely bit of lore is that a minister and his wife used to ride young Elwin around whenever they went out for a ride on their buggy, and he became known as Preacher because of his association with them. 
• 1930 - C/3B Vic Janowicz was born in Elyria, Ohio. A gridiron All-America and Heisman Trophy winner at Ohio State, Janowicz passed on football to sign for $75K as a bonus baby with the Bucs. He hit only .214 over two seasons (1953-54) as a bench player. He returned to football late in the 1954 season with the Washington Redskins as a kick returner and became their starting halfback in 1955. An automobile accident in 1956 ended his athletic career. 
• 1936 - Tommy Padden, a Pirates catcher, reportedly tossed a silver dollar about 475 feet over the Merrimack River and into a snow pile in front of a large crowd who came to witness the exhibition. Tommy was copy-catting the feat of the Washington Senator’s Walter “Big Train” Johnson, who flipped a coin across the Rappahannock a few days prior to duplicate the alleged long-toss (the deed is of dubious veracity) of George Washington per the New Hampshire History Blog. 
• 1941 - 1B George “Sonny” Kopacz was born in Chicago. Sonny was a AAAA player who spent 14 seasons in the minors, eight in AAA, and in 1970 was the International League’s MVP with a line of .310/29/115 for the Pirates Columbus Jets. That campaign earned him a cup of coffee with the Bucs, but in 10 games he went 3-for-16 with no extra base knocks. He spent three more seasons a step away in AAA, retiring after the 1973 season at the age of 32. 

Sonny Kopacz - 1971 Topps Rookie All Stars

• 1961 - Pitching coach Stan Kyles was born in Chicago. After an 11-year minor league pitching career, Kyles began coaching in the indie leagues and quickly got gigs with the Cubs (1992-93, 1997-2000), Rockies (1994-96) and Brewers (2001-12), spending his final three years as Milwaukee’s bullpen coach. Starting in 2013, he taught in the Pirates system throughout various levels until 2021, when he became a victim of MLB’s minor league consolidation 
• 1973 - It was a pretty good start to the week for the Bucs - the day before, the players agreed to a three-year CBA, canceling the owners’ lockout threats. With that news, the earlier camps (the Pirates included) opened OTD and it was a full house for Pittsburgh after Richie Hebner signed his contract, the last one that was outstanding. But manager Bill Virdon’s work was cut out for him - he had to replace Roberto Clemente in the lineup and locker room. The Quail couldn’t solve that riddle, and was fired in early September with a 67-69 record. 
• 1983 - RHP Joe Martinez was born in South Orange, New Jersey. Joe joined the Bucs at the 2010 deadline as part of the Javy Lopez deal with the Giants. He got into five outings, but didn’t impress despite a 3.12 ERA and was waived to Cleveland. He appeared in three more MLB games for the D-Backs and Tribe in 2012-13, then retired in 2014 at age 31 after 1,100 minor league IPs.

Camp Kicks Into Gear

Let the Grapefruit League commence...

Notes

• Mitch Keller and the Bucs agreed on a five-year/$77M extension with no options, running through 2028. He was named an NL All-Star for the first time in 2023 after slashing 13-9/4.21 and working a career-high 32 starts/194-1/3 IP while setting the franchise record for Ks in a season by a RHP with 210. Mitch’s deal is the largest contract for a pitcher in team history, and the $15.4M per year average value of the deal is also the highest for the franchise. Not too surprisingly, Shelty then announced that Keller will be the Opening Day pitcher on March 28th against the Marlins in Miami; he was last year's Opening Day hurler, too.

Mitch Keller - 2024/MLB.com

• The Bucs dropped Saturday's Grapefruit League Opener, 5-3, to the Twins. Kyle Nicholas gave up a three-run dinger to allow most of the damage. Henry Davis went 2-for-3 while looking a little rough behind the dish (which may have as much to do with the pitching as his glove) while Jake Lamb had two hits and Edward Olivares drove in a pair. They started Keller and the A Team on Sunday v the O's, dropping a 2-0 decision.
• OF Canaan Smith-Njigba, lost to Seattle earlier this month when he was DFA'ed to clear room for Aroldis Chapman's signing, rejoined the Bucs on Monday after the Mariners waived him. RHP JT Brubaker was moved to the 60-day IL to clear a 40-man spot for CSN; Brubaker is recovering from TJ surgery and isn't expected to be back until sometime around All Star break.
• BTW, the youngest player in camp this year is 19-year-old 2B Termarr Johnson.
• The Athletic’s Stephen J. Nesbitt and Ken Rosenthal caused a stir with their article (behind a paywall) describing some organizational issues with the Pirates, from coaching to penny-pinching. It caused a stir among the faithful but was quickly steamrolled by the Keller signing. Funny about that timing...
• If it's not one thing, it's another...the MLB players have a beef with the Nike new uni's; not only are the numbers and name lettering smaller, but the pants are transparent enough for peek-a-boo shows. Please, camp battles, commence...
• SportsNet Pittsburgh added four morel Pirates spring training games: 2/26 at Toronto, 3/13 at Toronto, 3/15 at Yankees & 3/20 at Yankees. The network will pick up the feeds of Rogers SportsNet (Blue Jays) and the YES Network (Yankees). 
• Well, about time: part of Bradenton's 27th Street running past Pirate City was renamed Roberto Clemente Memorial Way on Wednesday.
• LHP Austin Davis (10 outings as a Buc in 2021) signed a minor league deal with the San Diego Padres.
• RHP José De León died at the age of 63 due to cancer. He started his 13-year, five-team MLB journey in Pittsburgh, tossing here from 1983-86 (17-38-4/4.02).
• Local s/o to the Heinz History Center for being selected the #1 History Museum in the US; a big part of that is the Western PA Sports Museum. which fills two stories of the Heinz Museum building.

