12/4: Robinson-Sluggo, Nellie-Kurt, Cookie-Brandt, Jimmy Joins, Big Poison '27 MVP, AVS Gold Glove, B-Rey Grouse, Rumors W/Legs, TRS Shrinks; HBD Big Joe, Ted, Johnny & Jerry

• 1885 - OF Jerry D’Arcy was born in Oakland, California. As a 25-year-old, he played two games in two weeks for the 1911 Pirates. He started one, pinch-hit in the other and went 0-for-6 in his only MLB stint. Not much info on him was left behind, other than he played minor league/indie ball from 1911-16, minus his Bucco time. In fact, the local papers listed him as “Dorsey” rather than “D’Arcy” while he was here, so even back in the day he was a man of mystery. 
• 1892 - RHP Johnny Meador was born in Madison, North Carolina. After a good season at Galveston in the Texas League, the Bucs brought him up in 1920. He went 0-2/4.21, and perhaps saw the handwriting on the wall when he left the team in July to play for independent Oil City, getting a $2,000 bonus for jumping ship and a two-year contract for $3,000 annually. C Cliff Lee was rumored to join him, causing the Pirates to give Lee a mid-season raise (he had leverage beyond Oil City’s offer; he was also the only healthy catcher on the roster at the time) and sending owner Barney Dreyfuss into a tizzy, threatening to sue the outlaw OC club for raiding his team. Meador, although reinstated years later, never returned to MLB after switching leagues due to a sore arm. 1
• 925 - LHP/OF Ted Toles was born in Newton Falls, Ohio, near Warren. His pro baseball career began in 1946 with the Pittsburgh Crawfords and after a brief Negro League career, he played for the minor league affiliates of the Cleveland Indians (including a stop with the New Castle Indians in 1951), New York Yankees and Philadelphia Athletics. Ted also toured with the Jackie Robinson All-Stars with Robinson, Lary Doby, Satchel Paige and teammate Willie Pope when they barnstormed against different MLB all-star teams during the offseason. Toles was one of the last remaining links to the Negro Leagues and was featured in the book “Living on Borrowed Time: The Life and Times of Negro League Player Ted Toles Jr.” before passing away in April of 2016. 

Paul Waner - 12/5/1927 Press

• 1927 - OF Paul "Big Poison" Waner finished ahead of the Card's Fordham Flash, Frankie Frisch, for NL MVP honors by 72 votes to 66; Rogers Hornsby made it a three-man race with 54 votes. In his second year in the show, Waner hit .380, tops in the National League, led the league with 131 RBI, scored 114 runs and banged out a MLB-best 237 hits to lead Pittsburgh to the senior circuit title. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1952, and when Lloyd later joined him, the sibs became the second brother act in the Hall after Harry and George Wright. 
• 1936 - The Brooklyn Dodgers traded LHP Ed Brandt to the Pirates for IF Cookie Lavagetto and LHP Ralph “Lefty” Birkofer. Brandt lasted two years with the Bucs as a swingman, going 16-14/3.23 before he retired at age 34 after 11 MLB campaigns. He tied a Bucco mark held by several by winning three 1-0 games in 1937, a record no Pirate has matched since. Lavagetto started for the next five years, hitting .275 for Brooklyn and making four All-Star teams before losing four years to the Second World War. Lefty made 11 appearances for the Trolley Dodgers in 1937, his final go-around of MLB ball. 
• 1946 - The Pirates announced the purchase of versatile Jimmy Bloodworth from the Tigers for an undisclosed amount, with the deal not being officially entered in the books for another week. He played the majority of time as the Bucs starting second baseman in 1947, batting .250 with a .290 OBP. Those lukewarm numbers got him traded as part of the Monty Basgall swap with the Brooklyn Dodgers in the off season and opened up second base for Danny Murtaugh in 1948. 
• 1957 - The Pirates search for a third baseman led to national rumors flying in Colorado Springs, host of the winter meetings, of a Frank Thomas-for-Ken Boyer deal with the Cardinals. The trade never came to be, but where there’s smoke, there’s fire - Thomas was the main piece of the package that pried Don Hoak away from the Cincinnati Reds a year later. 
• 1958 - Persistence is often the key to a successful deal. GM Joe Brown announced that a proposed swap of Cincinnati’s 3B Dick Hoak, C Smoky Burgess, LHP Harvey Haddix and RHP Tom Acker for 3B/OF Frank Thomas and RHP Bennie Daniels had fizzled, even with some other names (C Ed Bailey of the Reds & RHP Curt Raydon of the Bucs) and trade configurations to reshuffle the deck. But less than two months later the deal was consummated, with the main players pretty much the same: Hoak, Burgess and Haddix were sent to Pittsburgh for Thomas w/RHP Whammy Douglas, utilityman Jim Pendleton and OF John Powers as the new add ons. Brown also had another proposal that never came to fruition during the winter meetings. He tried to pry LHP Johnny Antonelli loose from San Francisco, but the Giants wanted RHP’s ElRoy Face & Vern Law as the return package, and that ask ended those talks in a hurry. 

Frank Thomas - 1958 Topps

• 1965 - GM Joe Brown left Miami Beach and the winter baseball meetings with new additions OF Matty Alou, acquired by trade, and C Jesse Gonder & OF Dave Roberts, acquired by draft. As the cherry on top, Brown and the City were awarded the 1966 meetings, scheduled for December 1st-3rd at the Hilton Hotel, the successful culmination of a Pirate lobbying effort that began in 1964. 
• 1973 - The Pirates traded P Nelson Briles and IF Fernando Gonzalez to the KC Royals for UT Ed “Spanky” Kirkpatrick, IF Kurt Bevacqua and prospect 1B Winston Cole. Briles lasted five more seasons, but posted an ERA under four just once in that span while none of the others became everyday contributors, though Spanky hung around with the Bucs until 1977, batting .236 over that time. 
• 1974 - The Bucs brought in the fences at TRS, moving the foul lines in by five feet to 335’ and the outfield gaps by 10’, making them 375’. Danny Murtaugh claimed it was to make the Stadium more consistent with other parks, and the new distances did match the dimensions of five other NL ballyards during the cookie-cutter era. 
• 1989 - The Pirates picked up C Don Slaught from the Yankees for RHPs Jeff Robinson and farmhand Willie Smith after New York had first turned down a reported package of RHP Randy Kramer and C Tom Prince. Slaught would form a platoon tandem with Spanky LaValliere through 1992, and remained with the Bucs until 1996 after being injured during most of the 1995 campaign, hitting .305 during his Pittsburgh tenure. Sluggo played for seven clubs in his 16-year career - a catcher with a .283 lifetime BA can expect an awfully long shelf life in MLB. Robinson tossed for three more seasons in the Junior Circuit, while Smith threw seven frames in 1994 during his only taste of the show. 
• 1990 - CF Andy Van Slyke won his second straight Gold Glove and LF Barry Bonds earned his first. Barry’s dad Bobby had won GG’s in the seventies, and they became the first father-and-son team to be honored with the award. 

AVS - 1990 Fleer League Leaders

• 1992 - RHP Joe Musgrove was born in El Cajon, California. He was taken out of high school in the first round (46th overall) of the 2011 draft and was sent to the Astros in 2012 as part of the JA Happ trade. He debuted in 2016 for Houston and a year later he was plugged into the rotation but had a rough go. Joe went on the DL with arm soreness, returned and was sent to the pen, where he excelled, winning a World Series game. The Bucs got Musgrove in 2018 as a part of the Gerrit Cole trade with the ‘Stros, and after missing time with a sore shoulder, he joined the starting five in late May, posting a 6-9/4.06 line. In 2019, he led the team with personal bests in wins, IP and starts (11-12/4.44/170 IP/31 starts) and posted a 3.86 ERA in 2020 despite missing time with a triceps injury. Big Joe was dealt to his hometown San Diego Padres in a 2021 three-team swap, netting five players in return, including David Bednar and Endy Rodriguez. 
• 2022 - Approaching the fifth year of their Ben Cherington’s snail's-pace rebuild without a 70-win season to show for it, the news that CF Bryan Reynolds wanted traded added fuel to the fans fire. Reynolds, 27, a 2021 All-Star, had three years of team control remaining and was the Pirates top offensive performer with 51 homers and a WAR of 8.9 over the past two seasons. B-Rey apparently had run out of patience waiting for the FO to engineer a turnaround. He rejected an undisclosed Pittsburgh offer to make him its highest paid player ever and left the ball in the FOs court. At least the timing was opportune; the league’s Winter Meetings began the next day. But all’s well that ends well; Reynolds was signed to a two-year extension in April and later to a long-term deal that was valued at $106.75M with a 2031 option, the richest payout in franchise history.

