11/11: Torres Contract, Martin Signed, Stenzel Dealt, '97 Expansion Roster; HBD Parade - Pie, Rabbit, Kyle, JR, Jason, Roberto, Rey, Scott, Bob, Lee, George, Art, Charlie & Joe

• 1853 - IF Joe Battin was born in West Bradford, in Chester County, although some cite Philadelphia as his birthplace. Contrary to his name, Joe was a good fielding, bad battin’ guy who spent 10 years in a variety of major leagues - the National Association, National League, American Association, and the Union Association. He was with the Allegheny from 1882-84, batting .215 and serving briefly as a player/manager for a smidgen of the 1883 and ‘84 campaigns, going 8-18. His career highlight was taking part of the 1874 tour of the UK and France by the Philadelphia Athletics & Boston Red Stockings. The Americans not only introduced the Europeans to baseball, but as turnabout is fair play, also found themselves booked for several cricket matches. 
• 1870 - RHP Charlie Hastings was born in Ironton, Ohio. Working mostly as a fourth starter in the days when two or three were the norm, he put up a 11-14-1 record with a 4.51 ERA between 1896-98, appearing in 67 games (45 starts) for Pittsburgh. Charlie played through the 1904 season before spending a few seasons as an umpire. He then retired to Parkersburg, WV, where he collected bridge tolls for a living before passing away in 1934. 
• 1891 - IF Walter “Rabbit” Maranville was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. The Hall of Famer spent four (1921-24) of his 23 big league seasons in Pittsburgh, hitting .283 during his stay. In 1922, he led the league with 746 PA and 672 AB, scoring 115 times. He was traded in 1924 with Charlie Grimm (and what a middle infield that would have been) to the Cubs for Vic Aldridge, George Grantham and Al Niehaus. There are a couple of tales regarding the origin of his nickname. One is that he earned it because of the size of his ears. He begged to differ with the rabbit ears account, claiming that the young sister of a friend came up with it after watching him bound around on the field like a bunny. 

Jake Stenzel - photo via Out Of The Ballpark

• 1896 - CF Jake Stenzel was traded along with bench players RHP Elmer Horton, OF Tom O'Brien and IF Harry Truby to the Baltimore Orioles for CF Steve Brodie and 3B Jim Donnelly. Stenzel, who had a .360 BA over five years with the Bucs, hit .353 with 116 RBI for the O’s in 1897. Brodie was released after 1-1/2 years in Pittsburgh (.283 BA) and Donnelly only lasted one season (.193 BA). Brodie was re-signed by Baltimore after the Bucs let him go and hit .308 for them through 1899, and in a bit of circle dancing was the replacement for Stenzel, who had been traded to the St. Louis Browns after his big 1897 season. 
• 1898 - Harold “Pie” Traynor was born in Framingham, Massachusetts. The Hall of Fame 3B played 17 seasons (1920-35, 1937) for the Pirates with a career .320 BA. He hit over .300 ten times, had over 100 RBI in a season seven times, and was considered the top third baseman of his era. The ensuing local generations may remember him for his “Studio Wrestling” promos, when he touted American Heating with his “Who Can? Ameri-Can!” line. Traynor became a scout for the Pirates when his career ended (he held that post for the rest of his life) and hosted a radio program six days a week for 20 years on KQV called "The Pie Traynor Club" where he talked baseball with local kids. Pie passed away in 1972 and is buried in Homewood Cemetery. There are several stories involving his nickname. A couple revolved around his love of pie when he was a kid, with another explaining that his round puss made him look "pie-faced." Dave Finoli, in his “Pittsburgh Pirates Encyclopedia” (second edition), adds another contender, writing that Traynor as a youth came home covered in dirt after a day at play, and was told by his dad that he was “...as dark as a pied pipe.” 
• 1906 - Announcer Art McKennan was born in Oakland. Starting out as a Forbes Field errand boy, he did odd jobs around the park, working his way up to bat boy and scoreboard runner. Art got a job in the real world and continued on as an usher. He couldn’t keep that gig, though - in 1930, he was diagnosed with polio. But it didn’t stop him. Art was the voice of the Pirates at Forbes Field from 1948 until it closed, and then at TRS until 1987 (he did Sunday games after that until 1993 following a fan backlash to his dismissal). He also had stints with the Penguins, Pitt football and Duquesne hoops along with a 30-year career in Pittsburgh’s Parks Department. He died in 1996 at the age of 89. 