2/25: Womack-Boyd; Matt, Big Poison Sign; Comfy Camp; Mexican Connection; Anti-Trust & CBA's; HBD Syd, Aaron, Phil, Xavier, Jim & Phil

• 1893 - LHP Phil Slattery was born in Harper, Iowa. He got his only sip from the MLB well in 1915, doing nicely as a Bucco. In three outings covering eight frames, the 22-year-old pitched scoreless ball, giving up just five hits and a walk. His Pirates stop was in between stints with Marshallville of the Central Association, and that’s where he returned to after his September audition in Pittsburgh. Phil worked in the Central League through 1921 when he retired. 
• 1906 - Pampered players department: The Pittsburgh Press reported that for spring drills in Hot Springs, manager Fred Clarke decided to “...do away with the running in from the park to the hotel after afternoon practice. The road is a hard (and) one the players injured their legs while sprinting. If the men rode in open cars, they caught cold. Clarke will try to have a closed car held...until practice ends.” The team opened camp March 14th, barnstormed through a seven-game exhibition schedule starting April 4th and started playing for keeps with a Pirates squad who was presumably sniffle-free and with fresh legs on April 12th. 
• 1929 - Pirate GM Syd Thrift was born in Locust Hill, Virginia. Thrift had been out of baseball for nine years when he was the surprise hire for general manager in 1985. He brought in dark horse Jim Leyland as manager and dealt veterans like Don Robinson, Tony Pena and Rick Reuschel in exchange for young prospects like Doug Drabek, Andy Van Slyke, Mike LaValliere, Mike Dunne, Chico Lind and Jeff Robinson. Thrift's term ended after the 1988 season when he was fired after noisily butting heads with his front office overseers. Syd may not have been Mr. Personality, but he’s credited for laying the foundation for the team's success in the early nineties under Jim Leyland. 
• 1931 - RHP Jim Dunn was born in Valdosta, Georgia. His only MLB work was done with the Bucs in 1952; in three outings, he went 0-1/3.38 in 5-1/3 IP as a 21-year-old. He started in the Pirates system after being signed in 1951 out of Alabama, and the Pirates lost him in the 1955 minor league draft. He pitched solidly in 1955-57, going through three levels with the Bucs and Cubs, but hit the wall in AA in 1958 and retired a year later at age 28. 

Paul Waner - 2/20/1937 Press cartoon/Berger

• 1937 - Paul Waner ended his holdout after a phone call with President Bill Benswanger ended in an agreement on terms and went to camp. The salary was undisclosed, but was in the $15-16,000 range, a quite modest jump. He had made $14,000 in ‘36, a year in which he won the league batting title with a .373 BA and equaled his personal best with a .446 OBP. 
• 1957 - In a big day for MLB, the U.S. Supreme Court decided 6-3 that baseball is the only professional sport exempt from antitrust laws, withstanding a challenge from the NFL. Ever since, congressmen (mainly from areas without teams) have threatened to rescind the exemption, but baseball has managed to dodge the bullet so far. The case was Radovich v. The National Football League, and the NFL tried to sway the court to give it the same antitrust status as baseball, but the Supremes ruled that it was a matter for legislative, not judicial, action. 
• 1973 - A new three-year CBA was reached between MLB and the MLBPA. Included items were a $15,000 minimum salary, salary arbitration, and the '10 and five' rule, which allowed a player with 10 years in the major leagues, the last five with his current team, to veto a trade. The players were briefly locked out of camp before the deal was agreed upon. 
• 1981 - The MLBPA voted for a strike authorization on May 29th if free agent compensation wasn’t settled. It wasn’t, and the 1981 Major League Baseball strike, the first work stoppage to result in regular season games being canceled, began on June 12th after an NLRB hearing couldn’t resolve the long-simmering issue. It forced the cancellation of 713 games before the two sides reached an agreement on July 31st and play resumed on August 10th, with the Pirates getting just 102 games in, the fewest in baseball. The 1981 campaign was split into first and second half winners w/playoffs and the compensation issue was never resolved satisfactorily. The negotiations were so toxic that when peace returned, MLBPA’s Marvin Miller and MLB negotiator Ray Grebey refused to shake hands or even pose with one another; the animosity would lead to more stoppages and the 1994-95 strike that canceled an entire season. 

Xavier Paul - 2011 Topps Update

• 1985 - OF Xavier Paul was born in Slidell, Louisiana. After a couple of seasons with the Dodgers, the Pirates claimed him in 2011. He hit .254 in 121 games and was released in the offseason, playing three more years as a reserve for the Reds and Diamondbacks while also bouncing around in the minors, Mexico and the indies before retiring after the 2018 campaign. 
• 1987 - RHP Phil Irwin was born in Germantown, Tennessee. The U of Mississippi hurler was drafted in the 19th round of the 2009 draft on the recommendation of scout Darren Mazeroski and posted a promising minor league resume. He was called up for a spot start in 2013 but his rookie year was short circuited when he injured his arm after his return to Indy, requiring ulnar nerve surgery (he had a forearm issue in 2012 which was likely the first sign of the damage). Phil came back to work in the Arizona Fall League but never was the same. He was DFA’ed by the Pirates in 2014 and claimed by the Rangers. He made one start for them and spent his last pro season in Korea in 2015. 
• 1989 - Chuck Lamar, a Pirates scouting supervisor, engineered a three-year working agreement with the Mexico City Red Devils, following a mutually beneficial one-year option deal between the clubs. The Reds delivered Mexican players to the Pirates through contract swaps and provided scouting while Pittsburgh sent three players, usually guys on the AAA bubble, to Mexico City for the season. The arrangement lasted for 14 years overall and provided the Pirates with players like Francisco Cordova, Ricardo Rincon and Esteban Loaiza while it lasted. 
• 1996 - LHP Aaron Fletcher was born in Geneseo, Illinois. The lefty was drafted by the Nats in the 2018 draft during the 14th round and traded to Seattle in 2019 as part of the Hunter Strickland deal. He was whacked around (12.38 ERA) in 10 appearances in 2020-21, waived and claimed by the Pirates. The reliever broke camp with the Bucs in 2022 after a sharp spring performance, replacing Sam Howard in the pen after he started the season on the IL. He went 0-1/6.94 in nine outings, was waived in July and claimed by the San Francisco Giants. They released him from AAA during the 2023 campaign and he’s now a free agent. 

Aaron Fletcher - 2022 photo/MLB.com

• 1999 - The Pirates traded 2B Tony Womack to the Arizona Diamondbacks for a PTBNL (RHP Jason Boyd, who was sent over in August) and minor league OF Paul Weichard. The original deal (Womack/Al Martin for Bernard Gilkey) was scotched when Gilkey wouldn’t agree to contract revisions. Womack led the NL in steals for three straight seasons, two with the Bucs, and played on Arizona and St. Louis World Series clubs. Mike Benjamin was supposed to keep the spot warm until Warren Morris was ready for everyday action, but the deal instead led to an unsettled situation at second with Morris, Pat Meares, Pokey Reese and Abraham Nunez holding down 2B until Jose Castillo’s arrival in 2004. Boyd got into four games as a Pirate while Weichard was a teenage lottery ticket who was often hurt and in four Pirates seasons never got past AA. 
• 2005 - OF Matt Lawton signed a one-year, $7.75M deal with the Pirates. The Bucs traded him at the deadline to the Chicago Cubs for Jody Gerut. He had a solid half season for Pittsburgh, hitting .273 with 10 HR and 44 RBI before being flipped. It was his last hurrah; he played 11 games in 2006 for the Seattle Mariners to close out his 12-year, seven-team career.

