1/3: Joker, Spanky, Al & Sure Shot Signed, Rabbit Hunt, No-No To Jo-Jo, In The Black, Deac OK, Clemente Fund; HBD Carlos, Michael, AJ, Luis, Mark, Dick, Harry, Eudie, Gus & Red

• 1888 - 2B Fred “Sure Shot” Dunlap signed with the Alleghenys following the sale of his contract by the Detroit Wolverines. He agreed to a $5‚000 salary and a $2‚000 bonus‚ making him the highest-paid infielder of the time. The rangy defensive whiz played three years for the team, hitting just .240 (his lifetime BA was .292) at the backside of his career. Sure Shot is credited with earning his nickname from King Kelly, who was duly impressed with his fielding acrobatics and sure, strong arm. There is an alternate tale, per Wikipedia. In his book “The Complete History of the Home Run,” Mark Ribowsky claimed the nickname was won when Dunlap, then with the Cleveland Blues, hit a two-run, walk-off homer in the ninth to snap a 21-game Chicago White Stocking victory streak. One of the local papers called the blast the "...Shot Heard 'Round Cleveland," leading to the Sure Shot dub. Dunlap was also known as “The King of the Second Basemen.” Fun facts: Alfred Spink in “The National Game” wrote that Dunlap was ambidextrous and could catch/throw a baseball equally well with either hand. Moreover, Sure Shot reportedly never wore a glove. Continuing his dealing, club President William Nimick purchased RHP/1B/OF Albert Maul from Philly for $1,000 and immediately signed him to a $2,800 contract. Al played three years for the Pirates, batting .230 over that time while going 2-8/6.24 in 17 outings from the hill; he also spent 1890 with the Burghers of the short-lived Players League. 
• 1894 - RHP Kirby “Red” White was born in Hillsboro, Ohio. Kirby tossed parts of 1910-11 for the Bucs. He was traded to Pittsburgh by the Boston Doves early in 1910 and went 10–9/3.46 in 30 games. In 1911, he was used for just three innings, going 0-1/9.00, and was released, spending the next four seasons in the minors. We assume he was red-haired; Kirby also went by “Buck.” 
• 1906 - 1B Gus Suhr was born in San Francisco. He spent 9-1/2 seasons (1930-39) with the Pirates, hitting .279 with a .386 OPB and driving in 818 runs, earning an All-Star berth in 1936. Suhr started 1,389 games at first base for Pittsburgh, a team record, and once held the NL standard of 822 consecutive games played, which lasted until 1957. The game he missed wasn’t due to injury; he took off to attend his mother’s funeral. Gus retired after the 1940 season he spent with the Phils. 

Gus Suhr - 1935 National Chickle

• 1913 - C Euthumm “Eudie” Napier was born in Milledgeville, Georgia. His family moved from the farm to Pittsburgh when Eudie was a kid and he graduated from Allegheny HS. He was athletic and played baseball for Pittsburgh’s sandlot Monarchs, where he caught the notice of the black pro clubs. A defensive whiz (although he did hit .279 over his career as a Gray per Seamheads), he was yo-yo’ed on the Homestead roster, playing sporadically from 1939 until 1948 before moving on to Canadian and Latin American ball. Napier continued playing in the local sandlot leagues after he retired and was inducted into the Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame (Western Chapter) in 1978. He passed on in 1983 and is buried in North Side's Union Dale Cemetery. 
• 1920 - Ralph Davis of the Pittsburgh Press wrote “...it is generally believed that the Pirates have been casting longing eyes in the direction of Rogers Hornsby and Milton Stock of the St. Louis Cardinals...but (St Louis) President Branch Rickey is apparently determined to demand a ‘pound of flesh’ if he relinquishes his hold…” No wonder; 2B Hornsby went on a six-season batting title streak beginning during the 1920 campaign to go with a 13-year .300+ skein (including three .400+ years) on his way to the Hall of Fame. It would have been a sweet sight indeed to see Hornsby and Pirates SS Rabbit Maranville together in the middle for five years had the deal been consummated. The lesser-known 3B Stock started for the next six years while batting .299 for the St. Louis Cards and Brooklyn Dodgers, but the Pirates already had in-house replacements flowing through the pipeline. After a 1920 apprenticeship, Clyde Barnhart kept the hot corner warm for the Bucs in ‘21 before moving to the OF after Pie Traynor locked up third the following season. 
• 1926 - PH/RHP Harry Fisher was born in Waterloo, Ontario. He was a two-way guy and appeared in 18 MLB games with the 1951–52 Pirates, split between pinch hitter and pitcher. Harry hit .278 for the Bucs, and went 1-2/6.87 on the hill. His last appearance was in August, 1952, before his return to the minors, where he played through 1959, yo-yo’ing between the mound and the pasture. 

