10/17: Postseason - '71 & '79 Champs Behind Blass & Pops; Al, Jim, Cam & Waners Sign, Banny Goes, Pud's Farewell Game; RIP Skeeter, HBD Chris, Mark, Ravelo, Pete, Mike, Red, Bert, Pop & Kid

• 1870 - LHP George “Kid” Nicol was born in Barry, Illinois. George was called up from the semi-pro ranks to pitch for St Louis (he was 19 years old at the time, hence “Kid”) of the American Association, and he began his career with a no-hitter (seven innings, nine walks) in his first outing and a one-hitter over five frames in the next. With the demise of the Player’s League that season, there were more players than roster spots around baseball so the Kid went to the minors despite his hot start. He got a couple of more shots in the majors, with Pittsburgh giving him the ball eight times (five starts) in 1894, but Nicol didn’t impress, going 3-4/6.50 and giving up 57 hits and 33 walks in 44-1/3 IP. Control issues bit him, as he issued eight free passes every nine innings. To boot, it was suspected that his performance with the Pirates was the opening round of arm problems; the Kid returned to the minors and converted to the outfield. He played on farm clubs until 1906, retiring to the life of a hubby, father and machinist in Milwaukee. 
• 1873 - 1B Frank “Pop” Dillon was born in Normal (now North Bloomington), Illinois. Pop spent the first two campaigns of his five-year MLB career in Pittsburgh (1899-1900) and he hit .237 as a bench guy. He lost out the following year after the franchise was reinforced when Barney Dreyfuss’ bought in the Louisville roster, but found a new home on the coast. He became a player and manager for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League from 1902-15, taking the LAA to PCL pennants four times. It was also there that he earned his nickname; after his decade plus of service with the Angels, his hair had gone gray and so he became “Pop.” He went on to work for the Association of Professional Ball Players of America (a charity that assisted pro ball players, including minor leaguers) after the Angels gig and was inducted into the PCL Hall of Fame. 
• 1886 - RHP James ”Bert” (his middle name was Albert) Maxwell was born in Texarkana, Texas. Bert worked 21 games over four MLB seasons, with his debut being one start for the Pirates in 1906. He gave up six runs (five earned) in eight innings. He spent seven years tossing baseballs, mostly in the Sally League, and went on to manage in the minors afterward. 

Pud Galvin - HoF Bio

• 1892 - After 35-year-old Pud Galvin retired following the ‘92 season, which was split between Pittsburgh and St. Louis after the Cards had traded for him in June, he returned home, and the Pittsburgh club and some local pro players got together for a benefit exhibition at Exposition Park to raise a few bucks for Galvin. Some of the Pirates and a squad called the “Picked Nine” of Pittsburgh-area players met, with the NL club taking a 7-6 decision in a mound battle between “Papa” (the newspaper’s nickname) Galvin and Ed “Cannonball” Morris, who had retired a couple of years earlier. The game drew about 1,200 fans who came to say goodbye to the popular Galvin and raised an estimated $3,000 as a going-away gift, a pretty hefty sum for back in the day. 
• 1892 - C Frank “Red” Madden was born in Pittsburgh. He got a sip of the bigs by getting into two games for the 1914 Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League, going one-for-two. Not much info on Mr. Madden; he was apparently brought in for depth from the Class D Ohio State League, where he played minor league ball, but there’s no baseball trail after his stint with the Rebels. Red passed away in the ‘Burgh in 1952 and was buried in Hazelwood’s Calvary Cemetery. 
• 1900 - Pittsburgh avoided being swept in the Chronicle-Telegraph Cup series by nickel-and-diming Brooklyn Superba hurler Harry Howell for 13 singles and a 10-0 victory. Tommy Leach reached base five times and scored four runs. Ginger Beaumont had three hits, and Claude Ritchey, Honus Wagner and Bones Ely added a pair. Deacon Phillippe threw a six-hit shutout for the win at Exposition Park, although the Pirates still trailed the best-of-five series two games to one. 
• 1915 - C Mike Sandlock was born in Old Greenwich, Connecticut. He played for parts of five years in the majors, with his last campaign as a Bucco in 1953, getting into 64 games with a .231 BA as a 37-year-old. He had a six-year hiatus between MLB gigs; the Pirates brought him up with knuckleballer Johnny Lindell from the PCL Hollywood Stars as Sandlock was used to catching the floater. Nevertheless, Mike allowed 15 passed balls and Lindell tossed 11 wild pitches, both league-leading numbers. Even more embarrassing, Johnny outhit Sandlock with a .286 BA. Mike finished his pro career in the Phils system after 16 years and retired. 