2/24: HBD Hans, Wilbur, John Henry, Earl, Steamboat, Bronson & Robert; Drabek, Smiley Sign; Honus Day; Bucs A-Go-Go?; Greenberg Flick

• 1874 - Hall of Famer (he was part of the first class, with Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, et al) Honus Wagner was born in Chartiers, now a part of Carnegie. Considered by many to be the greatest SS to ever play, he spent 18 years (1900-17) with Pittsburgh and played on a pair of World Series teams, winning in 1909. The Flying Dutchman won eight NL batting titles with a lifetime .328 BA. He drove in 100+ runs nine times and scored 100+ runs seven times. Wagner also served as a Pirate coach from 1933-51 and very briefly was a player/manager. 
• 1892 - LHP Wilbur Cooper was born in Bearsville, West Virginia. Cooper tossed for 13 years in Pittsburgh (1912-24), winning 202 games, the most in Pirate history, with a 2.74 ERA and 263 complete games to his credit. He and Carl Mays are the only two 20th century pitchers who worked over 3,000 innings with a sub-3.00 ERA that aren’t in the Hall of Fame. 
• 1898 - 2B John Henry Russell was born in Dolcito, Alabama. He played second and short for the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1932-33, batting between Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston while earning a 1933 All-Star bid. Russell was considered one of the Negro League’s premier defenders and earned his keep at the dish, hitting .276 for Pittsburgh per Seamheads. Russell finished his career the following season at age 36 with the Cleveland Red Sox.
• 1907 - C Earl Grace was born in Barlow, Kentucky. He was a reserve catcher for the Bucs from 1931-35 with a .275 BA, coming over from the Chicago Cubs for C Rollie Hemsley. Earl handled a glove as well as he handled a bat. In 1932, he finished the season with just one error in 413 chances to establish a then-National League record with a .998 fielding average. Grace spent 15 seasons in pro ball, retiring in 1940 and becoming a Phoenix-based real estate broker who did some spare scouting for the Yankees. Trivia: Earl was traded three times in his career; all three deals were for another catcher. 

Earl Grace - 1933 Pgh Press photo

• 1909 - RHP Clarence “Steamboat” Struss was born in Riverdale, Illinois. In 1934, the Pirates brought Steamboat up from Little Rock, where he was the Southern Association’s strikeout leader. The 25-year-old “smokeball” artist got the start for the last game of the season and gave up six runs (five earned) in seven innings. Struss held the Cubs to seven hits, but six walks and a wild pitch that plated the winning run did him in (Bucco beatman Volney Walsh of the Press, who called him “Steamer,” recapped the game with a terse “He was too wild.”). Struss helped his own cause by smoking a two-run double. He pitched in the minors until 1941 in the Cub and White Sox systems but never got a second invite to the bigs. He picked up his nickname while playing in the bush leagues. 
• 1955 - Mayor Dave Lawrence declared it “Honus Wagner Day” in Pittsburgh to celebrate his 81st birthday and Hans held court at his house. Friends, politicos, old teammates and writers filled his living room, as did a barrage of birthday cards. It also was the last push needed to close the remaining $7,000 funding gap to complete a statue honoring him. The final funds rolled in and the Dutchman attended the dedication of his Frank Vittor statue outside of Forbes Field in Schenley Park on April 30th before passing away in December. His bronze has since followed the Pirates around, moving from Forbes Field to Three Rivers Stadium and now displayed outside PNC Park. 
• 1977 - RHP Bronson Arroyo was born in Key West Florida. A third round pick of the Bucs in 1995, Bronson debuted with the Pirates in 2000 and worked three seasons for Pittsburgh, splitting the time between starting and the pen while slashing 9-14/5.41. He’s put in more than a decade of MLB work since then, mainly with the Reds, before being derailed by TJ surgery in July of 2014. The 40-year-old came back to pitch a final season for the Reds in 2017, retiring after the year with 16 campaigns spent with four clubs on his big league resume. 

Bronson Arroyo - 1998 Bowman Rookie

• 1981 - How close were the Bucs to leaving? The Pirates, bleeding money, filed suit in the Allegheny County Courthouse for the annulment of its lease at Three Rivers Stadium after receiving relocation overtures from New Orleans, Washington & Tampa. The case was resolved when the Galbreath family sold the team in 1985 to a public-private partnership after threatening bankruptcy. 
• 1988 - The Pirates signed RHP Doug Drabek ($160K) and LHP John Smiley ($100K) to contracts, with both Drabek and Smiley in their final year of pre-arb. Both eventually made up for lost income in spades by earning multi-million dollar deals later down the road in their careers. 
• 1993 - RHP Robert Stephenson was born in Martinez, California. He was the Reds first round pick in 2011 as a prep pitcher and debuted as a starter in 2016. Spotty as a rotation arm, he was converted to the bullpen in 2019. After a steady season as a set-up man, he was traded to Colorado and had another solid campaign in 2021. He got off to a rough start for the Rox the following season and was waived in August. The Pirates claimed him, and in 13 games he slashed 0-1/3.38. In June of ‘23, he was traded to Tampa Bay and as an FA after the campaign (3-4-1/3.10 & 13 K/9 IP between the clubs), he inked a three-year/$33M deal with the Angels. 
• 2000 - “The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg” had its local premiere at the Carnegie Museum of Art as part of the Pittsburgh Jewish Film Festival. The 1998 documentary featured archival shots, interviews and songs of Hammerin’ Hank’s era. Greenberg caught a lot of grief by being baseball's first Jewish superstar, and was considered by many Jews to be their equivalent of Jackie Robinson. The film was well received; it won a dozen various awards between 1998-2001.

2/23: Martin-Vander Wal; Raul, Vicente, Randy, El Tiante, Spanky, Pud Sign; Jose Loses Arb; Russ Takes Five; The Rock On TV; RIP Vic & Bill; HBD Jaff, Jason, Bo, Mike, Hedi, T-Bone, Bill, Ray & Barney