12/3 Through The 1950s: Basgall Swap, Friend Make-Or-Break, Vic Signs, '47 Shifts, Luis-Jerry-Clyde-Elbie-Ray Go, No Mungo, Put 'Em Up; RIP Lefty, HBD Lou, Suitcase, James & Hickory

• 1878 - RHP Walt “Hickory” Dickson was born in New Summerfield, Texas. Hickory never tossed for the Pirates, but did spend the last two years of his career with the Pittsburgh Rebels of the Federal League between 1914-15. He worked 67 games for the Rebs, going 16-24-1/3.44 pitching at the ages of 35 & 36. Dickson’s MLB claim to history is rather dubious: in his first full year in the show in 1912, he started 18 straight games that his team, the Boston Braves, lost. It took 95 years for the Brewers’ Dave Capuano to break that mark. But in the minors, he once tossed back-to-back, complete game, five-hit shutouts on the same day at the end of the season for his Cleburne team against second place Fort Worth; it’s said that Fort Worth was so discouraged after the twin bill by their performance against him that they forfeited the championship series against first place Cleburne. His nickname dates back to his youth. He healed quickly from a broken bone and was back to normal in a blink, leading his hoodies to consider him tough as hickory. 
• 1919 - C James Tillman was born in Washington, DC. Tillman was a veteran of local Negro teams in the DC area when he was called to help fill the Homestead/Washington Grays roster. From 1941 through 1943, Tillman held the quiet and thankless job of backing up Josh Gibson. While he didn’t get much work for the Grays, Tillman afterward carried the torch for the old Negro League as a speaker in various school and civic events, keeping the memory of the history and players alive. He passed away in 2009 at the age of 89. 
• 1925 - 1B/OF Harry “Suitcase” Simpson was born in Atlanta. He closed out his eight-year MLB career with the Pirates in 1959 after the Bucs got him as part of the Ted Kluszewski deal with the Chicago White Sox (Pittsburgh was his third team of the season). He got into nine games with a stat line of 4-for-15 (.267) before retiring. Cort Vitty of SABR wrote that he picked up his nickname during his Negro League days. Harry wore a size 13 shoe, and a sportswriter dubbed him “Suitcase” Simpson, based on a cartoon character by that name with feet as large as suitcases featured in the comic strip “Toonerville Folks.” 
• 1927 - The Bucs dipped into the Texas League, trading LHP Mike Cvengros and C Ike Danning to Wichita Falls for LHP Fred Fussell. Fussell had a pretty solid campaign in ‘28 (8-9-1/3.61) but gave up 42 runs (38 earned) in 39-2/3 IP the following season, his last in the majors. Cvengros made a comeback in 1929 with the Cubs but spent his remaining years tossing in the American Association and Texas League, working through 1937. Danning got into two games with the St. Louis Browns in ‘29; he was destined to be a career minor leaguer. 

Fred Fussell - Conlon/TSN/Rogers Archive/Getty photo

• 1937 - The winter meetings kicked off with a bidding war for Brooklyn Dodger fireballer (his 238 K led the lead in 1936) Van Lingle Mungo. Several teams were in hot pursuit as the Brooklyn Dodgers were rumored to want to dump his $15K salary. The Pittsburgh Press said that da Bums wanted an outfielder, infielder and pitcher, and the Bucs had reportedly dangled OFs Paul Waner/Woody Jensen, P’s Red Lucas/Bill Swift/Big Jim Weaver and IF Pep Young as bait. Nothing came of it; the Dodgers swallowed hard and ponied up Van Mungo’s paycheck. Good thing for the Pirates, too - Big Poison, even at age 35, still had three good campaigns left, the other guys also stayed on the roster and went on to have solid years while Van Mungo, who had won 18 games in 1936, would only win 18 more matches total in the next five years after injuring his arm during the 1937 campaign. 
• 1939 - Frank “Lefty” Killen died in Pittsburgh at the age of 69 of a heart attack. Killen was a life-long yinzer who spent the middle six years (1893-98) of his 10-season big league stay with the Pirates. He led the league in wins twice with 36 in 1893 as a 22-year-old and 30 in 1896 in Pittsburgh, with a 112-82/3.97 overall Bucco slash. During his career, he also tossed for the Milwaukee Brewers (1891), Washington Senators (1892), Boston Beaneaters (1899) and Chicago Orphans (1900). Killen won 20 or more games five times and ended his career with a line of 164-131/3.78 with 253 complete games and 13 shutouts. Lefty lived on Federal Street and operated a North Side hotel/cigar store after he retired from the bump. He’s buried in Allegheny County Memorial Park in Allison Park. 
• 1941 - C Ray Mueller was sold to Sacramento of the PCL, ending his stay as a Bucco. He came to Pittsburgh highly touted, and the Pirates sent Al Todd & Johnny Dickshot to Boston for him in a 1938 deal. He hit .233 in ‘39, and new manager Frankie Frisch sent him down to Rochester in May of 1940 after Ray appeared in just four games. He was hurt a couple of times in the minors and the team gave up on him. It took Mueller until 1943 to get back to the bigs with the Reds and prove that the Bucs misjudged him - he played eight more seasons and hit .258 in addition to claiming the nickname “Ironman” for catching 233 consecutive games, a National League record. In 1950, he made a return to Pittsburgh and hit .269 a year before retiring as a Boston Brave to end his 14-year MLB run. 

Ray Mueller - George Burke photo

• 1945 - LHP Lou Marone was born in San Diego. Lou, the Bucs’ 30th round pick from the 1965 draft, had a MLB career that consisted of 30 games tossed for the Pirates (29 in 1969 with one last outing in 1970), posting a line of 1-1/2.63 from the pen. His ‘70 season was cut short by an arm injury, and in 1971 and ‘72 he was given a shot to make the club but couldn’t impress. Part of his problem was his conditioning; Lou was 5’10” and weighed in at 225 pounds, leading to the unflattering nickname of “Toad.” Family matters: Lou was the cousin of pitcher John D'Acquisto who won the National League Rookie Pitcher of the Year award in 1974 with the San Francisco Giants. 
• 1947 - Busy day for the Buccos. They sold 11-year vet 1B Elbie Fletcher to the Cleveland Indians (he had one more MLB season left), traded minor league IFs Jimmy Bloodworth and Vic Barnhart to the Dodgers for 2B Monty Basgall (Bloodworth played four more seasons and Barnhart, whose dad Clyde was also a Pirate, never made it back to MLB while Basgall played three years for the Bucs hitting .215) and named Al Lopez manager of the AAA Indianapolis Indians. Lopez had turned down the same deal a season earlier to get in a last go-around as a player (he caught for 19 years). That decision to bypass managing may have cost him a shot at the Bucco field general job when skipper Billy Herman was fired and replaced by Billy Meyers after the ‘47 campaign. 
• 1952 - At the winter meetings, the Pirates sent vet C Clyde McCullough to the Cubs, a team he had spent seven years with before being traded to Pittsburgh in 1948 as part of the Pie Traynor deal, getting 25-year-old righty Dick Manville and $25,000 in return. GM Branch Rickey said he had tried to sign Manville back in 1947 but was outbid by the Boston Braves. Manville had put up a 7.11 ERA in 12 games between the Braves & the Cubs, and after a year of bouncing around the Pirates farm system, posting a 4-7/5.66 slash, he was out of baseball. McCullough, 36, was a bench player in Pittsburgh but earned an All-Star stint with the Cubs in 1953 (he had a hot start to the season but dropped off in the second half, hitting .258 for the year in 77 games). He played through 1956, batting .244 over his final four Cub campaigns. The Bucs also announced that they and Vic Janowicz, football star from Ohio State, agreed to a contract w/$25,000 bonus despite the fact he didn’t play baseball for the Buckeyes, focusing on the gridiron. 

