12/6: Easler - Tudor, Cardwell - Ribant, Tobin - Lanning, Zane, Neal & Chuck Signed, Meek Picked, Law Wins Gehrig, No Deals, Bucs In Red, Hoopin'; RIP Hans, HBD Jose, Adam, Tim, Johnny, Snookie, Frank & Tun

• 1867 - UT John Henry “Tun” Berger was born in Pittsburgh. He played for the Allegheny in 1890, hitting .266 and playing all over the field for one of the worst teams (23-113) ever fielded. The following year, he became one of the original Pirates, hitting .239 and again playing just about everywhere. Tun played one more season, for Washington. He was a Pittsburgh guy all his life, working as a glassblower and dying at the early age of 39 from kidney disease. He was laid to rest at Mt. Royal Cemetery. As for his nickname, we can only speculate - a “tun” is an old-timey name for a large cask or barrel (usually holding wine or beer) and our Tun was listed at 5’9”, 209 lbs. Perhaps one of his teammates noticed the similarity in shapes (and maybe internal contents!)... 
• 1894 - OF Walter Mueller was born in Central, Missouri. He is best known as the first player to hit a homer on the first pitch thrown to him in the major leagues, and the only Pirate to do so until Starling Marté repeated the feat in 2012. Mueller played his entire career (1922-24, 1926) for Pittsburgh, hitting .275 - and he only blasted one more long ball in those four campaigns. 
• 1896 - OF Frank Luce was born in Spencer, Ohio. After a pair of .300+ minor league seasons and going 6-for-12 in a brief 1923 call up, Luce and Kiki Cuyler were the main candidates for RF in 1924. Kiki won the job and held it down for the next four years, blocking Frank. Luce hit .322 at the highest minor league level, AA, from 1925-29 but never got another call to the show. 
• 1913 - LHP Roy “Snookie” Welmaker was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Roy tossed for Atlanta, Philadelphia and Homestead in the Negro Leagues with several more seasons spent in the Mexican & Venezuelan Leagues plus time in the service. Snookie hurled in 1936-38, 1942 and 1944-45 for the Grays with a slash of 30-14-1/3.15, went 2-3 in World Series starts and made the Eastern NL All-Star team in 1945. When in his mid-30’s, he got a shot at minor league ball, pitching a year in the Eastern League and closing out his career with five PCL campaigns, becoming the first black player for the Hollywood Stars in 1951. 

Johnny Lanning - 1940 photo/George Burke 

• 1939 - The Pirates traded RHP Jim Tobin to the Boston Bees for RHP Johnny Lanning. Starter Tobin went 76-88 in six seasons after the deal. Lanning pitched six seasons for the Bucs (he missed almost two years because of WW2) and went 33-29/3.44 as a starter and long man. Lanning’s bread and butter was the curve; he served both soft and hard hooks to keep batters off balance. 
• 1940 - Coach Johnny McKee was born in Philadelphia. Johnny was a bullpen coach/catcher on skipper Billy Herman’s staff in 1947 though discovering his bona fides is a task; it appears his only baseball was as a catcher for Villanova University followed by a tour in the Army Air Corp during WW2. The gig didn’t last long as McKee was let go the following year when Billy Meyer replaced Herman at the Pirates helm and brought in some of his people. 
• 1950 - SS Tim Foli was born in Culver City, California. Tim played in Pittsburgh from 1979-81 with a brief return in 1985, hitting .269 and solidifying the Bucco infield with his glove after being flipped to the Mets for Frank Taveras. In 1979, his bat was hot in the NLCS and WS; he batted .333. Tim hit second for those clubs; his lack of speed and power was offset by his ability to move a runner along, and he always put the ball in play, whiffing just 49 times as a Buc in over 1,500 PAs. His 16-year career ended in 1985 when he played for a couple of months with the Pirates and retired. He managed in the minors and coached in the show until the 2006 season, when a heart condition led him to retirement from baseball. Foli was known as “Crazy Horse,” wearing that tag thanks to a fiery temper that led him to butt heads with umpires, opponents and his teammates. 
• 1955 - Carnegie Hall of Famer Honus (his given name was Johannes) Wagner died at the age of 81 and was buried at Jefferson Memorial Cemetery. Considered by many (including Bill James) to be the greatest shortstop in history, Wagner batted .327 over a 21-year career and retired with more hits, runs, RBI, doubles, triples, games and steals than any other NL player. After retirement, Wagner served as a Pirate coach for 39 years, primarily as a hitting instructor. He crossed into films, playing in 1919's “Spring Fever” and 1922's “In the Name of the Law.” His downtown sporting goods company operated until 2011. Finally, The Flying Dutchman’s number 33 was retired by the Pirates, his statue has watched over Forbes Field, TRS & PNC Park and he was elected to the Pirates first HoF class. 