• 1865 - Pirate owner Barney Dreyfuss was born in Freiburg, Baden (Germany). He is often credited with the creation of the modern baseball World Series. Dreyfuss also built one of baseball's first modern steel and concrete baseball parks, Forbes Field, in 1909. During his period of ownership (1900-1932), the Pirates won six NL pennants, with World Series titles in 1909 and 1925; only the New York Giants won more NL championships during the same period. He’s in the Hall of Fame as one of the founding fathers that helped steer MLB through its early growing pains. 
• 1888 - RHP James "Pud" Galvin signed with Pittsburgh for $3,000, including $1,000 in advance. The club offered the ace $3,500 with no front money, but Galvin needed the quick infusion to carry him through the off season. “Gentleman Jeems” ended up in the Hall of Fame as MLB’s first 300-game winner (he claimed 365 victories) but he was a much better pitcher than financial planner. 
• 1908 - RHP Ray Brown was born in Alger, Ohio. He tossed for the Homestead Grays from 1932-45,winning 102 NNL games, and to cement the relationship, he even was married to owner Cum Posey’s daughter Ethel. Brown threw a one-hitter in the 1944 Negro League World Series to lead the Grays to the title and pitched a perfect seven-inning game in 1945. In 1938, the Pittsburgh Courier listed Brown as one of five Negro leagues stars who would be certain major leaguers if the color line didn’t exist, along with Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige. It was pretty good prognosticating - all five were voted into the Hall of Fame, with Brown’s election occurring in 2006. 
• 1928 - 2B Bill Regan of Brookline was honored by a local testimonial at the Roosevelt Hotel before he left town for camp. Bill was in the middle of a five-year run with the Red Sox, but was remembered by his local buds (he first made his name as a member of the semi-pro JJ Coyne’s ball club from Oakland) with Honus Wagner leading the speakers list, along with the president of City Council, James Malone, and Duquesne football coach Elmer Layden. Regan did come home again and joined the Pittsburgh nine for his final campaign in 1931. 

Bill Regan - undated photo via Find-A-Grave

• 1958 - Coach John “T-Bone” Shelby was born in Lexington, Kentucky. A former big league CF turned coach, he followed manager Jim Tracy to Pittsburgh in 2006, where he was the club's first base coach from 2006-07. He went on to coach in the Baltimore, Milwaukee and Colorado organizations. As for his nickname, he told Andrew Gruman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “I grew up being called T. I told my teammates in rookie ball to call me T and some clown on the team started calling me T-Bone and I hated it. It stuck because I hated it and now I love it.” 
• 1959 - 1B Hediberto “Eddie/Hedi” Vargas was born in Guanica, Puerto Rico. The Bucs signed him in 1977 and he got cups of coffee with the big team in 1982 and again in 1984. Eddie hit .256 but without much power and he couldn’t dislodge Jason Thompson or win a bench spot. He was released in 1985, playing in Mexico & the minors before leaving the game after the 1989 campaign. 
• 1961 - RHP Mike Smith was born in Jackson, Mississippi. Mike had gotten tastes of the show by working 17 games in four seasons for the Reds & Expos and got his longest exposure as a Bucco in 1989, working 16 times and covering 24 IP. His counting numbers were OK at 0-1/3.75, but his peripherals told a different tale and that season was his last MLB campaign. He closed his career by tossing five years (1996-2000) of indie league ball. 
• 1963 - OF Bobby “Bo” Bonilla was born in the Bronx. The switch hitter spent six years in Pittsburgh (1986-91) with a line of .284/114 HR/500 RBI and was a four-time All Star for Pittsburgh before leaving in 1991 as an FA, signing a huge deal with the NY Mets. From 1992-94, Bo was the highest-paid player in the league, earning over $6M per season. When he was released with a year left on the deal, the Mets settled the contract by sending him $1.2M every season - for the next 25 years! Bobby played in 16 MLB campaigns with eight teams, retiring at 38 after the 2001 season w/a lifetime .279 BA, 287 HR, 1,084 runs scored and 1,173 RBI. 

Bill Swift - 1938 Press/Berger

• 1969 - RHP Bill Swift passed away in Bartow, Florida at the age of 60. He tossed eight seasons (1932-39) for the Bucs, with a 91-79-18/3.57 record. Swift was a workhorse, going 200+ innings and picking up double-digit wins in his first five seasons, topping out with 16 wins in 1936. He was the poster child for pitch-to-contact hurlers, punching out just 3.4 batters/nine innings during his Pittsburgh career, but giving up less than two walks per game and a homer just once every 18 frames. He worked for 11 years in the big leagues for four different squads, and was 3-0-1 as a reliever for the 100-win Brooklyn Dodgers of 1941, the National League champs, in just nine outings. 
• 1974 - RHP Jason Boyd was born in St. Clair, Illinois. He began with the Bucs in 1999 and ended it with them in 2004 after outings in Philly, Cleveland, and San Diego. Jason didn’t help himself much - he had a 1-0/4.91 line for the Bucs, broke his hand later in the season after punching the rubber when he was pulled from a minor-league game and had gotten into a couple of 2003 off-season fights. He spent 2005 in the Texas system before ending his pro ball tenure. 
• 1978 - Vic Harris, longtime OF/manager for the Homestead Grays, passed away at age 72 in San Fernando, California. Vic was born in Florida and moved to Pittsburgh, attending Schenley HS in Oakland. As a player, Harris started with the ‘22 Keystones and spent 18 years with Homestead after his 1925 debut, hitting .304. In nine years as player/manager (with eight league titles) beginning in 1936, he led the Grays to a 406-281 record, per Seamheads. He even got in a season with his cross-town rivals, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, hitting .339 in 1934. 
• 1981 - RHP Luis Tiant signed a minor league deal with the Bucs for a guaranteed $125K. He tossed in Class AAA Portland until August, when the 40-year-old El Tiante was called up, going 2-5 with a 3.92 ERA down the stretch. He was released at the end of the season and tossed in Mexico in ‘82, where he was purchased from the Plataneros de Tabasco in August by California. He appeared in six games for the Halos to end his MLB career after 19 seasons and 229 wins. 

El Tiante - 1982 Topps

• 1988 - C Mike Lavalliere, coming off a season that saw him hit .300, throw out 45% of the attempted base thieves running against him and win a Gold Glove, signed for $215K. Despite the strong campaign, Spanky’s negotiating leverage wasn’t very strong - he was still a year away from arbitration. He was rewarded when his salary more than doubled for the next year. 
• 1990 - OF’er Jaff Decker was born in Phoenix. A first-round pick of the Padres in 2008 out of high school, he put in a couple of stop-gap stints in Pittsburgh in 2014-15, getting in 28 games and hitting .214, but with a strong .371 OBP. He then hopscotched organizations and retired after the 2018 season. Jaff got his unique first name thanks to a slip of the pen; he was supposed to be named after his uncle Jeff, but the name was misspelled by a nurse and Jaff it became. 
• 1991 - 2B Jose Lind lost his arb case, seeking $950K but instead awarded the Pirates offer of $575K. Chico was considered one of the best glove men at his position, but hit just .257 and slumped badly at the end of the year. The paycheck was an improvement over the $250K he earned in 1990, and he would come back in 1992 to win his next arb battle to even the count. LHP Randy Tomlin ($120K) and RHP Vicente Palacios ($125K) also signed new deals for the season. 
• 2000 - The Bucs dealt Al Martin to the San Diego Padres for OF John Vander Wal and pitchers Jim Sak and Geraldo Padua. The Mariners had also been making a pitch for Martin since the winter meetings and finally got their guy when the Padres sent him to Seattle in July at the deadline. Martin played three more years as a platoon guy (career .289 BA v RHP, .218 v LHP) while Van der Wal lasted the better part of two seasons for the Bucs before being traded to the Giants and playing through the 2004 campaign. Sak and Padua never made it to the show. 