Dick Colpaert - 1971 Topps

• 1944 - RHP Dick Colpaert was born in Fraser, Michigan. Dick toiled in the minors for 13 years, 10 as a member of the Pirates system. He got his taste of the bigs in the late summer of 1970 after a hot start at AAA Columbus, getting into eight games and going 0-1/5.91, not as bad a line as it looks at first blush. He had seven effective outings (2.89 ERA), including his win over Atlanta when he blew through Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda and Clete Boyer, until the Mets beat him up in an August appearance. Unfortunately for Dick, that outing blew up his ERA and sent him packing back to the farm. He retired in 1974 at age 30 and did some scouting for the San Diego Padres and the MLB combine. 
• 1961 - The Pittsburgh Press reported that the Pirate owners collected their first dividend check (they got $4/share) since buying the club from the Dreyfuss family in 1946, citing the increased attendance attributed to the 1960 World Series championship season as the major contributor to the coffers.  The Galbreath family held majority team ownership from 1946-85 and most years were lean financially. 
• 1962 - Vern Law, who had suffered for years with muscle tears in his shoulder, was given a clean bill of health by the team doctors in Pittsburgh whose opinions were seconded by a Columbus specialist a couple of days later. Law agreed that he felt no pain in his wing, but by August his record was 4-5/4.93 in just 12 starts. Danny Murtaugh suggested it was time for Law to retire and he did. But a cure did exist - in the off season, he was blessed by a High Priest (Law was a devout Mormon) while in Salt Lake City, and came back to post a 12-13/3.61 line in ‘64, followed by a 17-9/2.15 slash in ‘65, winning the Comeback Player of the Year award. 
• 1965 - RHP Mark Dewey was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Mark went 3-3-8/3.23 for the Bucs out of the pen from 1993-94, with ‘93 being a particularly strong campaign as he converted seven saves with a 2.36 ERA. After six years in the show, he retired and since has coached for the Washington Wild Things and is now with the Milwaukee Brewers organization. 

Luis Sojo - 2000 photo Ezra Shaw/All Sport

• 1965 - IF Luis Sojo was born in Caracas, Venezuela. He spent 13 years in the show, the last eight with the Yankees except for a 61-game spell in 2000 when he was a Bucco. He hit .284 here after signing as a FA, and in August the Yankees got him back by sending RHP Chris Spurling to the Pirates. He retired from the Pinstripe Mob in 2003 and has coached in their system since then except for a break as the manager of the Venezuelan national/WBC squad. 
• 1973 - President Nixon gave a $1,000 check in Roberto Clemente's memory to the Nicaraguan embassy. At the President's request, Dan Galbreath, owner of the Pirates, along with Dave Giusti and Steve Blass, met with him at the White House to discuss setting up a fund in Clemente's honor to aid the survivors of the earthquake. Thus was born the Roberto Clemente Memorial Fund to aid the earthquake victims with Tricky Dicky as the first donor. 
• 1977 - RHP AJ Burnett was born in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The veteran tossed for two years in Pittsburgh (2012-13) after being obtained from the New York Yankees in a Gotham salary dump, with a line of 26-21/3.41 ERA while averaging a whiff per frame. After a rough campaign in Philly, he returned to the Pirates for his final year in 2015. He went 9-7/3.18 in 26 starts, coming back in September after losing time to an elbow inflammation at All-Star break to close out his 17th season, collecting 164 wins and 2,513 whiffs for five teams over those years. AJ was credited with leading the charge to reverse the team’s decades-long losing culture through his mentoring and clubhouse presence. 
• 1979 - OF Michael Restovich was born in Rochester, Minnesota. He spent parts of six seasons in the bigs, with the second half of 2005 in a Bucco jersey. He hit .214 in 52 games, mostly as a pinch-hitter, and moved on to the Cubs in 2006. After playing for seven different organizations (five at the MLB level) and in Japan, Restovich retired after the 2011 season. 

