10/18: Cash-Brett; Groat Day, Coach Flip, Banged-Up Bucs, '60 All-Stars, DR Tour, Tele Cup; HBD Osvaldo, Garrett, Andy, George, Phil, Frenchy, Hans & Cliff

• 1859 - OF Cliff Carroll was born in Clay Grove, Iowa. Cliff closed out the first half of his career in 1888 with Pittsburgh, playing in five games and going 0-for-20. He was playing through some health issues and missed a season after a brief retirement to his farm. He played for four more campaigns, three quite solidly, before retiring with 11 years in the show. Cliff also influenced the design of baseball jerseys. In his day, the shirts had a pocket, and he had a ball that took a bad hop and got stuck in his. It caused him a bit of embarrassment on the field and his owner fined him over the misplay, leading to some bitterness between the club and Carroll. The quirky incident led his squad, the St. Louis Browns, to eliminate the pocket from their uniforms and the rest of the league followed suit. It wasn’t his only moment - earlier in his career, Carroll had been shot at by a fan he had squirted with a hose during pregame warmups (apparently a case of heckling repaid with horseplay). The retaliatory bullet missed him and grazed SS Joe Mulvey, who was fortunately just scratched by the slug. 
• 1881 - IF John “Hans” Lobert was born in Wilmington, Delaware. His family moved to Pittsburgh (Lobert went to Carnegie Tech) and he played for the semi-pro Pittsburgh Athletic Association nine, but went unnoticed until the PAA was playing in Atlantic City at the same time Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss was vacationing there. He signed Lobert for a September 1903 audition when the team was running away with the pennant. He played everywhere, but the biggest impression he made was on Honus Wagner, who dubbed Lobert “Hans Number Two” with the pair remaining tight friends throughout their lives. Lobert went to the minors for a year of seasoning, then spent the next 13 campaigns in the show with four different clubs, hitting .274 with 361 stolen bases. He was especially noted for his fleet feet; he once defeated Jim Thorpe in a 100-yard dash. Hans #2 retired at the age of 35 in 1917, led West Point baseball for eight years, coached/managed the Phils for a season and then scouted until he passed away at the age of 86. 
• 1886 - RHP George “Frenchy” LeClaire was born in Milton, Vermont. He spent his career largely with the Pittsburgh Rebels of the outlaw Federal League from 1914-15, posting a line of 6-4/3.81 in 36 games, 10 as a starter. After starting 1915 with the Rebels, he finished the campaign pitching for Buffalo and Baltimore. When the league folded, Frenchy’s major league career came to an end. He died young at the age of 31, a victim of the 1918 flu pandemic. 

Hans II & Hans - 1938 Transcendental Graphics/Getty

• 1894 - RHP Phil Morrison was born in Rockport, Indiana. His MLB career consisted of one appearance lasting two-thirds of an inning (it was scoreless) for the Pirates in 1921, but with that outing he became one of the early Pirate family acts, joining his brother, pitcher “Jughandle Johnny” Morrison, on that season’s stat sheet. Phil was considered a top prospect with a good curve like his brother, but the Buc staff was loaded and he was an odd man out though he posted some strong minor league numbers. At 25, he retired to his wife and family in Kentucky and worked as a blacksmith while tossing semi-pro ball. 
• 1900 - The Brooklyn Superbas won the best-of-five Chronicle-Telegraph Cup three games to one with a 4-1 victory at Exposition Park as Iron Joe McGinnity bested Sam Leever. The series was a challenge match sponsored by the Pittsburgh Chronicle-Telegraph (bought by the Pittsburgh Press in 1924) between the top two National League teams in an era before post-season games. It was a fruitful learning experience for the runner-up Pirates, which went on to win the next three Senior Circuit pennants and played in the first World Series in 1903. The Brooklyn club couldn’t build off its ‘00 success - they didn't win another playoff set until 1955, when they claimed the World Series title as the Dodgers. 
• 1946 - The Pirates bought 40-year-old righty reliever/spot starter Art Herring from the Brooklyn Dodgers for an undisclosed cash amount as manager Billy Herman, who had played alongside him, thought the vet would help solidify the bullpen after slashing 17-10-8/3.43 from 1944-46. Alas, age and the return to action of WW2’s soldier ballplayers limited him to 10-1/3 innings of work and an 8.44 ERA, earning Art a June release that ended his big league career. 
• 1949 - OF George Hendrick was born in Los Angeles. The Pirates got him as part of the John Tudor deal with the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1984 off season, but Hendrick hit just .230 with two homers in ‘85 and was sent to the California Angels at the deadline. He was nicknamed "Silent George" because he rarely spoke to the media and “Jogging George” for his sometimes leisurely outfield play. After his 18-year, six teams career ended, he landed coaching gigs with the Cards, Dodgers, Angels and Tampa Bay, where he still works as an advisor to the GM. 

