3/26: Mackey-Moose, Todd-Tyler; Kuwata Retires; Two-Fer; Rumor Mill; Sandy Who?; HBD Rob, Michael, Eric, Josh, Jack & Morrie

• 1850 - P Morrie Critchley was born in New London, Connecticut. He honed his art as a semi-pro player before tossing as a 32-year-old rookie for the Alleghenys in 1882. Morrie did pretty well, spinning a seven-hit whitewash as he tamed Cincinnati 2-0 at the Bank Street Grounds to become the MLB’s first 30-year-old or over hurler to pitch a shutout in his first game. Despite that victory, he was released 10 days later; it seems the Allegheny directors had “strong reason to believe he was throwing games” per Major League Player Profiles, with their shackles raised after an exhibition contest where he was shellacked. Even with that stain, he was taken by the St Louis Brown Stockings six weeks later. He threw four complete games for them, but the results weren’t as shiny as he went 0-4/4.24, and that stint ended his big league career. Morrie remained in Pittsburgh, umpired briefly and then ran a local bar/hotel until he died at the age of 59. 
• 1869 - LF Jack McCarthy was born in Hardwick, Massachusetts. McCarthy started for the Pirates in 1898-99 and hit a robust .298. But the Pirates landed Fred Clarke, also a LF, when they absorbed the old Louisville team and sold McCarthy to the Chicago Orphans. He played until 1907 and had a lifetime .287 BA. He managed in the minors for a while after retiring, then finished his days as a Chicago courthouse employee. Fun fact: On April 26th, 1905, as a Cub playing against his old Bucco mates, McCarthy became the first MLB outfielder to throw out three runners at home in a single game. 
• 1963 - The LA Dodgers' Sandy Koufax surrendered two homers and was touched for six runs while whiffing nine Buccos in seven innings during a spring tune-up. It was not an omen - in 40 starts that season, Koufax gave up six runs in an outing once, slashing 25-5/1.88, won the Cy Young Award and earned a World Series ring. The Bucs did get to the Hall-of-Fame lefty better than most squads during that campaign, going 1-1/3.18 against him in three starts. 

Josh Wilson (Indy) - 2008 Choice

• 1981 - IF Josh Wilson was born in Pittsburgh and played prep ball at Mt. Lebanon High along with Don Kelly. As a Blue Devil, he won the 1998 PIAA Championship and was the PA Player of the Year. He was only with the hometown organization briefly at Indy in 2008 but played in eight big-league campaigns for nine teams (with three stops at Arizona). Wilson earned the nickname “Paperboy” not so much because he delivered (his lifetime BA was just .229) but as a nod to his youthful appearance. Josh was the son of one of the area’s top baseball icons - his dad, Mike, was a long-time coach with stops at Mt Lebanon HS, Pitt & Duquesne, and also was a player, coach, & manager in the semi-pro Greater Pittsburgh Federation Baseball League for more than 20 years. 2017 was Josh’s last hurrah as a player and he’s a scout for the Detroit Tigers now. 
• 1983 - RHP Eric Hacker was born in Duncanville, Texas. The Pirates got the reliever from the New York Yankees for Romulo Sanchez in 2009. He spent most of his time at AAA Indianapolis, getting a September call up and making his MLB debut on September 22nd. He toed the slab for three Bucco outings, giving up two runs on four hits in three frames. Eric got a couple more cups of coffee in the show and then headed across the pond, pitching in Korea from 2013-18. 
• 1988 - C Mackey Sasser and RHP Tim Drummond were traded to the NY Mets for minor leaguer Scott Henion and 1B Randy “Moose” Milligan, a 26-year-old selected as The Sporting News’ 1987 Minor League Player of the Year. Milligan hit .220 for the Bucs before having some solid seasons at Baltimore while Sasser caught the next six seasons for the Mets, batting .286 for NY over that span. Drummond worked 43 more games in the bigs, with a 3-5-2/4.35 line. 

Randy "Moose" Milligan - 1988 Fleer

• 1991 - CF Michael A Taylor was born in Fort Lauderdale. The Pirates agreed to a one-year/$4M contract with the former Nats draft pick and AL Gold Glove winner (2021), pending his physical. Taylor was a 10-year vet who played with Washington for seven years, then for Kansas City in 2021-22 and spent last season with Minnesota. Taylor had a career-high 21 home runs last season with the Twins, but with a BA of .220 and a 33.5% strikeout rate. However, Taylor can still glove it in center, and that was a hole the Bucs wanted to cover entering the ‘24 campaign. 
• 1992 - LHP Rob Zastryzny was born in Edmonton, Canada. A second round draft pick in 2012 of the Cubs, the six-year vet signed as a free agent NRI with the Bucs in 2023 as the club tried to gather some lefties for the bullpen. He came north with the team although his flow was disrupted in mid-April when he missed a month with a pitching arm nerve injury. In 21 games, Z slashed 1-0/4.79 with seven whiffs/six walks per game. Rob’s now in the Brewers system. 
• 2003 - The Pirates released RHP Matt Herges, for whom they had traded RHP Chris Young to the Expos in December. San Diego claimed Herges, as Pittsburgh’s GM Dave Littlefield gifted the league with two MLB arms for nada. Herges appeared in 567 games and pitched until 2009 while Young, despite a boatload of injuries, started 221 career games and tossed into 2017. The Princeton-educated Young then became an administrator for MLB and in 2020 was hired as the Texas Rangers GM, taking them to the promised land last year. 
• 2006 - The day’s hot topic was a deal brewing between Atlanta and Pittsburgh featuring a straight 1B/OF Craig Wilson-for-RHP John Thompson exchange, with the Bravos also showing an interest in expanding the talks to include Salomon Torres. It eventually led nowhere, which was an overall win for Pittsburgh. The Pirates starters were terrible in 2006, but Thompson’s 2-7/4.82 campaign for the Braves wouldn’t have helped to right that ship. Wilson hit .267 with 13 dingers off the bench and was sent to the New York Yankees for Shawn Chacon at the deadline while Torres was a bullpen ironman, getting the ball 94 times to tie the Buc record and going 3-6-12/3.28 over the year. 

Todd Redmond - 2007 Bowman Heritage

• 2008 - The Pirates traded minor league RHP Todd Redmond to the Atlanta Braves for reliever Tyler Yates. Fastballer Yates went 6-5 in two seasons with Pirates, pitching to a 5.08 ERA before arm surgery derailed his career. Redmond finally got a shot at Toronto in 2013 and was effective in 2014 after being converted to the pen. He got beat up in 2015 at Toronto and spent most of the year in AAA. 2016 was his last pro season when he was released by Baltimore in April. 
• 2008 - RHP Masumi Kuwata, the first Japanese player ever signed by the Pirates and a legend in his homeland, retired. Kuwata, who was a week shy of 40-years-old, had a 1.80 ERA in five innings in the spring but hadn’t pitched since March 18th and chose to retire when it became clear that he wouldn’t make the Pirates' opening-day roster. Following Japanese tradition, Kuwata walked to the McKechnie Field mound about an hour after the Tigers-Pirates exhibition game ended and without stepping on the pitching rubber, placed a ball on it. He made his Bucco/major league bow at Yankee Stadium on June 10th, 2007 and was 0-1/9.43 in 19 games before his final MLB appearance on August 13th. Kuwata was the oldest player to make his first major league appearance since 41-year-old Diomedes Olivo debuted, also for the Pirates, in 1960.