Pete Peterson - 1958 Topps

• 1929 - Pirate catcher and GM Harding “Pete” Peterson was born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey. He appeared in 65 games over four seasons (1955; 1957–59) for Pittsburgh and batted .273 in limited service, due to a two-year stint in Korea. His playing career was effectively ended as the result of a broken arm suffered in a home plate collision at Wrigley Field in early 1959. Pete coached and headed the scouting department for the Bucs afterward, and took Joe L. Brown’s spot as GM in 1976. He fielded strong teams in the late seventies with a championship club in 1979. Peterson lasted until 1985 before he was done in by some poor veteran acquisitions, the cocaine trials and ownership churn. He then worked for the New York Yankees front office and served as the club's general manager in 1990. Pete was let go after that gig and spent the rest of his career as a consultant/major league scout for the Padres and Blue Jays before retiring in 1995. 
• 1929 - After being pre-season holdouts the year before, the Waner brothers were among the first to turn in signed contracts for the 1930 season per team Treasurer Sam Dreyfuss. Neither salary agreement was released, but Paul (who was rumored to be on the trade market) probably inked a deal in the ballpark of $13K while lil’ bro’ Lloyd likely settled for a grand less. 
• 1963 - LHP Ravelo Manzanillo was born in San Pedro de Macoris, Dominican Republic. Ravello tossed for three years in the show, spending two campaigns with Pittsburgh (4-2-1/4.19 in 51 outings between 1994-95). He also tossed pro ball from 1981–2005, with stints in the minors, Korea, Taiwan, Mexico and indie baseball while also playing winter ball in the Venezuelan and Dominican Leagues. His younger brother, Josias, pitched for Pittsburgh, too, from 2000-02. 
• 1964 - OF Carson “Skeeter” Bigbee passed away in Portland, Oregon, dying in his sleep at the age of 69. He spent his 11-year MLB career entirely with the Bucs (1916-26), hitting .287 lifetime, with a personal best .350 BA in 1922 to finish fourth in the NL (Rogers Hornsby hit .401). He even got to play a year (1921) with his brother Lyle. Skeeter left the team after the “ABC” affair (he was the “B”) when he, Babe Adams and Max Carey staged a short-lived protest over management overkill. After a couple of seasons in the PCL, he worked as a salesman, farmer and shipyard worker, while squeezing in a couple of campaigns managing in the All-American Girls Pro League. 