Carlos Maldonado - 2007 Fleer

• 1979 - C Carlos Maldonado was born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. After playing in the Mariner and White Sox systems, he signed with the Pirates in 2004. He got into 21 games in two years, but was here long enough to make his MLB debut, swat his first big league homer (he banged three in his career) and stole his only base. Carlos was released after the 2005 campaign and played his final eight games in the show for the Washington Nats, taking his final at bat in 2012. He’s been a minor league coach and manager for Texas since 2015 after finishing his ball-playing days in the Venezuelan and Italian leagues. 
• 1992 - GM Larry Doughty inked C Mike Lavaliere to a three-year/$6.3M contract that included a $600K signing bonus. The move didn’t pan out as hoped; the Pirates released Spanky in April of 1993 after he played one game, eating over $4M worth of Lavaliere’s salary as Don Slaught took over behind the dish with Tom Prince in reserve. Lavalliere finished his MLB days in 1995 after a three-year run with the Chicago White Sox and is now an IMG Academy instructor in Bradenton. 
• 2006 - 3B Joe Randa was officially signed as a free agent for his second go-around with the Pirates. He inked a $4M deal, nearly double his 2005 salary at Cincinnati. The Joker hit .267 in 89 games in his last MLB season, losing his job to Freddy Sanchez and then retiring in November. He's since been a special advisor to KC and active in Royals Charities.
• 2012 - LHP Jo Jo Reyes, who became a thing when he tied a MLB record for consecutive starts without a win (28) between 2008-2010, signed a minor league deal with the Bucs. The 27-year-old was coming off a 7-11/5.57 AL campaign, but was given a shot to land a back end/long man spot for Pittsburgh. It didn’t happen; he had a lousy spring, was sent to Indy and never took the hill for the Pirates. After his November release, he worked one game for the LA Angels of Anaheim in 2015 and another for the Miami Marlins in 2016, with most of his remaining time on the hill spread among Korean, Mexican, and AAA ball clubs.

1/2: Williams & Coleman Sign, Scouts Darren & Rex; HBD Sup, Ed, Bill, Jesse, George, Jack & Sam

• 1854 - 2B Sam Crane was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Sam got around, playing for eight big league clubs in seven seasons over an 11-year span, with his last hurrah partially spent as an Allegheny in 1890 when he was 36-years-old. He hit just .195 in 22 games and closed out his career playing four games with the Giants. He signed with the Bucs after he was cleared in a trial that accused him of stealing another mans’ wife (and $1,500), though he shouldn’t be confused with the infamous Sam Crane who played 25 years later and was imprisoned for shooting his girlfriend and her companion. (It was apparently a pretty hot-blooded period in America, at least for Sam Cranes.) Our Sam umped a little afterwards, but found his retirement niche as a widely respected sports writer for the New York Evening Journal. Crane covered the Gotham hardball beat for 25 years, earning the sobriquet “the dean of baseball writers." 
• 1858 - RHP Jack Neagle was born in Syracuse, New York. Jack tossed for the Alleghenys between 1883-84, going 14-38/4.28 (the Allies were pretty poor during those seasons; they only won 61 games as a team). He also played a few games in the outfield but that was no better than his mound work as he hit just .165. His Pittsburgh tenure finished out the last two years of his career after he had previously worked for Cincinnati, Philadelphia and Baltimore. 
• 1888 - John Coleman, who had retired briefly, re-signed with the Alleghenys. He was recovering from a bad arm and an undisclosed illness, plus he was said to be under family pressure to stay retired for health reasons (this excuse was widely seen as a play to bump up his salary, undisclosed for ‘88 but $1,500 in 1887). He played RF/1B and was up-and-down in his performance, with his bad wing taking him out of contention as a swing pitcher. That led to his release in 1889 (Philly picked him up), though he did return to Pittsburgh for a brief three-game spell in 1890 that closed out his MLB career. Jack then played sporadically in the minors/semi-pro leagues through 1907. 