Clyde McCullough - 1953 Topps Reprint (1973)

• 1954 - RHP Bob Friend, who won 191 games in 15 seasons with the Buccos, almost punched his ticket out of town after posting a dismal 7-12-2/5.07 line in 1954 during his 23-year-old campaign, his fourth with the Pirates. Branch Rickey told Jack Hernon of the Post Gazette that “Unless he is a better pitcher next spring, he will be sent to the minor leagues” as he cleared waivers, leaving him eligible for demotion. Apparently that news was all the wake-up call Friend needed as he put up a 1955 slash of 14-9-2/2.83, with his ERA the best in the National League. Bob won double-digit games for nine of his remaining 11 Bucco seasons, with an ERA under four for 10 of those years and was an All-Star pick four times. The workhorse leads the franchise in career games started, innings pitched & strikeouts, and is a member of the Pirates Hall of Fame. 
• 1956 - OF Jerry Lynch was taken by the Reds from the Pirates in the Rule 5 draft. Lynch played seven years with Cincinnati, earning a spot in the franchise’s Hall of Fame, before returning to Pittsburgh in 1963. Jerry is considered one of baseball's all-time elite pinch hitters, with 116 off-the-bench hits (and 18 homers) during his career. He remained a Pittsburgh guy after retiring, living in Allison Park, and had his ashes sprinkled over Champion Lakes Golf Course in Ligonier, co-owned by him and Dick Groat, after he passed on in 2012 at age 82. 
• 1956 - Reds GM Gabe Paul and Columbus (of the International League and a Pirates affiliate) GM Harold Cooper traded blows at the minor league meetings in Jacksonville until the bout was broken up by Bucco GM Joe Brown and IL President Frank Shaughneasy. The tempers flared because of TV rights; Cooper was irate that Cincy was broadcasting Reds games into Columbus, which he considered the Jets home turf and outside of Paul’s television territory. 
• 1958 - Pittsburgh traded RHP Luis Arroyo to Cincinnati for Nino Escalera. Arroyo hit his stride with the Yankees in 1961, winning 15 games and saving 29 more with a 2.19 ERA during his All-Star season while pinch-hitter/1B Escalero never made it out of AAA. It would have been interesting to see what damage a pen of Arroyo and ElRoy Face could have wreaked on the NL.

12/3 From 1960: '23 Moves, Chico Signs, Junior Picked, Jim-Deacon-Barney HoF'ers, Rumored Deals, Staff Shuffles; HBD Steve

• 1964 - OF Steve Carter was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. Carter was drafted by the Pirates in the 17th round of the 1987 draft out of the University of Georgia and got into 14 games between 1989-90, batting .143 for the Bucs. The outfielder was traded by the Pirates to the Chicago Cubs for Gary Varsho just before 1991 camp broke and never made it back to the show. He was an offensive force in the minors but never could transition past AAAA status. Steve retired following the 1995 season after playing in Italy and Mexico. He then went to work for the Maryland - National Capital Park and Planning Commission. 
• 1968 - Charlie Feeney of the Post Gazette reported that following Willie Stargell’s blah ‘68 campaign (.237/24 HR/67 RBI), four clubs called, trying to float a deal that would pry him loose from the Bucs. Their efforts fell flat; GM Joe Brown told Feeney that “Some teams feel...they can steal him...” Joe knew when to hold ‘em - Willie carried on for 14 more seasons, all with the Pirates (he pulled on the Bucco uni for 21 years), and won two World Series rings & MVP while becoming the team's career leader in home runs & RBIs on his way to the Hall of Fame. 
• 1969 - The Pirates were looking for another backend righty to join Bruce Dal Canton and Chuck Hartenstine in the pen per Charley Feeney of the Post Gazette. They kicked Moe Drabowsky’s (11-9-11/2.94) tires at Kansas City, with the Royals asking for a package centered around OF Angel Mangual with Hartenstine as a second piece. The Bucs also talked to Seattle, checking on Bob Locker (5-6-10/3.14), but the M’s requested price was Dave Cash. The Pirates ended up passing on bullpen deals during the winter other than signing 36-year-old Orlando Pena, and good thing. They didn’t realize it at the time, but they had already had their man in hand after they picked up Dave Giusti from the Cards in late October. He was not-so-happily converted from a starter to closer, but adapted well to finish 1970 with a 9-3-26/3.07 line in 66 outings and cemented his back-end role. Hartenstine went to Saint Louis during the season and Dal Canton was sent to Kansas City after the 1970 campaign. 
• 1982 - 2B Jose “Chico” Lind was signed as an 18-year-old FA out of Puerto Rico. He won the 2B job in 1988, and the defensive whiz played six years in Pittsburgh, hitting .255. Chico was a member of the 1990-92 division winning clubs before ending his career in the AL amidst a swirl of personal problems. He got his nickname as a toddler; “Chico” is the Spanish term for a youngster. 

Junior Ortiz - 1989 Topps

• 1984 - C Junior Ortiz was selected by the Pirates from the New York Mets in the Rule 5 draft. Junior began a five-year (1985-89) run with the Bucs, starting 201 games behind the dish in that span. Junior batted .264 in his seven-year Bucco career, as the draft served as a homecoming after he had debuted as a Pirate as a 22-year-old in 1982 before he was traded to the New York Mets as part of the Marvell Wynne deal in June, 1983. 
• 1995 - The Pirates were kicking the tires of some FA outfielders, particularly to man the middle of the pasture. John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times had them talking to Otis Nixon and Darron Lewis; they also were thought to have interest in corner guy Kevin Mitchell, fresh off a hot season in Japan. They didn’t ink any of the players on their hot list, instead signing soon-to-be 35 Mike Kingery from the Rox, and he won the job when Jacob Brumfield was traded in May. Afterward, they tried to work prospect Jermaine Allensworth into the spot, but it remained an up-for-grabs position until Nate McLouth handed it off to Andrew McCutchen a decade later, ending the musical chairs. 
• 2001 - Brian Graham was signed by the Pirates from Florida as Minor League Director, eventually becoming the Senior Director for Player Development. With Graham in charge, the Pirates minor league teams finished with combined winning records in four of his five seasons and the Bucs 2002 minor league system was honored as the Topps' “Baseball Organization of the Year.” In 2007, he was appointed interim GM of the Pirates after the dismissal of Dave Littlefield. A month later, he was fired along with manager Jim Tracy, scouting director Ed Creech, and director of baseball operations Jon Mercurio by new GM Neal Huntington, a surprise as he and NH were supposed to have a good working relationship from their Cleveland days. Graham was quickly picked up by the Baltimore Orioles and worked there through 2018, when he was let go after serving as interim GM (seem familiar?) and now works for MLB. He was close to leaving the Pirates before that - he was a finalist for the Cincinnati Reds manager’s job in 2004 (he had spent a decade as a minor-league skipper and big league coach before becoming an administrator) but lost that job to Dave Miley. 
• 2002 - Kent Biggerstaff was replaced as the Pirates head trainer after more than two decades (1981-2002) at the position. Before joining the Bucs, he worked for the New York Mets & Milwaukee Brewers. Biggerstaff was named the All Star Athletic Trainer for the NL in 1990, 1994 & 2002, and was selected as the Athletic Trainer for the 1996 MLB All Star Tour of Japan; he was also named 2002 Major League Athletic Trainer of the Year. Kent switched gears and has since worked for golf’s PGA and Champions Tours. His replacement was Brad Henderson, who held down the trainer’s job through 2011. 

Barney Dreyfuss - Hall of Fame Plaque

• 2007 - German-born Barney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pirates from 1900 until his death in 1932, was elected by the Veterans Committee to the Hall of Fame. He built Forbes Field, helped to establish the first modern World Series in 1903, won six pennants & two titles, cleaned up the game and was considered one of the founding fathers of modern baseball. The Pirates honored him with a stone memorial which has traveled from Forbes Field to TRS and now sits in PNC's concourse behind home plate. Billy Southworth was also selected to the HoF, with his playing and managing careers both lasting 13 years. OF Southworth played three years for the Pirates (1918-20), leading the NL in triples in 1919 (14) and hitting .294 as a Buc. As a manager, he won four pennants and two World Series titles with St. Louis and Boston. They were inducted on July 28th, 2008.
• 2012 - James “Deacon” White was elected to the Hall of Fame by the pre-integration era committee. Earning his reputation as a bare-handed catcher, although he played several positions over his career, Deacon helped popularize the catcher’s mask (Al Spalding, who founded a sports equipment company that sold them, was once his battery-mate) and as a young spot pitcher (he tossed twice) is credited with developing the first windup. He played for the Bucs near the end of his 20-year career in 1889, hitting .253 while manning the hot corner. Deacon came by his nickname honestly; he was a devout Christian in an era when many ballplayers were notoriously rowdy. 
• 2023 - Going into the winter meetings, the Pirates were busy playing around the roster’s edges. Their need for starting pitching grew when RHP Johan Oviedo underwent TJ surgery and multi-role RHP Thomas Hatch was released to ply his trade in Japan. They also lost OF Michael Andujar, LHP Angel Permodo and RHPs Osvaldo Bido & Yerry De Los Santos to waiver claims. The FO in turn claimed RHP Roddery Munoz and OF Gilberto Celestino to fill in and signed C Ali Sanchez to a minor league deal. They still had to come to contract terms with free agent Andrew McCutchen while RHP Mitch Keller and closer David Bednar were also considered to be in line to be extended via new deals. 
• 2023 - Pirates skipper (also Marlins, Rockies & Tigers) Jim Leyland was elected to the Hall of Fame, collecting 15 votes from the 16-member selection committee. Afterwards, he said on MLB Network that “I’m going to the Hall of Fame because of the players, like every other manager does...It’s all about the players.” Leyland won a World Series with Miami, took Detroit to the Fall Classic twice, and won three straight division titles with the Bucs, earning three Manager of the Year honors along his road to 1,813 regular/post season wins. The induction ceremony was held in Cooperstown on July 21st, 2024.

