4/4 From 1980: Junior, JT Dealt; Mad Capper Contract; Cum Hoops HoF; Game Tales - Roansy, Lyle Gem, Sweep, Brrr; HBD Mitch, John & Martin

• 1986 - 1B Jason Thompson was traded to Montreal for a pair of PTBNL minor leaguers, IF Ron Giddens and OF Ben Abner. It ended up a very minor deal as Thompson fared poorly for the Expos in his last MLB campaign and neither prospect reeled in by the Pirates made it to the show. 1990 - After spending parts of seven seasons with the Pirates sandwiched around a year-and-a-half as a Met, C Junior Ortiz and minor league righty Orlando Lind (Chico’s bro) were sent to the Minnesota Twins for LHP Mike Pomerans. Junior’s problem was that he was blocked by the Mike Lavalliere/Don Slaught duo behind the dish and due $350K. He had some years left in the tank, staying in the AL and playing through 1994. Pomeranz advanced no further than A Ball and is now a sports broadcaster, while Lind topped out at the upper levels of the minors. 
• 1991 - LHP Martin Perez was born in Guanare, Venezuela. The Pirates signed the free-agent in December of 2023, agreeing to a one-year/$8M deal, with the Bucs becoming the fourth team of his 12-year career, with two stops at Texas. Perez went 10-4/4.45 ERA in 141-2/3 IP over 35 appearances (20 starts) for the Texas Rangers in ‘23. The 12-year vet was an All-Star in 2022, slashing 12-8/2.89 with 196-1/3 innings and 32 starts. He joined LHP Marco Gonzales, obtained by trade with Atlanta, in a rebuild of a thin starting staff which returned just RHP Mitch Keller as a rotation regular from 2023. 
• 1993 - C John Bormann was born in Danville, Virginia. A 24th round pick in the 2015 draft from the University of Texas at San Antonio, the Class A Bradenton Marauder catcher got a call to the show in 2017 for a game while regular catcher Fran Cervelli was laid up briefly with a sore foot. He got one at bat and whiffed. Still, he was excited to get a chance to live the big league dream. As Clint Hurdle said "Imagine, when he woke up today, he was going to go on a bus to Port Charlotte (and instead) ends up playing in a major league game.” It was his only MLB outing; he retired in 2019. 

Mitch Keller - 2023 Pirates City Connect promo photo

• 1996 - RHP Mitch Keller was born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Keller was drafted by the Bucs in the second round of the 2014 draft out of Xavier HS and signed for a $1M bonus, foregoing his commitment to North Carolina. He rose to the top of the Pirates pitching prospects list and after the 2018 campaign was added to the 40-man roster. He made his MLB debut in 2019 against the Reds, getting banged around in the first inning and then retiring 10-of-11 before calling it a night. He finished the year 1-5, though he did show his stuff worked (sometimes) with 12 K per nine innings. Mitch got five more starts in 2020 and broke camp the following year as part of the rotation. He had a rough 2021 (5-11/6.17) but showed his former promise after an off season of tinkering. Kell went 5-12/3.94 in 2022, looking particularly sharp in the second half of the season. He continued to impress in camp and was chosen as the Pirates 2023’s Opening Day starter. He was workmanlike, posting a 13-9/4.21 slash and earned an All-Star nod, enough to get him '24's Opening Day start, too. 
• 2000 - The Bucs drew a record announced crowd of 54,399 as Jason Schmidt lost, 5-2, to the Astros for TRS’s final home opener. Sadly, the butts in the seats didn’t match the attendance figure by a longshot even with Christina Aguilera on hand to sing the Anthem. There were an estimated 15,000 live fans on hand; bad weather postponed the original Opener and the following night's drizzly, 40-degree weather curbed most folks’ enthusiasm for a repeat visit. 
• 2007 - The Pirates swept the Astros in Houston for the first time since 1991, winning their third straight match by a 5-4 tally at Minute Maid Park behind Tom Gorzelanny. The lefty went five frames while Shawn Chacon, Matt Capps and Solly Torres with the save covered the final four frames. Jose Bautista banged out three hits including a double and drove in three RBI to lead the attack. 
• 2008 - Closer Matt Capps agreed to a $3.05M, two-year contract that ran through 2009 and covered his first year of arbitration. Capps wasn’t tendered when the deal ran out - he had 27 saves in 2009, but with a 5.80 ERA - and moved on to the Washington Nationals. He didn’t toss more than 50 innings in any season since 2010, and last pitched in the majors in 2012 for the Minnesota Twins as he was plagued by a series of shoulder injuries. The Mad Capper was selected to be part of a three-man rotating color crew (Kevin Young and Michael “The Fort” McKenry were to join him) for Bucco broadcasts in 2020, but that plan was pushed back a year due to the shortened season. 

Matt Capps - 2008 Topps

• 2016 - Cumberland “Cum” Posey, the first black athlete at Penn State & Duquesne and a former player, manager, and owner of the Homestead Grays baseball team, was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. He had been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, and thus became the only member of both the professional basketball and baseball halls. Posey, who was born in Homestead in 1890, played two hoop seasons at Penn State, then with the Loendi Big Five, an all-black basketball team that won multiple Colored Basketball World Championships, and later at Duquesne under the name "Charles Cumbert," leading the Dukes in scoring for three seasons from 1916-18. After Duquesne, he focused on baseball and helped build the Grays into a powerhouse club that won 10 of 12 pennants from 1937–1948. 
• 2019 - The Pirates blanked the Reds, 2-0, at PNC Park. It was Jordan Lyles’ first start as a Bucco, and he put up five zeros on the board. Pittsburgh stranded 10 runners and didn’t score until the seventh, when back-to-back singles and a bleeder pushed across the first run and three eighth-inning raps produced a second to give Nick Kingham the win. It was rinse, lather and repeat the next day. Joe Musgrove tossed seven scoreless, three-hit innings before Sonny Gray gave up a run in the seventh on Jung Ho Kang’s two-out double; the Bucs added an insurance run in the eighth on a bunt single, sacrifice, and Adam Frazier’s double to clinch Big Joe’s win. Bucco pitching put up a 30-inning line of zeroes against the Reds, shutting them out in three straight games. 
• 2023 - Roansy Contreras, who had put together a solid if limited 2022 performance (5-5/3.79) and missed some of camp for the WBC, won his first 2023 start by a 4-1 score over the Red Sox at Fenway Park in front of 28,842 Beaneater fans. Contreras walked one, struck out two and pounded the strike zone, using only 78 pitches. Bryan Reynolds, still wrangling over a contract extension, helped Roansy and his agent by homering for the third straight game and fourth time in five matches, tying a Bucco “hot out of the blocks” mark with Willie Stargell and Reggie Sanders. CF Ji Hwan Bae hit his first big league dinger and made a highlight reel catch, leaping high and kissing the Green Monster to haul in a Bosox drive. Dauri Moreta, Jose Hernandez, Colin Holderman and David Bednar, who earned the save, gave up one hit and fanned three to close the book. Unfortunately for Contreras, the start wasn’t predictive - he finished the year 3-7-1/6.59 after being banished to the pen in June and sent to Florida in early July for tweaking.