12/16: Daniels - Shantz, Todd - Mueller, Santiago Deal, Luke, GI Jones, Pete & Candy Sign, Hot Stove, '02 Rule 5 Losses, Shelty's Staff, Club News; HBD BDLC, Jeff, Rick, Steamboat Bill & Fred

• 1876 - OF Fred Crolius was born in Jersey City, New Jersey. He went straight from college to the Boston Beaneaters in 1902 and got into nine games as a Pirate in 1902, batting .263. His pro career was short-lived; the Bucs sent him back down and Fred was banned from the majors in 1906 after a messy contract dispute with Toronto. But he had a Plan B. Fred was also a star halfback for Dartmouth, and in 1901 he played football for the Homestead Library & Athletic Club (the Carnegie Steel squad), then the following season was a halfback on the Pittsburgh Stars, a member of the first National Football League (and suspected of being financed by baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates). Fred also coached college football clubs - in 1899, he was the head coach for the Bowdoin College gridders and in 1902, Crolius was the boss man of the WUP (Western University of Pennsylvania, now Pitt) eleven. He then headed east toward Philly and coached Villanova football from 1904-11 and the Wildcat baseball team from 1905-11. 
• 1886 - LHP William "Steamboat Bill" Otey was born in Dayton, Ohio. He was the ace of the Norfolk Tars of the Virginia League, winning 69 games from 1906-09, but the results didn’t carry over to the bigs. Otey hurled for the Pirates in 1907 (0-1/4.41 in three games) and the Washington Senators in 1910-11, going a combined 1-5/5.01 in 24 games. He finished his career with the Dayton Veterans of the Central League, retiring at age 27 following the 1914 season. We’re uncertain as to the origin of his nickname, but we are willing to venture a guess it was associated with the 1911 hit tune “Steamboat Bill,” later to become a movie. 
• 1938 - The Boston Bees traded catcher Ray Mueller to the Pirates for C Al Todd and OF Johnny Dickshot. Todd had a couple of good seasons left, while Dickshot wouldn’t hit his prime until his last two campaigns in 1944-45 for the White Sox. “Iron Man” Mueller (he picked up his nickname in the early forties after catching 233 consecutive games for the Reds) played 90 games in two years with Pittsburgh as a reserve catcher, hitting .269. Factoid: Mueller was from Pittsburg - Pittsburg, Kansas, a coal mining hub that was named after our fair town. 

Ray Mueller - undated George Burke photo

• 1956 - Coach Rick Sofield was born in Cheyenne, Wyoming. He was a #1 draft pick and outfielder for the Twins, worked in the minors (he was the Pirates' minor league field coordinator in 2002) and managed in college. Sofield was brought back to the Pirate fold by long-time bud Clint Hurdle, managing at West Virginia for a season before joining the big league staff in 2013. After a barrage of ill-advised windmills at third base and several team basepath gaffes - he also coached the runners - Sofield was released after the 2016 campaign. Rick, at last check, was the skipper of the Hilton Head Prep School nine in South Carolina. 
• 1959 - Joe Brown told Jack Herndon of the Post Gazette that he had tried to swing a deal for a power-hitting outfielder with no luck after making offers for Roger Maris, Al Kaline, Harmon Killebrew and Rocky Colavito. Brown said all the proposals were straight player deals (the players offered were unnamed), and that the Bucs didn’t sweeten the pot with cash. Of the big boppers he coveted, two were moved - Colavito went from Cleveland to Detroit and Maris from KC to the NYY, while Killebrew and Kaline stayed at home. 
• 1960 - The Bucs sent UT Harry Bright, 1B RC Stevens and RHP Bennie Daniels to the expansion Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers) for veteran curveballer LHP Bobby Shantz. GM Joe Brown told Post Gazette writer Jack Hernon that “Shantz gives the Pirates the finest bullpen in baseball...along with Roy Face, Clem Labine and Fred Green.” Shantz, 35, lasted a year in Pittsburgh before being lost to the Houston Colt .45s in the 1961 expansion draft. He slashed 6-3-2/3.22 in 43 games with the Pirates and continued to toss fairly effectively afterward, lasting until the end of the 1964 season. Shantz won 24 games in 1952 as a starter for the Philadelphia Athletics and was voted the AL MVP, but arm injuries drove him from the rotation to the bullpen. Daniels was a useful swingman in Washington for several seasons, Bright had one strong campaign in 1962 for the Sens (.273, 17 HR, 67 RBI) before retiring in 1965, while Stevens hit .129 and was released in June, marking the end of his MLB career. 
• 1969 - The Niagara Falls Pirates were granted a franchise in the New York-Penn League. The short season club remained a Bucco farm until 1977, with guys like Dale Berra, Miguel Dilone, Mike Edwards, Al Holland, Omar Moreno, Ed Ott and Rod Scurry passing through. It lasted until 1988 as a Tigers and White Sox affiliate before the team moved to Jamestown. 