12/2 Through the 1970s: '70 6-Player Swap With KC, Ronnie & Ginger Deals, Jeep Signs, Luke In, Pags & Bobby Out; RIP Danny, HBD Andre, Johnny, Mike, Roscoe & Deacon

• 1847 - Hall of Famer C/3B James “Deacon” White was born in Caton, NY. He played as a 41-year-old for the Alleghenys in 1889, and lasted one more season before ending his 20-year career with the Buffalo Bisons, retiring with a .312 BA. As a member of Forest City of Cleveland, White led off the opening game against the Fort Wayne Kekiongas with a double off Bobby Mathews, considered the first major league hit (the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was the first pro league), and banged into the first double play. Deacon also helped popularize the catcher’s mask and he was the first pitcher to go into a wind-up (he pitched twice, piling up 10 innings of relief work). He managed briefly after he retired. As one would expect from a man named Deacon - he actually was a clean-living church deacon - he and his wife were closely associated with the Christian school Mendota (now Aurora) College after his baseball days. Sadly, Deacon died on July 7th, 1939, at the age of 91, just after being snubbed for inclusion in the Hall of Fame. It took until 2013 for White to earn his spot in the Cooperstown Hall. 
• 1876 - RHP Roscoe Miller was born in Greenville, Indiana. Roscoe started out on fire, winning 23 games for Detroit as a rookie. He stumbled along for the next couple of years but seemed to have righted the ship with the Pirates in 1904, going 7-7/3.35. But bad luck intervened. Miller was riding with 14 other Pirates in a carriage when the rear wheel collapsed. Several players were hurt when the carriage folded and was dragged on its side by the horses, including Miller, who injured his wrist badly in the accident. That would become his last MLB season, although he spent five years in the minors afterward. Roscoe had a boatload of nicknames, with Rubberlegs, Roxy and Ross among them. "Ross" and "Roxy" are wordplays on Roscoe, and he was dubbed "Rubberlegs" after moving from Detroit to New York to Pittsburgh in a 14-month span. 
• 1896 - C Mike Wilson was born in Edge Hill, Pennsylvania (Montgomery County). Mike’s entire MLB career consisted of five visits behind the dish and an 0-for-4 hitting line in 1921 for Pittsburgh. He is notable, though, as one of the early two-sport players who suited up for the Pirates, as he spent four winters playing football with early pro clubs in Buffalo, Rochester and Rock Island. 

Ginger Beaumont - Helmar Cabinet III

• 1898 - Pittsburgh traded IF Bill Gray and RHP Bill Hart to Milwaukee of the Western League for OF Ginger Beaumont. Gray wouldn’t play in the majors again while Hart tossed one more big league campaign. Beaumont spent eight of his 12 MLB seasons as a Pirate, hitting .321 w/200 stolen sacks, winning the NL batting title once and leading the league in hits three times during that span. 
• 1906 - RHP Johnny Welch was born in Washington, DC. Welch tossed for nine seasons, closing out his career in 1936 with the Pirates after being picked up in June from the PCL’s San Diego Padres, where he had been sent by Boston in May. He got a save for Pittsburgh in nine outings with a 4.50 ERA, spent the next season in the minors at St. Paul and hung ‘em up after the 1937 campaign at age 30 - his minor league contract had been sold to San Francisco and Johnny didn’t want to play so far from home. No compromise was reached and Welch walked. He didn’t have much time left and so got to spend his last years at home - he passed away in 1940 from TB. 
• 1934 - UT Andre Rodgers was born in Nassau, Bahamas. He was with the Bucs from 1965-67, batting .257 over that time, playing all four infield spots while seeing action in left field, too. Rodgers was the first Bahamian to play in the major leagues. A talented cricket player who paid his own way for a tryout with the New York Giants in 1954, he finally cracked the majors in 1957 and played 11 big league seasons, finishing with a .249 BA. 
• 1936 - The Pirates signed 23-year-old IF Lee “Jeep” Handley as a free agent after a strong rookie audition with the Reds. He was a dependable sometimes starter, sometimes bench player for the Bucs over eight seasons (1937-46, with time off for WW2), averaging 105 games per year and hitting .269. It’s been speculated (by the Uniontown Morning Herald of 1938) that he got his nickname in 1936 as a Cincinnati rookie when he apparently reminded the veterans of a new Popeye cartoon strip character, “Jeep.” As Popeye said when gifted with Jeep: "Well, blow me down! A baby puppy!" 

Jeep Handley - 1937 TSN Collection

• 1963 - Win some, lose some… The Pirates lost OF Bobby Tolan, who just turned 18 with a season at Class A Reno under his belt, to the Cardinals in the now defunct first-year player draft. Tolan ended up with a solid 13-year career, compiling a .265 lifetime BA, and even had a later reunion with his original organization in 1977. Pittsburgh claimed LHP Luke Walker from Boston in the same draft, and Luke spent 8-of-his-9 MLB seasons with the Pirates, going 40-42-9/3.42 in 243 games (100 starts) as a sort of an all-around pitching handyman. 
• 1967 - GM Joe Brown worked out a pair of deals, trading minor league 1B/OF Bob Oliver to the Minnesota Twins for 35-year-old reliever Ronnie Kline and selling C Jim Pagliaroni, who had offseason neck surgery, to the KC Athletics the next day. Kline won 12 games and saved seven in a strong ‘68 campaign, then faded the next season and was sent to SF for Joe Gibbon. Oliver seasoned for awhile, then starting in 1969, ran off seven MLB seasons, five as a starter with KC and California, batting .256 lifetime with an OPS+ of 100 on the nose. Pags had two seasons and 120 games left in him, hitting .244 during his last hurrah in the AL. 
• 1970 - The Pirates and the Royals swung a six-player trade with RHP Bruce Dal Canton, C Jerry May and SS Freddie Patek going to Kansas City while C Jim Campanis, SS Jackie Hernandez and RHP Bob Johnson were sent to Pittsburgh. Patek and Dal Canton became everyday players for the Royals as Patek played nine years for KC and won three All-Star berths while Dal Canton served as an effective swingman for five campaigns with the Royals. May was a backup who played through 2003, Johnson was 17-16-7/3.34 with the Bucs and Hernandez was a reserve infielder, with the last pair lasting three years for the Pirates. Campanis, the son of Dodger GM Al, didn't make the club until 1973, and he only had six at-bats in his last hurrah in MLB. 
• 1976 - Danny Murtaugh, who had retired two months earlier as Pirate manager, died of a heart attack/stroke at age 59 in his Chester home. He compiled a 1,115-950 record in 2,068 games (.540), second-most wins in Pirates history behind Fred Clarke, and took five pennants and two World Series championships. His number 40 was retired by the Pirates on Opening Day, 1977, and the Whistlin’ Irishman is also a member of the Pirates and the Irish-American Halls of Fame.

12/2 From 1980: Wade & Strange Signings, Spanky Gold, Carl Prez, '21 & '16 Arb Classes, Petey-Stew-Bo Go, Lockout; HBD Wyatt

• 1982 - C/coach Wyatt Toregas was born in Fairfax, Virginia. He had a 22-game MLB career with three of those games played with Pittsburgh in 2011 where he went 0-for-4. In November, at the age of 28, Toregas was converted into a player/coach and served in the first base box for the 2012 AAA Indy Indians. In January, 2015, Wyatt was named as the first manager of the Bucs’ short-season affiliate, the West Virginia Black Bears, moving up the ladder to skipper for the West Virginia Power and Bradenton Marauders. He continued as a member of the Braves organization, resigning as Mississippi Braves manager in June of 2021 and Wyatt’s been out of baseball since. 
• 1987 - Attorney Carl Barger was named team president, replacing Malcolm “Mac” Prine, who had lost an internal battle w/GM Syd Thrift. Barger was one of the architects of the Pittsburgh Associates and well-positioned to take over the day-to-day operations of the club, although he still kept his day job with Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott. His immediate goal was to improve the team’s image and marketing, with his aim being for attendance to hit the 2M mark. He left the Pirates in 1991 to become president of the new Florida Marlins’ franchise after he hit his patronage goal in 1990, spurred by the success of the Bucs' run into the postseason. Westinghouse’s Douglas Danforth was chosen as Chairman of the Board and CEO to replace Barger. 
• 1987 - C Mike “Spanky” LaValliere was presented with his first (and only) Golden Glove as selected by the coaches and players. Spanky led the NL in throwouts (45%) in his first season as a Bucco (he replaced Tony Pena, who was part of the deal with SL that brought Lavalliere to Pittsburgh) and finished the year with a .300 BA, doing it with both his lumber and leather. It also proved handy for his pocketbook; the honor triggered a $10K contract bonus. 
• 1991 - After six years as a Pirate, Bobby Bonilla signed as a free agent with the New York Mets, the opening move in the Bucs’ eventual early-nineties disintegration. His five-year, $29M deal made him the game's highest-paid player at the time. From 1986 to 1991, Bonilla had a .284 batting average with 114 home runs/500 RBI's, led the league in extra base hits in 1990 and in doubles in 1991 and was named to the All-Star team for four years in a row. Bo is currently being paid about $1.2M by the New York Mets annually through 2035 as part of a negotiated buyout of a second deal signed in 1999. That deal turned the $5.9M due to him in 2000 into $29.8M over 25 years, earning Bobby Bo a nod as an All-Star in the world of finance, too. 