John Vander Wal - 2001 Cover Boy

• 2004 - The Pirates, whose FO tried to pry OF Raul Mondesi from the Yankees the year before, reeled him in with a one-year/$1.75M free agent deal. Mondesi was off to a good start, hitting .283 w/two homers and 14 RBI, when he left the team in May to return to the Dominican Republic to fight a lawsuit; he never came back. The Pirates terminated him a couple of weeks later, citing breach of contract. His game plan to switch employers worked as he signed with the Angels at the end of the month, where he tore a quad and was released from that contract for not showing up for rehab. He finished his 13-year MLB career with a 41-game stint with the Braves in 2005. He went into Dominican politics afterward, and in 2017 was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $1.3M for mishandling of public funds while mayor of San Cristóbal. 
• 2005 - John Wehner made the move from hitting instructor at Altoona to road-crew color man for Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh. He took over for Steve Blass, who decided that he was just going to work home games. The Rock only got to make a couple of cameo spring auditions after applying late in the process, but he aced them to join Lanny Frattare, Greg Brown and Bob Walk in the broadcast booth. He still serves as an AT&T SportsNet analyst on both radio and TV. 
• 2013 - C Russell Martin withdrew from the Canadian team roster of the World Baseball Classic because he wasn’t allowed to play shortstop. Both the Pirates and the Canadian team were uncomfortable with the switch, while Martin, who had signed a two-year/$17M deal with the Pirates, told MLB.com that “...I simply didn’t want to catch,” citing concern about the pre-season tournament wear and tear. He had caught in 2009 for the Canadian WBC nine.

2/22: Dickerson-Huddy/Gray; Orlando, Steverino Sign; Doug Wins Arb; Doc Deal; Off To FLA; DC Honor; RIP Howie; HBD Kyle, Tom, Frankie, Bill Baker, Roy & Boss Bill

• 1892 - Pirate suit Bill Benswanger was born in New York City. His family moved to Pittsburgh when he was five and he attended Central HS, located in the Hill. Bill married owner Barney Dreyfuss’ daughter Eleanor, and in 1931 he became the team’s treasurer. Dreyfuss passed away the following year and passed the Pirates torch onto Benswanger who became president, a position he held until 1946. Baseball wasn’t exactly in his blood (Actually, music was - Ben was an accomplished pianist, was active as a backstage presence for the PSO and served as president of the Pittsburgh Musicians Club & the Pittsburgh Chamber Music Society.) He told Vince Johnson of the Post Gazette “I literally got dumped into baseball. I didn’t know a thing about it. I was there just because I was the only man in the family.” But Bill was a quick learner and ran the club creditably before the Dreyfuss family sold it to Frank McKinney’s group for an estimated $2,225,000. 
• 1900 - C Roy Spencer was born in Scranton, NC. He played his first three campaigns in Pittsburgh (1925-27) on two World Series clubs as a reserve, appearing in the ‘27 Classic. In three years, he hit .307 for the Pirates. After leaving the Steel City, he honed his game by spending a year with Indianapolis of the American Association. Spencer then played for another decade with four other teams, beginning in 1929 with Washington and ending in 1938 at Brooklyn. 
• 1911 - C Bill Baker was born in Paw Creek, NC. The backup played four seasons (1941-43, 1946) with Pittsburgh, missing a couple of years while in the Navy during WW2, and hit .247. Baker went into umpiring after his career and worked his way up to an NL arbitrator for a season before his knees finally gave out, an occupational hazard for an old catcher. 

Doc Johnston - 1915 Pgh Press image

• 1915 - The Pirates bought 1B Doc Johnston from Cleveland for $7,500. It was thought that Doc was brought in to challenge Honus Wagner for the first base slot, with owner Barney Dreyfuss telling the Pittsburgh Press that “No man is certain of his job with the Pirates. Every place is open this spring…” Hans was 41 and it was assumed that he would slide over to cover Ed Konetchy’s spot at first after Konetchy skipped to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the Federal League. When the season started, Doc was indeed at first, but not at Wagner’s expense - the Dutchman held onto his shortstop job, playing 131 games at the position. Doc started in Pittsburgh for two years and then was moved as part of the Burleigh Grimes deal after the 1916 campaign. 
• 1922 - SS Frankie Zak was born in Passaic, New Jersey. He played three years, all in Pittsburgh (1944-46), as a reserve infielder and pinch runner with a .266 lifetime BA. Even though he only got 160 at bats in 1944, he was named a replacement All-Star. The game was held at Forbes Field, and with wartime travel restrictions creating logistic problems, the NL took the easy road by selecting him (Frankie did hit .300 that season). Red Patterson in the New York Herald-Tribune explained “Frank Zak was substituted at the last moment for (Pirate) Pete Coscarart, who was supposed to replace Eddie Miller (of the Reds) but went fishing before he could be notified.” A local sports scribe cracked "He (Zak) got a break. He thought he'd have to pay his way in." The poor guy couldn’t even get a memento of his unexpected day in the sun; he was named to the team too late to have his name included in the All-Star program. 
• 1947 - For the first time since 1918, the Pirates held spring training in Florida with the pitchers reporting OTD and the full squad checking in on the 27th. Billy Herman’s club worked out in Miami Beach, with the players getting $5 per diem in spending money, which the Post Gazette estimated as enough “for a couple of hamburgers...and a cup of coffee.” 
• 1948 - RHP Tom Griffin was born in Los Angeles. He was a first round pick of the Astros (4th overall) in 1966 and spent 14 years in the show as a swingman. He debuted as a Bucco in 1982 after a deal with the Giants for Doe Boyland. Griffin got into six games, went 1-3/8.87, and hung up his spikes at age 34 after the Pirates released him in May to clear a spot for IF Ken Reitz. Tom’s career game was tossed against the Bucs in May of 1974, when he threw a one-hitter to take home a 2-1 win for Houston. To add salt to the wound, Milt May, who the Bucs had sent to the Astros for Jerry Reuss in October, tripled home the game winner. 