George Hendrick - 1985 Topps Traded

• 1951 - LHP Andy Hassler was born in Texas City, Texas. The veteran Hassler signed a six-year/$750K contract with the Bucs in 1979. Andy lasted for six outings and a 3.86 ERA before he was sold to California in June, where he strung together three solid campaigns with the Haloes. He mostly struggled his last final seasons with the Angels and Cards, retiring after his agreement expired after the 1985 campaign to end a 14-year career. He became a ranch manager in Arizona. 
• 1960 - Four Pirates were named to the United Press All-Star team: RHP Vern Law, SS Dick Groat, 2B Bill Mazeroski and RF Roberto Clemente. It capped a huge campaign for Groat, who won the batting title by hitting .325 and was the NL’s MVP. Law was a 20-game and Cy Young winner, Maz was a World Series hero and Roberto hit .314 with 16 HR in his breakout campaign. All four had been regular season All-Stars, with Maz and Arriba eventually elected into the HoF. 
• 1960 - Cause and effect: a little blowback from Maz’s home run took place when New York let go of manager Casey Stengel, supposedly because he had passed the newly mandated Yankee mandatory retirement age of 65. He was replaced by Ralph Houk. The Ol’ Perfesser, who amassed a 1149-696 (.623) record while capturing 10 AL pennants and seven World Series Championships in his 12 years at the Big Apple helm, said "Resigned, fired, quit, discharged, use whatever you damn please. I'll never make the mistake of being seventy again." His Fall Classic counterpart, Danny Murtaugh (The Whistling Irishman was just 42 years old), still had 11 seasons to go as bossman (with a couple of service breaks) and another World Series title yet to be added to his Pirates resume. 
• 1967 - The Pirates began a five-game goodwill tour of the Dominican Republic against a team of barnstorming major leaguers, with youth baseball clinics scheduled between the matches. And it was purely a goodwill tour - the players received daily expenses but no salary, and all the game proceeds went to the Dominican Development Foundation, which were matched by the Pan-American Foundation, to help fund building projects like schools in the DR. 

Cash-Brett deal - 10/19/1973 Post Gazette/Charley Feeney

• 1973 - The Pirates shipped 2B Dave Cash to Philadelphia in exchange for LHP Ken Brett. Cash was being phased out for Rennie Stennett, but still had seven years and three All-Star games left in him. Brett went 22-14/3.32 for Pittsburgh in two seasons and made an All-Star team before an elbow injury slowed him down, and like Cash, Ken still had a long shelf life. He pitched for seven more seasons after leaving the Pirates, although he wasn’t really effective again after 1976. 
• 1979 - Chuck Tanner returned to hometown New Castle 12 hours after the Pirates had won the World Series in Baltimore to bury his mom. She had passed away before Game 5 with the Pirates down three games to one, and Chuck told his players in the hushed locker room before the contest that "My mother is a great Pirates fan. She knows we're in trouble, so she went upstairs to get some help." Tanner was close to his mom, but he insisted on managing through the series because he knew she would have wanted him to see it through. 
• 1979 - Congressman Doug Walgren ate high off the hog thanks to the Pirates World Series win. Maryland congresswoman Barbara Mikulski paid off her losing Baltimore bet with crabs, sausage and pastries while Ohio rep Tom Luken brought in some Cincinnati chili dogs after being dunned for the Reds NLCS defeat. Walgren sported a Pirates cap all day, and his phone’s background music played “We Are Fam-A-Lee.” Senator Richard Schweiker also got in on the gambling action and his winning bet was rewarded with a regional delicacy, Maryland beaten biscuits, by Terp lawmaker Charles Mathias. 
• 1983 - LHP Garrett Olson was born in Fresno, California. He tossed for Pittsburgh in 2011 after being claimed from Seattle and in 4-1/3 IP allowed just a run. It wasn’t enough to help his cause; he was sent down to Indy, where they stretched him back into a starter (he was in the rotation for Baltimore, his original club before being sent to the pen by the Mariners). Garrett got one more MLB appearance with the Mets in 2012, spent the following year in Korea and hung ‘em up at age 29. He’s now a mechanical engineer, his major at Cal Poly-San Luis Obispo. 

Osvaldo Bido - 2024 Topps

• 1995 - RHP Osvaldo Bido was born in Los Hidalgos, Dominican Republic. He was signed in 2017 and was a solid starter in the lower levels, but took his lumps in Altoona and Indy. Bido pitched for the 2021 Dominican national team in the Olympic qualifiers, but didn’t go to the games, instead returning to the minors. He was called up in 2023 when injuries thinned the Pirates staff. Osvaldo was a starter/bulk innings arm, posting a 2-5/5.86 line (w/a 4.10 FIP) in 16 outings. He went to Oakland as a free agent in ‘24, starting out in AAA before getting a June callup and breaking into the rotation before an injury laid him up in September. 
• 2001 - Bad news for Bucco pitchers continued to pile up as RHP Bobby Bradley, the Pirates #1 pick (8th overall) in the 1999 draft, had surgery for a torn elbow ligament. He joined big league hurlers Kris Benson, Ryan Vogelsong and Francisco Cordova on the DL as guys who needed reconstructive elbow surgeries. Bradley missed the 2002 season and never tossed in the majors while Benson returned in May, and though he lasted six more big league seasons, he never posted an ERA under 4.00. Vogelsong sat out 2002, then pitched four more years with Pittsburgh, posting a 5.87 ERA before going to Japan and later, the Giants. Francisco never appeared in the major leagues again. 
• 2009 - IF coach Perry Hill and the Pirates couldn’t reach a contract deal, and the respected infield tutor left, reappearing in 2011 with Miami and has coached Seattle's basemen since 2019. On the same day, longtime Pirates minor league pitching coach Ray Searage was promoted to assistant pitching coach of the big team, working in tandem with main man Joe Kerrigan. He was named to Kerrigan’s position in 2010 when Clint Hurdle replaced John Russell. Searage lasted through 2019, when he was given the heave-ho along with skipper Hurdle and replaced by Derek Shelton’s choice, Oscar Marin from the Texas Rangers staff. 
• 2019 - The Westmoreland County Commissioners declared it “Dick Groat Day.” They celebrated at Totteridge Golf Club in Hempfield, following the round with the proclamation presentation and then a feed of the Pitt-Syracuse football game to incorporate two of the 88-year-old’s favorites, Pitt (w/Pitt-Greensburg as a prominent sponsor of the event) and golf.