Jeff Granger - 1997 Fleer

• 1971 - LHP Jeff Granger was born in San Pedro, California. Granger had a powerful two-sport arm: he was a quarterback for Texas A&M and was also a pretty fair pitcher, breaking Roger Clemens Southwest Conference strikeout record. The first-round pick of KC in 1993 had four fairly quick stops in the majors, spending three years with the Royals (18 appearances) and getting his final nine calls as a Bucco in 1997 (0-1/18.00), walking eight and giving up three long balls in five frames. The Pirates sent him down and he spent the next three seasons struggling in the minor leagues, pitching for five clubs in four organizations and retiring after a stint playing with the indie Long Island Ducks. 
• 1986 - It was good news, bad news for Bucco finances after its first year under the private-public partnership owner model. The good news is that they cut their $9.3M losses in 1985 by a quarter; the bad news was that they still leaked $7M, of which $3M was dead money lost via trades and player releases. Pittsburgh Associates president Mac Prine said “The general consensus is that they (the board members) were very satisfied with the progress made...” 
• 1992 - After burning his bridges with the Bucs in 1985 and being sent to California, John Candelaria signed a free agent deal worth $760K with the team he started out with as a 21-year-old. The reunion didn’t work out very well. It started poorly when he was busted for a DUI while in camp and continued along that path as he was ineffective from the pen during the campaign, slashing 0-3-1/8.24. Candy Man was finally released in July, ending his 19-year MLB career. The lefty finished his 12 years as a Bucco with a line of 124-87-16/3.17/117 ERA+, posting a no-hitter, a 20-win campaign and earning one All-Star berth in Pittsburgh. 
• 1996 - OF Byran De La Cruz was born in Santo Domingo Este, Dominican Republic. He was signed as an international FA in 2013 by Houston, was traded to Miami in 2021 and then dealt to the Pirates in 2024 for Bradenton UT Garrett Forrester and DSL RHP Jun-Seok Shim. In his time in Florida, DLC produced at a .250 BA/20 HR rate as a corner outfielder and although his defensive skills weren’t Golden Glove stuff, he checked the box for a middle-of-the-order bat for the Pirates. He joined the team the day after the trade and was slotted into right field. His audition didn't go well; he hit .200 with three HRs in 44 games and was let go, signing a split contract with the Atlanta Braves.

Pete Schourek - Vincent Laforet/Getty

• 1998 - The Pirates signed free agent LHP Pete Schourek to a two-year/$4M contract after he went 8-9/4.43 for Houston and Boston in hopes that he would replace Jon Lieber in the rotation. He was the Cy Young runner-up to Greg Maddux in 1995 after going 18-7 for the Reds, but various injuries limited his effectiveness, and he never won more than eight games after that breakout ‘95 season. It didn’t get better; he went 4-7/5.34 for the Bucs and was released at the start of the 2000 season, with Pittsburgh eating $2M of his deal. He won four more games for Boston and ended his 11-year MLB career after the 2001 season. 
• 2002 - The Rule 5 Draft took RHP DJ Carrasco (KC), C Ronny Paulino (also by the Royals) and RHP Chris Spurling (Atlanta) from the Pirates, who claimed RHP Matt Roney from the Rox and sold him to the Detroit Tigers on the same day. Carrasco tossed for eight MLB seasons (including a 2010 reunion with the Buccos), Spurling for four campaigns and Paulino was returned to the club in the spring, going on to catch for eight years in the show, the first four with Pittsburgh (2005-08/.278). They also released LHP Jimmy Anderson after failing to trade him. Anderson got 20 more appearances with three different teams in 2003-04 to finish his career. 
• 2004 - The Pirates acquired C Benito Santiago and cash (KC paid all but $750K of the $2.2M due Santiago) from the Royals for RHP Leo Nunez (Juan Oviedo). The 30-year-old Oviedo served a 2012 suspension after pitching for seven seasons because of name fraud; he went by Nunez to make it appear he was younger. Santiago, 40, got in six games before his release and never played again. 
• 2008 - The Pirates signed 1B/OF Garrett Jones as a minor league free agent. The Bucs picked up the 27-year-old after his release from Rochester, Minnesota’s AAA team, and he spent the first half of 2009 at Indy before bursting on the scene. After his July 1st call up, he hit .293 with 21 HR, 10 in the month of July alone, and became the first Buc to hit seven home runs in his first 12 games since Dino Restelli in 1949. Then he finished his Corsair stay with flair in 2013 when he became the second player and first Pirate to hit a homer into the Allegheny River on the fly. Jones was with Pittsburgh for five years (2009-13), batting .256 and whacking exactly 100 long balls before leaving for Miami, then closing out his career in 2015 with the New York Yankees. 

Luke Maile - 2020 photo Archie Campbell/UPI

• 2019 - The Pirates and C Luke Maile agreed to a split, one-year contract worth $900K at the MLB level and $325K for time spent in the minors. Maile was a good glove, bad bat (.198 career BA) backstop who played with both the Toronto Blue Jays and Tampa Bay Rays. A frontrunner to break camp with the club, he never got to show his stuff here; finger surgery cost him the 2020 campaign and then he signed with the Milwaukee Brewers as a FA. He spent ‘22 with the Cleveland Guardians, signed with the Cincinnati Reds, and is now again a free agent. 
• 2021 - Derek Shelton officially named his revamped coaching staff: Andy Haines was hired as the hitting coach; he had served in the same capacity for Milwaukee. Mike Rabelo, who had been with the club since 2020, took over as the 3B coach while also serving as the major league field coordinator. Radley Haddad joined the gang as the game planning/strategy coach after spending the last five seasons with the New York Yankees. First base coach Tarrik Brock, bench coach Don Kelly, pitching coach Oscar Marin, assistant hitting coach Christian Marrero, bullpen coach Justin Meccage, coach Glenn Sherlock, bullpen catcher/coaching assistant Jordan Comadena and major league assistants Jeremy Bleich and Tim McKeithan all returned, seeming to leave Shelty with as many aides as players.