Doug Strange - 1998 Fleer Ultra

• 1997 - Free agent IF Doug Strange signed a two-year/$1.1M deal with the Pirates, sweetened with appearance bonuses. The 34-year-old hit .173 in 1988 and didn’t make the cut for the second year of the deal, with his sole Bucco season ending his nine-year MLB career. No hard feelings, though - Strange joined the FO in 2002 and is still a Pirates suit involved with evaluation and scouting. 
• 2013 - C Chris Stewart was traded to the Bucs by the New York Yankees for a PTBNL, who ended up being minor league pitcher Kyle Haynes. Stew played through two option seasons before signing up for another two-year stint (with a club option for a third) following 107 games and a .292 BA with the Pirates as the caddy from 2014-15. Stew got into just 34 games in 2016 and had season-ending surgery on his knee in September. He barely topped the Mendoza Line in his final two Bucco campaigns and was non-tendered after 2017, next playing for Atlanta and Arizona before retiring in 2019. The Pirates also lost two fan favorites players on this date when 1B/OF Garrett Jones and C Michael “The Fort” McKenry were allowed to walk as free agents. 
• 2015 - Former #1 pick (second overall) in 2008, 1B Pedro Alvarez, was non-tendered and became a free agent. Pedro hit 131 homers in 742 games for Pittsburgh, but his inability to solve lefties (.203 BA), strikeouts (809) and fielding woes made his projected $8M arbitration award too pricey for the Bucs, which had tried unsuccessfully to move him to an American League club for two years running. He went on to play three years with Baltimore, with 2018 being his last campaign. Petey is now part of the Milwaukee Brewers player development team. Jaff Decker, a depth outfielder, was also non-tendered. Jaff signed on as organizational depth for Tampa Bay, getting into 19 games, and got a cup of coffee with Oakland in 2017, his last MLB posting. 
• 2016 - The Pirates kept the majority of their eight-man arb class. The FO tendered P’s Tony Watson, Juan Nicasio, Gerrit Cole, Drew Hutchison & Jared Hughes and signed Wade LeBlanc (one year + option, $800K guaranteed); they also tendered SS Jordy Mercer. The casualties were P Jeff Locke, who was DFA’ed, and C Eric Fryer, who was non-tendered as a pre-arb player. 

Jared Hughes - 2016 Topps

• 2019 - The Pirates brought in Steve Sanders, 31, the Director of Amateur Scouting for Toronto, as an Assistant GM, becoming new GM Ben Cherington’s first front office hire (it was officially announced the next day). His focus was on amateur/international scouting and MLB’s draft. The two had a history of working together: Sanders was a scout for Boston in 2012 when Cherington was the GM, and was the Blue Jays Scouting Director during Cherington’s stint with Toronto. Sanders replaced Kyle Stark, who had been relieved of duty in mid-November. 
• 2020 - The Pirates had 15 guys eligible for arb, and today was the deadline for dealing with their contracts. IF Erik Gonzalez was signed to a one-year/$1.225 million contract (he made $725K last season), while RHP Michael Feliz and RHP Jameson Taillon also agreed on deals. Arb-eligible players RHP Trevor Williams and 1B/OF Jose Osuna had already been released. The remainder of the arb guys (10) were tendered and decided to go through the hearing process. They were 1B Josh Bell, LHP Steven Brault, RHP Kyle Crick, 2B Adam Frazier, RHP Chad Kuhl, 1B/3B Colin Moran, RHP Joe Musgrove, RHP Richard Rodriguez, C Jake Stallings and RHP Chris Stratton (who was the only man left on the roster by the 2022 season). In another move, RHP Clay Holmes, who was ailing with a bad arm, was non-tendered (he was a year shy of arb). Holmes was dealt to the NYYs in mid-2021 and has slashed 16-10-44/2.50 w/10 K per nine innings since then. 
• 2021 - At one minute past midnight, MLB informed the union that the players were being locked out pending a new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The main sticking points: the owners were pushing a cap/floor system to control costs, while the union was opposed, seeing it as a ploy to limit the pay of elite players. On the other hand, the MLBPA wanted an easier eligibility path for young players to get paid serious dollars while the owners would rather keep that cheap labor pool intact. Other less pressing points: tanking, expanded playoffs, luxury tax, service time manipulation and universal DH were also on the table. The last baseball work stoppage was the players strike that canceled the 1994 World Series and caused the 1995 season to be shortened to 144 games. This one was settled in early March, delaying the start of the season but saving all the games.

Weekly Report: Quiet Week As The Winter Meetings Approach...

Well ho ho ho, it's December already...

Pirates Stuff: 

• The Pirates have resigned RHP Beau Burrows to a a minor league deal. He had a 3-3-9/2.94 line in 2025 while fanning a batter per frame in 37 outings through four levels of the Bucco system. He had a rough go at Indy (1-2-3/6.20 line in 16 calls) after kickin' butt at Altoona (1-1-5/0.44 in 16 games). 

Beau Burrows - 2025 photo/MLB.com

• Darragh McDonald of MLBTR gives us a general picture of the Pirates postseason trade targets.
• Paul Skenes has landed a record $3,436,343 from this year's pre-arbitration bonus pool. If your memory needs jogged, the pool is a $50M fund established by the 2022 CBA to reward top-performing pre-arb players (fewer than three years of MLB service time). The Buc ace pocketed $1.5M from it in '24.
• IF Coach Mendy Lopez is the latest assistant to leave as Don Kelly continues to personalize his staff.
• Good news on the personal & professional fronts - Jared Jones married his fiancé, Rylie Fox, in Hawaii this past weekend w/Skenes and Kyle Nicolas as his best men. And after the honeymoon, he's due back from UCL surgery on schedule this spring, sometime between March - May, after missing all of '25.

MLB Stuff:

• The hot stove should get a log or two tossed into it shortly; the 2025 MLB Winter Meetings in Orlando, Florida are scheduled from December 7-10, with the Hall of Fame vote, Rule 5 Draft and the agents peddling their clients to hopefully light a fire in what's been a fairly quiet postseason so far.
• The Cards traded Sonny Gray to the Red Sox, putting a crimp in Bucco trade options as Boston was a rumored landing spot for Mitch Keller. Of course, St. Louis' rotation has an opening now...
• Local boy does good: The Rockies made Warren Schaeffer their F/T skipper, removing the interim tag he held since May of last season. Schaeffer is from Vandergrift and went to Greensburg Central Catholic HS, where he played SS on the road to Virginia Tech, the minors and ultimately to the bigs as a coach.
• IF Vinny Capra, who had a short stint with the Bucs in 2023 (.167 BA in 18 ABs), has signed a minor league deal with Boston. He's also had brief MLB time served with Toronto, the Brewers and the White Sox.

12/1 Through the 1950s: Hank & Emil Join, Rocky & ElRoy Drafted, Allies McKinnon Deal, Meyer Retires, '27 Pgh Winter Meet; HBD Cal, Cookie, Mike, Eppie, Jake & Paddy

• 1868 - 1B/C George “Paddy” Fox was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He played for Louisville in 1891 and then was in the minors before making it back to Pittsburgh in 1899, hitting .244 in 13 games. He had some added value, though - he was sent, along with Jack Chesbro and a couple of other guys, to Louisville for the bulk of their roster, a master move by owner Barney Dreyfuss to pick up the nucleus (Honus Wagner, Deacon Phillippe, Tommy Leach, Fred Clarke & Claude Ritchey w/nine others) of his powerhouse turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh clubs. Paddy finished his playing career on the farm in Lancaster at age 39 in 1908. 
• 1886 - The American Association Alleghenys traded 1B Otto Schomberg along with $400 to the St. Louis Maroons in return for 1B Alex McKinnon. Schomberg was in the minors for a year and then finished out his MLB days with a two-season stay with the NL Indiana Hoosiers. The 30-year-old McKinnon was just blossoming, getting into 48 games and batting .340 for Pittsburgh. But he caught pneumonia brought on by typhoid fever early in the season and he passed away in July of 1887. Pittsburgh wore black crêpe on their uniforms to honor their teammate. 
• 1895 - OF Jake Miller (Muenzing) was born in Baltimore. Jake was a minor league lifer who played on various farm clubs from 1913-30. His taste of the high life came in 1922 when he got into three games in two days (July 16-17th) for the Pirates, going 1-for-11 against Brooklyn. The newspapers said he was “ripe for the big leagues” (he hit .314 in the minor leagues from 1920-22) but apparently the big leagues had a different take on Jake’s ripeness. 
• 1900 - IF Everett “Eppie” Barnes was born in Ossining, New York. A basketball and baseball star at Colgate, he only got seven at-bats for the Pirates with a hit during 1923-24, but had a long and distinguished athletic career as an amateur coach and executive afterward. A noted semi-pro player, he was later the athletic director at his alma mater and the baseball pilot, along with being the president of the NCAA for three years and Director of the 1968 US Olympic Committee. Eppie was named to the American Association of Baseball Coaches, United Savings-Helms Athletic Foundation and Colgate Halls of Fame. Barnes was also a member of the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues set up by the Hall of Fame from 1971-77 to elect Negro League players to the Hall. 