Tom Griffin - 1982 Topps

• 1970 - RHP Steve Blass signed an agreement estimated to be for $28,000 after going 16-10/4.46 in 1969. With that signing, Joe Brown wrapped up his staff contractually for the spring, having inked lefty Big Bob Veale to a deal two days prior to Steverino’s signing. 
• 1980 - President Jimmy Carter hosted both the Steelers and Pirates in a single ceremony at the White House to celebrate their respective championship wins in Super Bowl XIV and the 1979 World Series. More than one cynical observer believed that the ceremony had more to do with the upcoming Pennsylvania primary than trophies. Championship showcases, thought to be initiated by JFK, were made into an annual rite by Carter’s successor, Ronald Reagan. 
• 1985 - The Pirates signed Orlando Merced as an amateur free agent out of high school at the age of 17. The Puerto Rican spent seven seasons with the Bucs, playing outfield and first, batting .283 from 1990-96 before being traded as part of the Jose Silva/Abraham Nunez deal with the Toronto Blue Jays. The Bucs also signed Luis Clemente, Roberto’s son, and that played into the Merced signing as he and Luis were friends, and the Clemente clan had recommended Orlando to the Pittsburgh scouts. Luis lasted seven games in the Gulf Coast Rookie League before deciding to join his brother in continuing Roberto’s work. 
• 1990 - RHP Doug Drabek won his arbitration case against the Pirates, collecting $1.1M for 1990 after going 14-12/2.80 in 1989; the Pirates had offered him $750 K after he had made $335K for the past season. The Bucs got a bargain even with the loss; DD went on to have a Cy Young season, putting up a 22-6/2.76 slash in 1990. The Pirates dealt with nine arb cases in ‘90: they settled just one before the hearing date and went 3-5 in those eight contested sessions. 

Doug Drabek - 1990 Score

• 1999 - Howie Haak, known as the “King of the Caribbean” by baseball people and “Big Daddy” by young Latino ballplayers, died of a stroke at age 87. Haak toiled for the Pirates from 1950-88, when he resigned after a spat with GM Syd Thrift, and beat the bushes for the Houston Astros for several years afterward. In 1984, Haak was selected as the first recipient of the Scout of the Year award, voted on by his peers. He was involved with signing scores of players for the Bucs, including Manny Sanguillen, Omar Moreno & Rennie Stennett of Panama; Tony Pena, Jose DeLeon, Frank Taveras & Cecilio Guante of the Dominican Republic, Ramon Hernandez & Junior Ortiz of Puerto Rico, Joe Christopher & Al McBean of the Virgin Islands, Roman Mejias & Orlando McFarlane of Cuba and Tony Armas of Venezuela. He also reeled in some US players, like Dick Stuart, Dale Berra, Steve Nicosia, Joe Gibbon, Red Witt, John Candelaria and Bob Veale. 
• 1999 - RHP Kyle Nicolas was born in Massillon, Ohio. A second-round pick of Miami in the 2020 draft out of Ball State, Kyle was traded to the Bucs in 2022 as part of the Jake Stallings deal. Mainly a starter who averaged double-digit whiffs per game, the Bucs flipped him to the Indy pen late in 2023, liked the results, and called him up for a September audition. 
• 2018 - The Pirates swung a deal with Tampa Bay to land All-Star OF’er Corey Dickerson, 28, who was being DFA’ed as part of the Rays contract housekeeping. Pittsburgh acquired Dickerson for RHP Daniel Hudson, highly touted young 2B Tristan Gray and $1M cash. His 2017 line was .282/27/62. Corey was added to replace Andrew McCutchen, who had been traded to the Giants earlier in the off season, taking over in left field as Starling Marte shifted to center. Marte did well, posting a 118 OPS+, the same metric as the departed Cutch’s, in 2018. Huddy is tossing for the Los Angeles Dodgers while Gray left Tampa and is in the Miami system. Corey was shipped to Philly at the 2019 deadline and has played for five other nines since. He’s now on the market.

2/21: Jose Wins Arb; Saunders, JR, Hank Sign; Groat College HoF; Walkie On Air; First CBA Finalized; Staff Saves Ernie; HBD Joel, Tyler, Ted & Jouett

• 1867 - RHP Jouett Meekin was born in New Albany, Indiana. Meekin was in his 10th year of big league ball when he joined the Pirates in 1900 at age 33; two starts and 21 runs later (half were unearned) he had tossed his last pitch in MLB. It was an inglorious end to a stellar career; between 1894-98, he had won 111 games for the New York Giants, even while pitching through a torn muscle in 1895. He left pro ball in 1902 and became a fireman. 
• 1936 - OF Ted Savage was born in Venice, Illinois. Ted played for eight teams in a nine-year major league career, including a stop in Pittsburgh in 1963, where he batted just .195. That wasn’t all that far off his .233 lifetime BA, but he made the most of his second, post-baseball days. Savage earned a Ph.D. in urban studies from St. Louis University, working at the school before catching on with the Cards as a community relations administrator before retiring. He kept his hand in the game afterward as a promoter and fundraiser for MLB’s RBI program. 
• 1947 - The Pirates finally got Hank Greenberg to sign on the dotted line. The Pirates thought they had him signed a couple of weeks earlier, but Hank instead announced that he was considering retirement. After a couple of meetings with co-owner John Galbreath before camp, Hammerin’ Hank reconsidered and inked a deal. Greenberg said he was looking for family time and wasn’t holding out; both sides agreed salary wasn’t an issue in their discussions. The Pirates didn’t give a contract figure, but said it was more than his $55G deal with Detroit. 
• 1961 - C Joel Skinner was born in La Jolla, California. Joel was Pirates OF Bob Skinner’s son, and the Bucs drafted him in the later rounds of the 1979 draft. Though he only played two years in the Bucco system, he was part of a pair of landmarks. The Pirates lost him in the short-lived free agent compensation draft to the Yankees as the first player ever claimed under that system (oddly enough, it was because the Phillies had signed NY’s Ed Farmer, but the compensation pool was formed by players from the entire league, not just the team involved.) He also was an interim manager for Cleveland, so he and his dad, a former Phil’s skipper, formed just the second father-son manager team in MLB history (George and Dick Sisler were the first such duo). 