Exhibition Hoops - 12/7/1961 Press 

• 1961 - The Pirates played an exhibition hoops contest at the Civic Arena between college games as part of a Scoreboard Fund benefit for Children’s Hospital. The more-or-less current Bucs (Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Dick Stuart, Bob Friend, ElRoy Face & Paul Smith) faced off against a mix-and-match squad (Bobby DelGreco, Tony Bartirome, Ronnie Kline, Nellie King, Ed Sadowski and Sudden Sam McDowell), while Steelers Big Daddy Lipscomb and Bobby Layne were the zebras in the 15-minute clash. For once, Groat wasn’t the leading scorer, but his infield pal, Maz, took the honors with six points, including the game winner (Del Greco had six for the losers), in a 17-16 win for the rostered Pirates. Sandwiched around them, Duquesne beat up Carnegie Tech 78-40 and Ohio State ran away from Pitt, winning by a 99-79 count in the games that counted. 
• 1965 - Vern Law won the Lou Gehrig Award as the “player who best exhibits the character and integrity of Lou Gehrig, both on the field and off it.” Willie Stargell later became the only other Pirate to win the Gehrig, being honored in 1974. 
• 1966 - Pittsburgh sent RHP Don Cardwell and OF Don Bosch to the New York Mets for RHP Dennis Ribant and OF Gary Kolb. Cardwell had three solid years with NY and appeared in the 1969 “Miracle Mets” World Series, while Ribant pitched for a year for the Corsairs before leaving and being converted to a reliever by the Tigers. Neither outfielder in the swap panned out. 
• 1971 - OF Adam Hyzdu was born in San Jose. A first round draft pick of the Giants in 1990, he was a reserve outfielder for the Bucs from 2000-03 with a .231 BA in Pittsburgh. He had his shining moment, though. Adam was the NL Player of the Week in July of 2002 when he hit .588 (10-for-17) with three homers, six runs and 11 RBI, with all 11 driven in during a two-game span when he homered three times against the Cards, including his first grand slam. 
• 1971 - RHP Jose Contreras was born in Las Martinas, Cuba. He knew the Buc offices pretty well; the 41-year-old was signed and released by the team three times in 2013, managing to pick up seven outings lasting five innings in between visits to the unemployment line; his 9.00 ERA in what would be his final MLB season was the cause of the five-team, 11-year vet’s yo-yo existence. A true international player, he began his career as a member of the Cuban National Team in 1991 before defecting to the United States in 2002, and ended it with tours of the Mexican and Chinese leagues in 2016. 