Mike Cvengros - 1927 photo/Detroit Public Library

• 1900 - LHP Mike Cvengros was born in Pana, Illinois. Mike had a long and solid career in the minors, toiling from 1921-37 on the farm, but in six big league seasons, his 1927 campaign with the Pirates was the only year he finished with an ERA under four (2-1-1/3.35). As a bonus, he got to toss a couple of frames against the Yankees in the WS, holding his own. The Pirates apparently weren’t that impressed (he had more walks than whiffs) and traded him to minor league Wichita Falls for another lefty, Fred Fussell. Mike got one more shot in the show with the Cubs in 1929, then spent the next eight years in the bushes before retiring. 
• 1912 - IF Attilio Harry “Cookie” Lavagetto was born in Oakland, California. He started his MLB career as a Bucco bench player, batting .249 from 1934-36. He was then traded to the Dodgers, where he blossomed into a four time All-Star before losing the next four years to WW2, then returning to Brooklyn for two more campaigns. In 1961, he became the Minnesota Twins first manager and was a coach for the New York Mets (1962-63) and San Francisco Giants (1964-67). He got his nickname as an Oakland Oak farm hand early in his career as a hand-me-down from team owner Cookie DeVincenzi, who was fond of the young Lavagetto. 
• 1923 - The Bucs sent a PTBNL (OF Ed Hock) to Oklahoma City of the Western League for LHP Emil Yde. The lefty went 41-19/3.53 for the Pirates from 1924-26, but the wheels fell off in ‘27, he was waived, and spent one more season in the majors, with Detroit in 1929. Hock did get to sip some coffee in the big leagues, appearing in 19 games and getting one hit over the three campaigns. 
• 1925 - RHP Calvin Coolidge “Cal” Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish (Cal explained that “There were eight kids in the family, and I was number seven and my dad didn’t get to name one of them before me. So he evidently tried to catch up.”) was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He also went by “Bus,” a childhood nickname his poppa (he had a way with names) dropped on him, who upon seeing his infant son for the first time said that “He’s as big as a bus!” McLish didn’t hit his stride until the fifties, but got in three games for the Bucs in 1947-48, mostly working at Indy before being traded to the Cubs with Frankie Gustine. Cal ended up more of a workman (4.01 lifetime ERA) than All-Star, but still won double digit games in five of six seasons from 1958-63, with a 19-win, All Star season for Cleveland in 1959. His last campaign was in 1964 and after he left the slab, he stayed in baseball as a coach/scout for Philadelphia, Montreal and Milwaukee. 

Cal McLish - 1927-28 photo/Lizzy's Locker

• 1927 - The coming year’s schedule was finalized by the leagues at the William Penn Hotel. It was a departure from the norm as the schedules were usually drawn up at the winter meetings, but the American League passed a resolution that their dates be already prepared to be voted on at that get-together. The Senior Circuit wasn’t under the gun but decided to set their games ahead of time too, with Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss being the lead man, assisted by NL President John Heydler and his aide, Harvey Traband. Junior Circuit prez Ernest Barnard and his secretary William Harridge were also at the William Penn doing the AL honors. 
• 1928 - During the winter meetings, National League President John Heydler proposed a ten-man team that included a designated hitter in place of the pitcher. The senior circuit voted in favor of the proposal, but the AL nixed it, more opposed to the tweak because the NL proposed it than on its merits. The DH in one form or another had popped up on occasion going back to the 1890s but didn’t see the light of day until the American League adopted it in 1973. 
• 1941 - The Bucs purchased RHP Hank Gornicki’s contract from the Cards, and the righty lasted three seasons (1942-43, 1946) with Pittsburgh, posting a line of 14-19-6/3.38 while swapping in his 1944-45 tour of duty from the Pirates to the Army, where he suffered from a bad leg that eventually squelched his return to baseball (being 35-years-old upon discharge didn’t help, either). It was a busy day; the Bucs also got their first signed contract of the season back when Rip Sewell. The vet won 30 games in ‘40-41 and would win 59 more from ‘42-44. Rip won 143 games over a dozen seasons with the Bucs, pitching until he was 42 years old. 
• 1952 - The Pirates chose ElRoy Face from the Montreal Royals, the top minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the first overall pick of the minor league draft. GM Branch Rickey said the decision was between Face and C Johnny Bucha. He made a good choice; Bucha was taken by the Tigers and lasted one more big league season, hitting .222. During a 15-year career with the Pirates, Face led the NL in saves three times, collecting 100 wins and 188 saves as a Bucco while popularizing the forkball, a prototype of the modern day splitter. He retired to North Versailles where he made his living as a carpenter. During his career, he was known as “The Baron of the Bullpen” as popularized by Bob Prince, and is still considered a pioneer in the closer’s evolution. GM Branch Rickey also selected vet pitchers Johnny Hetki and Swissvale’s Bob Hall. Hetki, who had worked for the Browns & Reds, lasted two more seasons as the closer, making 112 appearances, and Hall, who had tossed for the Braves, got in one more year. Both ended their MLB careers as Pittsburgh Pirates. 

Bill Meyer - 1952 Topps

• 1955 - Bill Meyer, who was recognized as the Manager of the Year in 1948 with the Bucs, retired as a Pirates organizational trouble shooter after being felled by a stroke. His MLB career started back in 1909 and after he retired he began a long run of minor-league managing gigs, coming to Pittsburgh in 1948 from the Yankee system to take his first MLB pilot’s job. He resigned as skipper in 1952 and began his roaming coach assignment. A couple of weeks after Meyer left his consultant/tutor post, the Bucs brought back Bill Burwell as a replacement. 
• 1958 - The Pirates drafted Rocky Nelson from Toronto of the International League for a $25,000 fee in the minor-league Rule 5 draft. He was already 34, but would spend three seasons with the Bucs, hitting .270 as a platoon player and pinch hitter. Rocky went 3-for-9 in the 1960 World Series with a home run.

12/1 From 1960: Bailey/Alley-Wills, Gibbon-Alou, Nunez-KY-Gene Sign, Pops Stays Put, S-Rod Back, Doug Gone, Deal Nixed, Kent Aboard, Minor Relos; RIP Tommy & Gene, HBD Reggie

• 1960 - The Pirates made some minor league changes: they dropped their second AAA club, Salt Lake City of the Pacific Coast League, moving all their upper level prospects to Columbus of the International League. Then they moved their A team from Savannah to Asheville (Sally League) and shifted from Dubuque to Batavia in Class D (NY-Pennsy League). That fit in with development cuts that reduced the Bucs minor league system from 14 teams to seven under Joe Brown’s regime. 
• 1965 - The Bucs traded for Giants’ CF Matty Alou, who was coming off a .231 season, sending LHP Joe Gibbon and IF Ozzie Virgil to the Bay. Alou played five seasons in Pittsburgh, promptly winning a batting crown in 1966 and putting up four straight .330+ years after manager Harry “The Hat” Walker retooled his batting approach. He finished in the NL’s top five in hitting from 1966-69. In 2007, the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame inducted Alou into their Hall of Fame after he finished his 15 year career with a .307 BA. 
• 1966 - The Pirates sent 3B Bob Bailey and SS Gene Michael to the Dodgers for SS/3B Maury Wills. Wills hit .290 and stole 81 bases for the Bucs in his two seasons as the club’s third baseman. He was lost in the 1968 expansion draft during a Pirates youth movement, played a year with Montreal and then closed out his career where he started it, in Los Angeles. The highly-hyped Bailey had been signed out of Wilson High School in Long Beach in 1961, and was given the largest signing bonus ever paid up to that time, a reported $135,000, by the Brooklyn Dodgers. Michael was 28 and didn’t find a groove in LA, but went on to become the Yankees’ starting shortstop for five years (1969-73) and played until age 37 before going on to a managerial career. 
• 1967 - OF Reggie Sanders was born in Florence, South Carolina. Reggie played 17 solid seasons in the show and his 2003 stay in Pittsburgh was excellent as he hit .285 with 31 homers and 87 RBI. The Pirates had signed the 35-year-old to a one-year/$1M contract and he doubled it the next season by jumping to the Cards. Sanders played into the 2007 campaign, before bowing out at age 39 by playing for his eighth team, the Kansas City Royals. 