AP story 2/22/1968

• 1968 - Marvin Miller negotiated the first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in history between the players and the team owners. The CBA ran from January 1st, 1968 to December 31st, 1969. The minimum MLB player's salary was raised to $10‚000, meal money during the season went up to $15 a day‚ and players got $40 a week for training-camp expenses among other goodies. 
• 1988 - LHP Tyler Lyons was born in Lubbock, Texas. The five-year vet was effective as a bridge man in 2015-17 for the Cards, but had a dismal 2018 and was released. Lyons signed a minor league deal with the Pirates in 2019 and opened the season with AAA Indianapolis. He was called up on May 4th. In three games for the Bucs, he surrendered five runs on six hits and three walks with five punchouts in four innings. Pittsburgh DFA’ed him on May 8th, reassigning him to Indy and finally releasing him in mid-August. He’s been with the New York Yankees organization since then, serving mainly as a AAA insurance policy. 
• 1992 - In the final day of arbitration hearings, 2B Jose Lind came up roses when he was awarded $2M; the Pirates offer had been just $1M. Chico had hit a middling .265 in 1991 and didn’t exactly live up to his new paycheck, following his arb win with a .235 BA/55 OPS+ season. The Bucs shipped him to Kansas City in the off season, where he stayed for three years before playing his last in 1995 with the California Angels after being released in July by the Royals. 
• 1994 - Former Bucco righty Bob Walk joined Lanny Frattare, Greg Brown and Steve Blass on the Pirates TV broadcast team after his final hurrah with the Pittsburgh pitching staff. Coach Rich Donnelly threw some good natured jabs at Walkie (“He’s been second guessing Jim’s decisions for eight years; now he can get paid for it” and “Maybe now he’ll get a complete game”) but Walk was a popular choice both among the team and fan base and has survived through the KBL, Fox Sports, FSN Pittsburgh, Root Sports and AT&T SportsNet eras. 

Walkie with the gang

• 2009 - The Pirates picked up manager John Russell’s contract option for the season. The sophomore skipper went 67-95 after taking Jim Tracy’s spot. "JR met or exceeded expectations in his first year as the Pirates' manager," GM Neal Huntington explained. JR skippered through the 2010 campaign, suffering through a dismal-105 loss year, and was replaced by Clint Hurdle. 
• 2011 - Seven new members of the College Baseball Hall of Fame were announced, including Duke’s Dick Groat, who became the first player ever inducted into both the college basketball hall (2007) as a two-time All-America who played pro ball and the baseball hall (inducted in July). Groat won a batting championship, World Series and MVP while with the Pirates, and in his 26-game NBA career with the Fort Wayne Pistons, he averaged 11.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists before joining the Bucs full-time. After baseball, he moved on to operate Champion Lakes GC and later became a Pitt basketball broadcaster. He passed on in 2023 at the age of 92. 
• 2018 - The Pirates signed OF’er Michael Saunders, a 2016 All-Star for the Blue Jays who went through a tough 2017 campaign (.202 between Toronto & Philadelphia), to a minor league deal with an invite to camp to compete for a vacancy in left. It ended up one of the quickest in-and-outs in Bucco history as the following day the Pirates traded with Tampa Bay to bring in All-Star LF’er Corey Dickerson, making the newcomer the default starter and triggering a request by Saunders to be released to seek a job in greener pastures. It was granted and he inked an agreement with the Kansas City Royals on the 23rd. The maneuvering proved moot as Michael never played MLB ball again, retiring in 2019 to take a coaching job in the Braves organization. 
• 2023 - Ernie Withers, a former president of the Manatee Chamber of Commerce, was shagging flies in the outfield as a guest at Pirates City when he keeled over, the victim of a cardiac arrest. He picked a good spot to drop - Pittsburgh team medical director Dr. Pat DeMeo was there with team physician Dr. Todd Franco, sports medicine director Todd Tomcyzk, trainers Matt McNamee & Casey Lee and equipment manager Scott Bonnett. They revived Withers, who recovered fully, even throwing out a first pitch a week later. Ernie afterward formed a non-profit, the Defibrillate Manatee Foundation, to provide local organizations with AED (defibrillator) devices, the tool used to resuscitate him, and returned the next spring to donate one to the club.

2/20: Smiley Wins Arb; Matt, Meares, Big Bob Sign; Battlin' Bucs; SRO Camp; Price Cuts; UA, IA Formed; RIP Joe, Possum, Bill; HBD Tony, ElRoy, Frankie, Jack, Tom & Harry

• 1862 - 3B Harry Raymond was born in Utica. After four seasons with the Louisville Colonels, Raymond came to Pittsburgh briefly in 1892, getting into 12 games and batting .082. He finished the year and his big league career with Washington, going 1-for-18. He did soldier on, playing seven more minor league campaigns before calling it quits in 1899 at age 37. Raymond was a league jumper who hopped from Louisville to Lincoln in 1891 and was given a lifetime suspension by the American Association and National League for the flip, as both had an agreement limiting player movement. But the punishment was withdrawn later in the year and he played out his final MLB season. 
• 1873 - Utilityman Tom O’Brien was born in Verona. O’Brien played just two seasons and four positions for his hometown club (1898, 1900), hitting .274 for Pittsburgh before his untimely death during a Cuban barnstorming tour in 1901. The lore around his death is that it was brought on by drinking a bucket of seawater during the voyage as a seasickness cure, but he actually had typhoid that developed into pneumonia, and he passed away at age 27. 
• 1875 - C Jack Rafter was born in Troy, New York. Jack’s big league line was 0-for-3 in one game for the 1904 Pirates but he had a career-long New York baseball connection. Jack played at Fordham and spent 13 years in the minors, staying near his Empire State home base with tours of duty at Troy, Syracuse and Albany forming the bulk of his pro baseball resume. 
• 1877 - The International Association (international because it included a pair of Canadian clubs) was formed in Pittsburgh with the Alleghenys as one of the charter teams. Some baseball historians consider it to be the first minor league; others think the league had higher aspirations and was conceived to rival the major National League. It was fairly short-lived, folding after the 1880 season. It really didn’t have much of a schedule; Alleghenys’ ace Pud Galvin tossed 18 of the 19 IA games played that first year. Pittsburgh finished second at 13-6, 1-1/2 games behind the London (Ontario) Tecumsehs. 

Pud Galvin - Helmar Piedmont

• 1884 - The now you see it, now you don’t, Union Association was organized. It only lasted a season and had two local reps: the Pittsburgh Stogies, which absorbed the Chicago Browns before folding (they were resurrected in 1913 as a Federal League team, the Rebels) and the mid-state Altoona Mountain City nine. Whether it was major league or not depends on your baseball historian of choice; some archivists accept it as big time, but most say nay. 
• 1920 - All-Star infielder and restaurant owner Frankie Gustine was born in Hoopeston, Illinois. He played 10 years (1939-48) for the Bucs, hitting .268 as a Pirate and earning three All-Star slots. Gustine later became the head coach at Point Park College from 1968-74 and operated a popular, photo-packed bar/restaurant on Forbes Avenue in Oakland a few steps away from Forbes Field that became Hemingway’s Cafe in 1982. 
• 1928 - The Baron of the Bullpen, ElRoy Face, was born in Stephentown, NY. He pitched fifteen years (1953, 1955-68) for the Bucs, posting a 100-93-188/3.36 slash. Face was the first major leaguer to save 20 games more than once, leading the league three times and finishing second three times; in 1959 he set the still-standing major league record for winning percentage (.947) at 18-1, winning 22 games in a row over two seasons (1958-59). He held the National League record for career games pitched (846) from 1967-86, and the league record for career saves (193) for two decades, from 1962-82. Face still holds the NL record for career wins in relief (96), and he held the league mark for career innings pitched in relief (1,211-1/3) until 1983. His nickname was bestowed by Post Gazette beat writer Jack Hernon in 1959, borrowing it from Joe Reichler of the Associated Press who wrote in his 1950 preseason profile of the St. Louis Cardinals: "For relief they have Ted Wilks, the league's bullpen baron...” 
• 1963 - Bill Hinchman passed away in Columbus at the age of 79. He finished his 10-year MLB career with the Bucs from 1915-20 (he hit .284/129 OPS+ in that span), was a Pirates coach in 1923 and scouted for Pittsburgh from 1921-58. As a bird dog, he signed Rip Sewell, Clyde Barnhart, Claude Passeau, Cookie Lavagetto & Billy Cox and was involved in the player evaluation chain of Hall-of-Famers Arky Vaughan & Lloyd Waner. 