Art McKennan - 6/5/1960 photo Pittsburgh Roto Mag

• 1906 - Scout George Detore was born in Utica, New York. The infielder played in 33 games over two years for the Indians before getting into coaching and scouting. He served on Danny Murtaugh's MLB coaching staff during the 1959 season, taking the place of Jimmy Dykes when he left the Pirates to become the manager of the Detroit Tigers. Detore first joined Pittsburgh in 1950 as a minor league coach, then later as a New York based scout/scouting supervisor, serving in that role from 1955–58, 1960-63 and once again between 1969–86. 
• 1923 - LHP Lee Howard was born on Staten Island. Lee had a brief MLB career consisting of five Bucs games (16 IP) tossed in 1946-47 with an 0-1/2.25 slash. Howard was signed by the Bucs in 1942, but a three-year stint in the Navy (he served in the Pacific Theater) delayed his big league arrival. He spent 1948-49 in the minors, but after giving up 10+ hits and nearly six walks per nine while compiling an ERA of 5.93, he hung up the spikes. 
• 1954 - RHP Bob Long was born in Jasper, Tennessee. Bob didn’t have much of a big league career, but he still did pretty well for himself as a 24th round draft pick in 1976 by working 12 pro seasons. He got a brief look with the Bucs in 1981 with a 1-2/5.95 line in five outings (three starts) and then had a solid year at Seattle in 1985, appearing in 28 games and posting a 3.76 ERA. He couldn’t break the AAA barrier after that and pitched through the 1987 campaign before retiring. 
• 1956 - OF Scott Loucks was born in Anchorage, Alaska. Loucks finished his five-year, 73-game MLB career in Pittsburgh, going 2-for-7 with two walks in four 1985 contests after being signed as a free agent from the Houston organization. He spent most of this Pirates stint at AAA Hawaii. It was the last of his nine minor league campaigns, and he retired at the age of 28. 

Rey Quinones - 1989 Upper Deck

• 1963 - SS Rey Quinones was born in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico. The sometimes volatile, sometimes sleep-walking Rey got parts of four MLB seasons under his belt, closing it out in 1989 with the Pirates, who took him & P Bill Wilkinson from Seattle in late April for P Mike Dunne, P Mike Walker, and OF Mark Merchant. Quinones hit .209 in 71 games and was released outright in late July, replaced by Jay Bell. The 25-year-old infielder never played in the major leagues again. 
• 1964 - RHP Roberto Hernandez was born in Santurce, Puerto Rico. He tossed for 17 seasons and appeared in over 1,000 games. He made a 2006 pit stop in the Steel City as an FA in his next-to-last campaign and was pretty strong for a 42-year-old, going 0-3-2/2.93 in 46 outings. The Bucs flipped him to the Mets at the deadline with Ollie Perez to pick up Xavier Nady. 
• 1976 - RHP Jason Grilli was born in Royal Oak, Michigan. After signing with Pittsburgh as a minor league FA in 2011 out of the Phil’s system, the vet known as “Grilled Cheese” reinvented himself as a back-end reliever, serving as Joel Hanrahan’s set-up man before taking the closer reins in 2013 and winning an All-Star berth. In 2014, he was sent to Angels after putting up a 3-11-47 record during his stint with the Bucs with a 3.01 ERA and 12.4 K per nine innings. He’s since been with Atlanta, Toronto & Texas, and retired in 2018. His moniker is based on his name, a fondness for the sandwiches and a bit because of his favorite pitch, the cheese (a fastball). At any rate, he adapted to the persona well with his twitter handle of @grilledcheese49, a ballpark grilled cheese sandwich named "The Closer" and several community/fun events built around the gooey snack. 
• 1979 - C JR (James Rodger) House was born in Charleston, West Virginia. A fifth round pick from Seabreeze HS in 1999, JR was in the Bucco system for six years, catching three games from 2003-04 and going 2-for-10. He went on to play in Houston and Baltimore, was a minor-league manager/coordinator for Arizona and is now the Reds' third-base coach. 

Kyle McPherson 2013 Topps

• 1987 - RHP Kyle McPherson was born in Creola, Alabama. Kyle, who was a 14th-round draft pick in 2007, was the Pirates Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2011, and made his MLB debut in 2012, going 0-2 but with a solid 2.73 ERA and 1.177 WHIP. He underwent TJ surgery the following season and never regained his form on the bump, being released by the Pirates after the 2014 season and by Tampa Bay in 2016, ending his big league career. 
• 1991 - OF Al Martin was signed as a minor-league free agent after serving six years in the Atlanta system. He was called up from AAA Buffalo for a cup of coffee in 1992 and remained a Bucco through the 1999 season, batting .280 mainly as a left fielder during that time. Martin played for three more years for San Diego, Seattle and Tampa Bay, spent a season in Korea and called it quits. 
• 1997 - The Pirates announced their 15-man protected list for the following week’s expansion draft by Tampa Bay and Arizona. The players taken off the board were P’s Francisco Cordova, Jon Lieber, Esteban Loaiza, Rich Loiselle, Ricardo Rincon, Jason Schmidt, Jose Silva & Jeff Wallace; C Jason Kendall; OFs Jose Guillen, Al Martin; IF Abraham Nunez, Tony Womack, Ron Wright & Kevin Young. The Bucs risked Joe Randa, Lou Collier & Marc Wilkins and a bevy of young outfielders. They ended up losing Randa and P Clint Sodowsky to the D-Backs, along with P Jason Johnson, who was claimed by the Devil Rays. 
• 2004 - The Bucs came to terms with RHP Salomon Torres on a two-year deal worth $2.625M. Salomon tossed 172 games in those two campaigns, slashing 8-11-15/3.02 in 188 innings of work. The Pirates then got one more year out of Torres before they flipped him to Milwaukee after the 2007 season for pitchers Jose Ascanio and Kevin Hart. Jose Mesa was also getting his physical; he later signed a two-year deal worth $6M ($2M in ‘05, $4M on a club option for ‘06). He tossed in 2005 and the Pirates bought out his 2006 option for $500K. In FO action, Ass’t GM Roy Smith, who had been with Pittsburgh for 11 seasons and was in charge of scouting/player development, switched coasts and joined the Dodgers.