Reggie Sanders - 2003 SPx Spectrum

• 1970 - The Pirates were set to send SS Gene Alley and C Jerry May to Milwaukee for RHP Marty Pattin, but reports concerning Alley’s sore arm caused the Brewers to back out of the deal. Alley had played with a bad wing since 1967, and the constant wear and tear through the seasons eventually led to his retirement after the 1973 campaign. The light-hitting May was moved the next day, going to KC in a six-man deal. Pattin went on to have an All-Star season as a starter in 1971 for the Brew Crew, and won 10 games or more five times in the next seven years, mostly tossing for the Kansas City nine. 
• 1972 - Manager Bill Virdon announced from the winter meetings in Honolulu that Willie Stargell, who had moved from left field to first base in July of the prior season (101 games played with a league-leading 15 errors) to replace a cold-hitting Bob Robertson, would stay at the position while Big Red would get work at the corners and left field. It didn’t quite work out that way; Robby did start 32 games playing LF/3B, but got 106 starts at first while Willie played exclusively in left (CF Al Oliver got 99 games in at first in 1973-74). Roberto Clemente’s tragic death created an outfield void that Manny Sanguillen and then Richie Zisk tried to fill in right while Willie provided stability in left. Dave Parker’s emergence allowed Zisk to flip to left in 1975 and Pops with his creaky knees finally made the move to become the Buccos’ full-time first-sacker at age 35. Other news from the winter get-together: Commissioner Bowie Kuhn confirmed that the 1974 All-Star Game would be held in Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium. 
• 1982 - The Pirates inked 36-year-old FA Gene Tenace to a multi-season deal, thought to be two years/$400K. He was brought aboard as a replacement for Willie Stargell, who was Jason Thompson’s back-up/bench bat during Pop’s last campaign. Gene got into 53 games in 1983, batted .177, and Pittsburgh ate the second year of the agreement, ending Tenace’s MLB days. 
• 1989 - Kent Derdivanis was named as John Sanders replacement in the KDKA booth, joining Lanny Farattare on the play-by-play along with color men Steve Blass and Jim Rooker after signing a two-year contract. He worked for Pittsburgh through the 1993 season before returning to his home base in Arizona. Sanders, who spent nine years as the voice of the Buccos, later landed a deal in Cleveland and was their announcer from 1991-2006. 

Doug Drabek - 1992 Upper Deck Collectors Choice

• 1992 - 30-year-old RHP Doug Drabek signed with the Houston Astros, agreeing to a four-year/$19.5M contract. It was a homecoming for DD, who was born in Texas, attended Victoria HS and the U of Houston, and lived in the suburb of The Woodlands. Bobby Bonilla had left the year before and Barry Bonds would sign with the Giants a week later, losing the Big Three of the Pirates’ pennant teams with no return and beginning a long-running baseball soap opera in Pittsburgh. 
• 1997 - The Pirates signed 1B Kevin Young to a two-year/$3.7M contract after he hit .300 and led the team in homers (18) and RBI (74) during the season despite missing 35 games with a thumb injury. KY spent the next five years as a starter for Pittsburgh, mainly at 1B, and hit .263 with 103 homers in that span. Young spent 11 of his 12 MLB seasons in Pittsburgh, and still serves as a Pirates special assistant & as a rotating color analyst on both the radio and TV broadcasts. 
• 1999 - Gene Baker passed away in Davenport, Iowa, at the age of 74. The backup infielder spent the last four years of his MLB career with the Bucs, capped by the 1960 World championship. He retired after that year, and Baker became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia Pirates farm club in the New York–Penn League. In 1962, the Pirates named him player-coach of the AAA Columbus Jets. In 1963, Baker was promoted to coach with the Bucs. He was the second black coach in the big leagues, following Buck O'Neil by a half-season, and is considered the first black MLB manager when he took over for the ejected Danny Murtaugh on September 21st, 1963. Gene then closed out his baseball career as a Pirates scout. 
• 2003 - The Pirates signed IF Abraham Nunez to a one-year, $625K contract in his eighth season with the club. He hit .236 in 2004 (just about at his .238 Bucco career clip), was released and signed a deal with the Cards for 2005. He played well for them, hitting a career-high .285, but returned to earth during his final three campaigns with the Phils and Mets, finishing up his MLB days in 2008. 

S-Rod - 2015 Topps Update

• 2014 - The Pirates picked up utilityman Sean Rodriguez from Tampa Bay for minor league RHP Buddy Borden to replace newly minted starter Josh Harrison on the Buc bench. Rodriguez hit a career low .211 in 96 games for the Rays in 2014, but set career highs in home runs (12) and RBI's (41). He became available after being DFA’ed when the Rays signed RHP Ernesto Frieri, who the Pirates had cut loose. S-Rod hit .246 for Pittsburgh in 2015 while playing every infield position and both corner OF spots but broke out in 2016, batting .270 with 18 HR. That led to a two-year/$11.5M deal with the Braves for 2017, short-circuited by a shoulder injury suffered in a car crash. The Pirates decided they wanted him back and sent minor leaguer Connor Joe to the Bravos in exchange for S-Rod in August. He was released a year later and played for Philly, moving to Miami in 2020. He’s now a Philly player development coach. Connor played a bit for the Giants before joining the Rox. He made the circle unbroken by returning to Pittsburgh in 2023 via trade. Afterward,he played for the Reds and Padres in ‘25 and is now a free agent. 
• 2020 - Tommy Sandt, a long-time coach/manager in the Pirates organization who was widely popular among the players, passed away at age 69. He was traded here for pitcher John Stuper before the 1979 season by St. Louis, playing AAA ball for the Bucs as a player/manager. After successful runs as skipper in the upper levels, he joined Jim Leyland’s staff in 1987 as the first base/infield coach for the three-time NL East Division champions. He followed Leyland to Florida and Colorado. He returned to Pittsburgh as a special instructor/first-base coach from 2000-2002 under bossmen Gene Lamont and Lloyd McClendon, spending 21 years overall with the Pirates as a minor league manager and big league coach.

11/30: Lynch Drafted, Roberto - Russ - Pete Signed, Mooney Back On Bench, '21 Shuffle, Minor Moves; RIP Les, HBD Kyle, Craig, Matt, Joe, Clyde, Tacks & Lefty

• 1870 - LHP Frank “Lefty” Killen was born in the North Side, then still Allegheny City. He spent six seasons with the Bucs (1893-98) and twice led the NL in wins, with 36 (a team record) in ‘93 and 30 in ‘96. Lefty’s line with Pittsburgh was 112-82/3.97. The team released him during the 1898 campaign, and he closed out his 10th MLB season in 1900. Killen trivia: he ended Wee Willie Keeler's 44-game hitting streak on June 19th, 1897 when Lefty and the Bucs stopped the Orioles, 7-1. He went 30-18 in 1896 and was the last 30-game winner in team history. 
• 1877 - C Clifford “Tacks” Latimer was born in Loveland, Ohio. Tacks played 13 years of pro ball with five whistle stops in the show, including a four-game visit with the Bucs in 1900, as part of maneuvering that moved most of Louisville’s roster to Pittsburgh. Latimer’s Pirates audition was short-circuited by a bout of malaria caught during spring camp though he went 4-for-12. He got his nickname in the minors: though he was a quiet man, one of his teammates dubbed him Tacks, a name usually reserved for guys who play to (and sometimes over) the line using the same reverse logic that names a 6’6” player Shorty. He did get tacky after he retired. He got a job as a railroad cop, and his boss got into a brawl with Tacks, ending badly when Latimer shot his knife-wielding foe four times, killing him. Unfortunately, the slugs were in the back and the judge sentenced him to life in prison. But Tacks was a model con, sheltering the warden & guards during a violent gang escape, then helping douse a prison fire to eventually earn a parole. He kept his nose clean after that, passing away in Loveland in 1936. Tacks’ trivia: Ex-Pittsburgh catcher Doggy Miller managed him at minor-league Minnesota and converted Tacks from the outfield to catcher. 
• 1901 - Pirate coach and scout Clyde Sukeforth was born in Washington, Maine. A longtime member of the Brooklyn Dodger organization (he was the scout on Jackie Robinson), he followed Branch Rickey and came to Pittsburgh as a coach/scout in 1952. Sukeforth was one of the key FO voices heard pushing the selection of Roberto Clemente in the 1954 Rule 5 draft. He turned down the chance to succeed skipper Bobby Bragan in 1957 and retired as a coach after the season, but remained with the Pirates as a scout and minor league manager through 1962. 
• 1931 - George “Mooney” Gibson (he earned the nickname either through his moon-shaped face or because one of his early teams was called the Mooneys; take your pick) returned for his second spin as Bucco manager, replacing Jewel Ens. He lasted until early in 1934, posting a 200-159 record and two second place finishes. Overall, the Canadian Gibson (he was from Ontario) had a 401-330/.549 record with Pittsburgh. He got his start as a long-time Bucco catcher, playing from 1905-1916 in Pittsburgh, hitting .238 but leading the NL in fielding three times with a toss-out rate of 46% against would-be base stealers. Mooney was the Pirates everyday catcher in 1909 when they won the World Series against the Tigers.