Bill Hinchman - 1927 Conlon Collection/Getty photo

• 1965 - RHP Tony Menendez was born in Havana, Cuba. Tony was a first round draft pick of the White Sox out of high school in 1984 and had a three-year MLB career with three teams between 1992-94 that lasted 23 appearances. He got 14 of those outings as a 1993 Bucco. He did pretty well, with no decisions but a 3.00 ERA in 21 IP, mostly as a September call-up from AAA Buffalo. Tony signed with the Giants the following year, got a brief look in the majors and retired as a Bay farmhand after the 1995 campaign. He’s now got his irons in the media fire. 
• 1971 - Bob Veale signed his contract, valued at almost $30,000, and GM Joe Brown immediately deducted $300 from it in $100/day fines for the big lefty being late for camp. Veale had stirred Brown’s ire earlier by calling for an extension and not returning his contract to the Pirates. Veale was penciled to head to the pen after a 10-15/3.92 line in 1970 and went 6-0 as a reliever, but with a sky-high 6.99 ERA at age 36, Father Time was catching up to Big Bob. The following year, he was sold to the Red Sox, where he finished out his career in 1974. 
• 1979 - In a move called “unprecedented” by Buc GM Harding Peterson, the Pirates cut sixth-level reserved seat ticket prices by a buck (from $4.25 to $3.25) and announced Monday through Thursday group discounts in an effort to boost attendance, which had dropped below a million (965,000) in 1978 for the first time since Three Rivers Stadium opened in 1971. It helped some as 1.4M fans spun the turnstiles during the season; of course, performance had a little to do with it, too, as the Bucs won the NL and World Series. In TRS’ 30-year history, the Pirates drew under 1M fans five times and went over the 2M mark twice (1990-91). 
• 1988 - Jim “The Possum” Woods, Bob Prince’s sidekick in the booth from 1958-69, passed away from cancer in Oviedo, Florida. He broadcast MLB from 1953-82, announcing for not only the Pirates but the Yankees, NY Giants, NBC, Cardinals, Athletics, Red Sox and the USA Network. 

The Possum - undated photo via SABR

• 1990 - LHP John Smiley won his arb hearing, cashing in his requested $840K rather than the Bucco offer of $630K. It wasn’t a surprising result; even GM Larry Doughty admitted Smiley had a strong case to increase his $230K pay of 1989, slashing 12-8/2.81 while working 205 innings with eight complete games. Smiley had a so-so 1990 campaign (9-10) after breaking his finger in a cab door accident, but came back in ‘91 to win 20 games and earn an All Star berth in his last Pirates campaign before being traded to the Twins for OF Midre Cummings. 
• 1997 - The Pirates brought 70 players to spring training; the sportswriters thought it may be a record for bodies in an MLB camp. The crowded clubhouse was no problem, said GM Cam Bonifay, who planned to beef up the “B” game schedule to get the boys in action. Probably not quite as content was equipment manager Roger Wilson, who had to get uniforms for all those players. Bonfay explained that he wanted the organization to get a look at some of the youngsters, and also wanted them exposed to the MLB routine. He said after the first cut, expected a week or so into camp, they’d finish up evaluating the prospects and get to work at filling the holes in the roster, eventually cobbling together the Freak Show club. 
• 1999 - The Pirates signed free agent SS Pat Meares to a $1.5M contract. In April, they extended the deal through the 2003 season for $15M. He broke his hand early in 1999, had surgery, and was done playing MLB baseball by 2002 after a prolonged soap opera clash with management over the injury, having gotten into 240 games for the Bucs and hitting just .238.
• 2007 - SS Jack Wilson and his DP partner, 2B Jose Castillo, locked themselves in manager Jim Tracy’s office while he was out supervising practice to discuss mano-a-mano Wilson’s withering review of Castillo (poorly conditioned, not prepared mentally and overall “lazy” in the field) delivered three weeks prior during the Pirates Fest. They came out of tete-a-tete 20 minutes later none the worse for wear, though without comment other than Castillo saying he was ready to play, physically and mentally. But ultimately the suits agreed with Jumping Jack’s assessment. Freddy Sanchez took over from Castillo at second base and had an All-Star season while hitting .304; Jose found himself relegated to utility duty and was released at the end of the year, getting auditions in four different organizations with his last MLB outing in 2008 with the Astros. 

Matt Joyce - 2016 MLBPA image from Faces Of The Game

• 2016 - The Pirates agreed to a minor league deal with former Angels’ OF Matt Joyce, 31, an eight-year vet with an All Star game under his belt. It was a good signing; Joyce made the club and while he hit just .242, he posted an OBP of .403, a slugging % of .463, swatted 13 homers in 231 at bats and finished with an OPS+ of 132. He earned $1M as a Buc and turned the campaign into a two-year/$11M deal with Oakland in the off season. He appeared with eight clubs, the last being the Phillies, before he announced his retirement before the 2022 campaign. 
• 2019 - LHP Joe Gibbon passed away at the age of 83 in Newton, Mississippi. Joe tossed for the Pirates for eight years (1960-65; 1969-70) and slashed 44-46-16/3.61 in 248 outings (107 starts), beginning his Pirates career as a member of the ‘60 World Series winners and finishing it as part of the ‘70 NLCS team. He was a rookie who went 4-2 for the ‘60 Bucs and whose World Series check for $8,400 was more than his salary of $7,500. He was also an All-American hoopster for Mississippi who finished second in the country in scoring during his senior year and was drafted by the Boston Celtics. Gibbon's overall athletic chops gained him entry into the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame in 1979, the Ole Miss Athletic Hall of Fame in 1988, and in 2009, he was honored as a member of the Ole Miss Men’s All-Century Basketball Team. He was also referred to as “Old Hickory” in recognition of his hometown of Hickory, Mississippi.