Jose Contreras - 2013 photo via All Star Cards

• 1979 - Chuck Tanner was rewarded for his World Series title with a four-year contract extension running through 1984. Although the details weren’t released, the media guesstimated that the deal was worth $75K per year. GM Pete Peterson claimed that Tanner was “the best manager in the game today,” triggering the contract (the old one still had a year remaining). In other news, Willie Stargell was declared the “HR King of the Decade,” belting out 296 long flies to edge Reggie Jackson, who banged 292 during the 1970’s. Al Oliver was third in the decade’s hit parade, behind Pete Rose and Rod Carew. 
• 1983 - The Bucs traded OF Mike Easler to the Boston Red Sox for LHP John Tudor. Easler had a big year with the Red Sox before fading. Tudor went 12-11 in 32 starts for the Pirates in 1984, then was traded to St. Louis for OF George Hendrick. Tudor was brilliant in 1985 for the Cards, with 21 wins and 10 complete game shutouts. He led St. Louis to the World Series, and after pitching masterfully against KC in games 1 & 4, he fell apart in Game 7, losing 11-0. The lefty cut his pitching hand punching some locker room equipment while in a snit after the defeat and he never won more than 13 games afterward. 
• 1988 - The Pirates wanted a SS and thought they had their man in Atlanta’s Andres Thomas when they offered the Braves three players (speculated to be RJ Reynolds, Mike Dunne and another pitcher) but the deal fell through when the Bravos overplayed their hand and demanded Barry Bonds be included in the package. Better to be lucky than good; Thomas had just two more years left in the show and batted .215 over that time; Barry hit 19 homers in 1989 and was named the league’s MVP in 1990, collecting seven MVPs and 14 All-Star caps in all before hanging ‘em up in 2007. Patience pays: the FO got their SS for the next eight years, Jay Bell, from the Indians just before the 1989 season started. 
• 1989 - Pittsburgh signed LHP Neal Heaton to a three-year/$2.85M contract with incentives and a limited (eight team) no-trade clause after he went 6-7/3.05 for the Pirates the previous campaign. He started out on fire after signing; the lefty began the 1990 season 9-1 with a 2.87 ERA and made his only All-Star roster in a career that spanned 12 years and seven teams. But Neal had a bumpy second year and was traded in the 1992 preseason to KC for Kirk Gibson. His Bucco line was 21-19/3.46 with 43 starts in his 114 outings. He finished out his career pitching for three American League squads from 1992-93. 

Neal Heaton - 1990 Fleer

• 1990 - The Pirates inked LHP Zane Smith as a free agent for four years/$10.6M after getting him from the Montreal Expos for Moises Alou in the middle of the 1990 season. Zane had good timing: he made $660K in 1990 and the Pirates had originally offered him $6M for three years. The market changed when the Giants signed Bud Black for four years/$10M, and Smith, with several suitors, used that deal as his model. The lefty pitched six of his final seven campaigns in Pittsburgh with a line of 47-41/3.35 and was part of the rotation for the 1990-92 playoff teams, winning 16 games in 1991. Though he was released in 1996 by the Bucs, he went out in grand fashion: his 100th and final win was in June of that year, a six-hit, complete game shutout of the San Diego Padres. 
• 2001 - Kevin McClatchy told the media that despite opening a new, publicly-financed ballpark, the team lost $1.2M in operating expenses and an additional $4.7M in interest payments. “If you took away the new stadium,” he said, “I may have been sitting in front of Congress explaining why the Pittsburgh franchise shouldn’t be contracted (the subject of a current Congressional hearing)...I’ve been saying for six years our game needs reform.” Still waitin’... 
• 2006 - The Bucs came close to landing 1B Adam LaRoche, but a swap with the Braves for LHP Mike Gonzalez fell through. Both were good fits - Gonzo was 24-for-24 in save opportunities while LaRoche was coming off a 32-HR season - but the Pirates said that Atlanta was lollygagging because of health concerns while the Bravos claimed Dave Littlefield dragged his feet too long without pulling the trigger. Either way, the Braves went in another direction and landed Rafael Soriano to make the matter moot. But the finger pointing resolved itself quickly; the two sides kissed and made up, and a few weeks later Gonzalez and SS Brent Lillibridge were sent to Atlanta for LaRoche and 1B/OF Jamie Romak. 
• 2007 - The Pirates, with the second pick in the Rule 5 draft, selected RHP Evan Meek from Tampa Bay. He stuck around for parts of five years with the Bucs (2008-12), going 7-7-4 with a 3.34 ERA. After a breakout All-Star year in 2010 when he went 5-6-4/2.14, arm injuries took their toll on the flamethrower’s (he could touch 98) career. Meek’s last MLB tour of duty was with Baltimore in 2014.