Pete Reiser - 1951 Bowman

• 1950 - Pittsburgh signed the Boston Braves’ OF Harold “Pete/Pistol Pete” Reiser, who had been a three-time all-star for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the early-to-mid 40s, as a FA. Reiser hit .271 in 74 games as a Bucco bench player and was released following the season. Per Mark Stewart of SABR “As a boy, his friends and family called him Pete, after the cowboy movie hero Two-Gun Pete. He loved westerns, and as a child often walked around the neighborhood with a pair of toy six-shooters holstered to his belt. Eventually his nickname became Pistol Pete.” 
• 1953 - The Pirates selected OF Jerry Lynch from the New York Yankees in the Rule 5 draft. Lynch spent the first and final three campaigns of his 13-year career as a Pirate (he spent the middle seven seasons with the Reds), batting .263. He was one of baseball’s great bats off the bench, collecting 116 pinch hits during his career, joining ex-Bucs Manny Mota, Matt Stairs and Smoky Burgess on the all-time roster. Lynch is also high on the career pinch hit home run list (he was first when he retired) with 18. He kept his local roots watered when he teamed up with Dick Groat to own and operate the Champion Lakes Golf Course in Ligonier before retiring to the Atlanta area in the late 1980s. He died on March 31, 2012, at age 81 and had his ashes scattered on a local golf course. 
• 1954 - Coach Joe Kerrigan was born in Philadelphia. A first round draft pick of the Expos in 1974, Joe tossed for five seasons before coaching. He was John Russell’s pitching coach in Pittsburgh from 2008-10 after serving as PC for Montreal, Boston (briefly as manager in 2001) and Philly with a bullpen coaching gig for the Yankees. Kerrigan was a volatile guy and also known for his “Pitchers Pal,” a mannequin he had his pitchers throw against instead of a live batter. The Pirates bullpen nicknamed the dummy “Oyez,” one of Joe’s favorite terms. 
• 1959 - The KC Athletics drafted Dave Wickersham from the Pirates in the minor league Rule 5 draft. The righty went on to have a 10-year MLB career (including 1-0-1/3.48 with Pittsburgh in 1968 though most of the year was spent in AAA Columbus), highlighted by a 19-win season in 1964 with the Detroit Tigers. He finished his career where it started in KC with the Royals in 1969. 
• 1971 - OF Matt Lawton was born in Gulfport, Mississippi. Matt spent a few months of his 12-year career in Pittsburgh in 2005, coming to the Bucs from the Indians for Arthur Rhodes and then getting sent to the Cubs at the 2005 deadline for Jody Gerut. Lawton swung a decent stick while here, batting .273 w/10 HR. But after the 2005 season, he received a 10-game suspension after testing positive for PEDs. He played in 11 games for Seattle in 2006 as his MLB curtain call. 

Dick Sharon (Charleston Charlies) - 1972 via Jewish Baseball Museum

• 1972 - The Pirates sent OF Dick Sharon, their 1968 first round draft pick, to the Detroit Tigers for LHP Jim Foor and righty Norm McRae. Sharon hadn’t reached the majors yet while Foor and McRae had cups of coffee in the show. It ended up a very minor deal - Sharon played three years in the show and got a chance to show his stuff, but hit .218 in 242 games before spending his last campaign with Boston’s AAA Pawtucket club. Foor got into three games for the Pirates in 1973 and was traded in the spring, ending his MLB days. McRae never pitched again in the majors, working in the Mexican League for five years before retiring. 
• 1976 - OF/1B Craig Wilson was born in Fountain Valley, California. He played as a semi-regular for the Bucs from 2001-06 with a line of .268/.360/.486, 94 HR and 284 RBI, along with a 28% career K rate. Wilson tied the MLB single-season record for pinch-hit home runs with seven in 2001. Hand injuries in 2005 and shoulder surgery in 2007 wound down his career. 
• 1981 - Les Biederman, who covered the Pirates for the Pittsburgh Press for 31 years, passed away at age 74 in Fort Myers, Florida. He joined the Press in 1930 and was on the Bucco beat from 1938-69 (minus his years in the military during WW2), also serving as sports editor from 1966-69. Additionally, Les was the city’s Sporting News correspondent for 20 years, president of the BBWAA, the PA Sportswriter of the Year in 1959 and perhaps most impressively, raised $500K for Children’s Hospital through his Press Old Newsboys Scoreboard Fund. 
• 1992 - RHP Kyle Crick was born in Fort Worth, Texas. A first round pick (49th overall) out of high school in 2011 by the Giants, he got into 30 games with San Francisco in 2017 (0-0/3.06) before joining the Bucs as part of the Andrew McCutchen trade. He didn’t make the team out of camp, but was called up mid-April to join the big club and worked his way into the set-up role for Felipe Vazquez with a 3-2-2/2.39 slash and 65 K in 60-1/3 IP. His ERA doubled in 2019 thanks to a barrage of homers, and his season ended on September 10th when he broke his finger in a clubhouse brawl with Felipe Vazquez. 2020 was little better although injuries put him on the shelf for all but seven outings. He was erratic in ‘21 and the Pirates released him in July; the Chicago White Sox picked him up. Kyle then worked in the Mets system. He didn’t find any takers in 2025 and now is an MLB free agent. 

Kyle Crick - 2020 Pirates image

• 2012 - The Pirates officially signed free agent catcher Russell Martin, a three-time All-Star, to a two-year/$17M deal, the largest free agency contract they had ever negotiated (since surpassed by Frankie Liriano’s three-year/$39M deal in 2014). The catcher got a $2M signing bonus, $6.5M for 2013 and $8.5M for 2014. The deal was a bit of role reversal as the Pirates outbid the Yankees, Martin’s last team, which reportedly offered two-years/$12-14M. Russ was among the league's top defensive catchers and had a .290/.402/.430 slash in his final Pirate season. He left after the 2014 campaign, signing a five year/$82M deal with Toronto. His contract remains the largest FA deal ever tendered by the Bucs for a player who came from outside the organization. 
• 2021 - The Pirates left a gaping hole behind the plate when they traded Jake Stallings the day before (they actually had no catcher listed on their 40-man roster) and acted quickly, signing two-time Golden Glove Roberto Perez, formerly of the Indians/Guardians, to a one-year/$5M contract (the deal became official the next day). Perez had a lifetime BA of .206 over eight campaigns and was coming off a pair of sub-.200 seasons, albeit struggling through shoulder injuries. The Pirates brass accepted that as the club needed a bridge for young lower-level prospects Henry Davis, Endy Rodriguez & company, and Perez fit the need for a vet presence for a young staff. Alas, true to form, Roberto played just 21 games before losing the remainder of the campaign to hammy surgery in mid-May. He spent 2025 playing in the Latin leagues after being released by Boston in ‘24. 
• 2021 - The ‘21 arb class had their day. The FO inked SS Kevin Newman to a $1.95M contract, a nice bump after he had made $598,000 last season. The Bucs also tendered contracts to OF Bryan Reynolds (he signed later for two years/$13M) and RHP Chris Stratton, who was dealt to the Cards at the deadline. The team didn't make an offer to RHP Chad Kuhl, who was 2021's Opening Day pitcher. He wanted to start and the Pirates had him pegged as a reliever, resulting in his departure to join the Rox and their rotation. Earlier in the off season, the FO signed OF Ben Gamel, traded C Jake Stallings, and cut ties with 1B Colin Moran, LHP Steven Brault, LHP Chasen Shreve, IF Wilmer Difo, C Michael Perez and IF Erik Gonzalez, the other members of the ‘21 arb class. Out of 12 arb eligible players, Reynolds was the only one left standing in Pittsburgh after the ‘22 season.