Skeeter Bigbee - Helmar Oasis

• 1967 - 1B Mark Johnson was born in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mark was a good glove, power-hitting guy who made his MLB debut at the advanced age of 27. His .239 BA in three years (1995-97) with the Pirates didn’t cut it as he lost his job to Kevin Young. Johnson was an effective pinch hitter and closed out his career with the New York Mets, playing until 2002. He did pretty well after baseball, using his Dartmouth degree to become a Wall Street trader. 
• 1969 - C Chris Tremie was born in Houston. Chris got four wham-bams in the majors; his stop in Pittsburgh was in 1999 when he got into nine games and went 1-for-14 in a year that the Pirates rostered six different catchers (Tremie, Jason Kendall, Keith Osik, Joe Oliver, Tim Laker and Yamid Haad). Baseball has been Chris’ career - he spent 14 seasons in the minors and was a manager in the Indians system before becoming the Reds Minor League Field Coordinator. He put together a pretty shiny resume for a kid who was drafted by the White Sox in the 39th round (#1,100 overall) in 1992. 
• 1971 - Steve Blass hurled a four-hitter and Roberto Clemente homered as the Pirates won Game Seven of the World Series, 2-1, at Baltimore, earning Pittsburgh its fourth World Championship. The winning run scored in the eighth inning, when Jose Pagan doubled home Willie Stargell. Clemente hit safely in all seven games of the series, a feat he also accomplished in 1960 against the Yankees, extending his consecutive Fall Classic hitting streak to 14 contests. He also became the first Latino player to earn World Series MVP honors after batting .414. It wasn’t the day’s only big event: Bruce Kison and his best man Bob Moose were taken from Memorial Stadium by helicopter to a waiting Lear Jet to get to his wedding at Pittsburgh’s Churchill Valley CC (even so, the groom arrived 33 minutes late). And though it was a bright moment for the club, it wasn’t for some rowdy partiers. After the game, 40‚000 people ran wild in downtown Pittsburgh; many were arrested and at least 100 were injured in one of the City’s not-so-shining moments. 
• 1979 - In Game Seven at Baltimore, President Jimmy Carter opened the game with a ceremonial pitch (his only opening pitch while prez) and Willie Stargell finished it by going 3-for-4 with his third World Series homer, lifting the Pirates to a 4-1 win and their fifth World Championship. Captain Willie gave the Bucs a 2-1 lead in the sixth with his two-run blast. Kent Tekulve worked out of a bases loaded jam in the eighth and Pittsburgh tacked on a pair of ninth inning insurance runs to take a 4-1 victory, with Grant Jackson earning the win. Pops was named Series MVP after the Pirates erased a three-games-to-one deficit to rally past the Orioles. 60,000 fans greeted the team at the airport when they arrived home at 3AM, with thousands more lining the parkway. Baltimore, which planned a victory parade two games prior, still held one the next day and drew 125,000 for their beloved but bedraggled Birds. The game attracted an estimated 80 million people, then the largest TV audience in the history of the World Series, to tune in. 

• 1991 - In Game Seven of the NLCS, the Bravos jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning off John Smiley, keyed by Brian Hunter's two-run shot, and it was all John Smoltz needed as he tossed a 4-0, six-hit whitewash against the Bucs at Three Rivers Stadium. Atlanta won their first National League pennant since their move from Milwaukee in 1966 as the Pirates failed to score in the last 22 innings of the series. The Braves lost the World Series to the Minnesota Twins four games to three in one of the most dramatic championships in the MLB annals, with four games going into extra innings. The Fall Classic was a match up of two teams that had finished last in their respective divisions the season before, proving the “wait til next year” theory carried some weight. 
• 1995 - The Pirates signed manager Jim Leyland and GM Cam Bonifay to contract extensions. Leyland’s deal was for five years/$5M, running through 2000, while Bonifay’s was a two-year/$600K agreement carrying him through 1998. Leyland bailed out after the 1996 season, unwilling to go through another rebuild, and jumped to the Florida Marlins, with Gene Lamont taking over as the Bucs’ field general. Bonifay won the Executive of the Year Award in 1997 and kept his position until 2001 when team owner Kevin McClatchy let him go. He was replaced in the front office by Dave Littlefield. 
• 1996 - OF Al Martin signed a two-year extension valued at $5.3M per Baseball Reference to carry him through the 1999 season with performance bonuses to sweeten his $2.4M salary in 1997. He hit .260 with 36 HR in those two years before being traded to the San Diego Padres as a part of the John Vander Wal deal. Al played through the 2003 campaign. 
• 2014 - After a 29-year affiliation with the Pirates, starting as a player and spending the last five as the Bucs bench coach, Jeff “Banny” Banister left the organization to become the 18th manager of the Texas Rangers. It was, in a way, a delayed PTBNL deal involving coaches turned skippers; the Pirates took their manager, Clint Hurdle, from Texas in 2011. The Rangers won the AL West title during Banny’s first two seasons but lost to the Toronto Blue Jays in the ALDS both times. His next two campaigns finished south of .500 and he was let go with a year remaining on his contract, returning to Pittsburgh as a special assistant. The job didn’t last very long; he was released in June, 2020, as part of a FO staff reduction. He’s now the Arizona D-Backs bench coach.