John Coleman - 1887 Goodwin/Old Judge

• 1892 - RHP George Boehler was born in Lawrenceville, Kansas. George spent bits and pieces of nine campaigns (he never appeared more than 18 times in any single season) in the majors over a 15-year period. He worked 10 games for the 1923 Pirates, going 1-3/6.04. He had a long, strong minor league career spanning 1911-30. George won 38 games one year, 27 in two others, and topped the 20-win mark seven times while compiling 248 farm victories (and his record is missing a couple of seasons), mostly hurling in the Western & Pacific Coast Leagues. 
• 1893 - OF Jesse Altenburg was born in Ashley, Michigan. His MLB career consisted of the 19 games he played as a Pirate from 1916-17, with a .290 BA. Jesse had a strong September in his rookie campaign, but faltered in the second go-round. He did have a long run in baseball, spending 10 years in the minors and hitting .300+ in at least five of those seasons. 
• 1894 - C/1B Bill Wagner was born in Jessup, Iowa. The light-hitting reserve was a Bucco from 1914-17, putting up a .205 BA in 80 Pittsburgh games. And while there were no family ties, he wasn't the only Wagner on the Pirates - he was a teammate of Honus Wagner, who was 20 years older. Bill was sold to the Boston Braves in 1918, and that was his last MLB season. He retired to Waterloo, Iowa, passing on a few days following his 57th birthday in 1951 after battling cancer. 
• 1929 - RHP Ed Wolfe was born in Los Angeles. Ed served for two years as an Army paratrooper after high school and following his discharge, he played at Fullerton JC before the Pirates' signed him. He spent eight years with the organization, pitching at Indianapolis, Modesto, Bartlesville, Charleston, New Orleans and finally in Hollywood. He got his moment in the sun when he was with the Pirates in April of 1952, going 0-1/7.36 in three outings. 

Ed Wolfe - bio from Diamonds in the Dusk

• 1957 - The Pirates selected Rex Bowen as their new chief scout, replacing George Sisler who would continue to serve the Bucs as an organizational batting coach, instructional league manager and scout. Bowen’s main claims to fame were signing Dick Groat and Bill Mazeroski. Rex hung on to the spot until 1967, when he joined the Cincinnati Reds operations department. 
• 1962 - Bill and Milene Mazeroski’s first son, Darren, was born at West Penn Hospital. He wasn’t a Hall of Famer like his pop, but did play ball in college and the low minors in the Expo system, coached/managed the Gulf Coast CC nine while bird dogging for the Bucs, and became a full-time Pirates scout in 2006, inking Adam Frazier, Kyle McPherson, Clay Holmes, Phil Irwin, Alex Presley and Travis Swaggerty among others. He’s now an area supervisor based out of Florida. 
• 1975 - RHP Jeff Suppan was born in Oklahoma City. “Sup” spent 17 years in the majors and made 417 starts; 21 of those were for the Pirates in 2003, when he went 10-7/3.57 after signing as a free agent. That performance got him flipped in a package deal to the Red Sox at the deadline, netting the Pirates a gift-wrapped return of IF Freddy Sanchez and LHP Mike Gonzalez. 
• 2002 - The Pirates officially signed a two-year deal with RHP Mike Williams worth $7M, getting him back from the Astros after he was swapped at the ‘01 deadline for RHP Tony McKnight. Following an All-Star campaign in 2002 (46 saves/2.93 ERA), Williams faded the next season, collecting another 25 saves but with a 6.27 ERA. He was traded to the Phillies in July of 2003, and that was his last MLB season. His saving grace in Pittsburgh was his swing-and-miss stuff as Williams whiffed 250 batters in 222-2/3 IP as a Buc, helping to cover a multitude of sins.

1/1: Happy & Healthy 2025! TSN - Maz POY & Danny MOY, Groat Wins Gehrig, Jay & Willie Dapper Dan MOYs, Southworth Short, New Year's Game, Josh Treated; RIP Specs, HBD Gary, Bob, Hank, Webster & Gunner

• 1855 - Manager Bill “Gunner” McGunnigle was born in Boston. After his playing career was ended by a beanball that fractured his skull, McGunnigle stayed in the game as a manager. When the 1891 Pittsburgh Pirates (the first to be known as the Pirates) got off to a 31–47 start on the heels of a 23–113 season, the club demoted captain/manager Ned Hanlon and hired McGunnigle, who had a prior stop at Brooklyn. He managed the club to a 24–33-2 record over the remainder of the year and was replaced by Tom Burns. The dapper Gunner managed and coached the bases wearing black patent-leather shoes, a cutaway suit coat, lavender trousers, a silk tie and a derby hat. He was street smart despite his foppish attire - he was the first to use signals from the bench and the first to steal opponent’s signs. He earned his nickname in the minors because of the strength of his arm, per McGunnigle's SABR bio written by Ronald Shafer. 
• 1892 - In a spur of the moment promotion featuring two top Pittsburgh semi-pro clubs, the Pittsburgh Keystones (regrouping after a five-year hiatus) and the South Side Standards, a New Year’s game at Exposition Park was slapped together. The game was scheduled on short notice during an uncharacteristic warm spell, and began with a fife-and-drum corp-led parade from town to the park with the players following in carriages. The contest drew 500 fans as the Standards won 8-3; the late afternoon game was called after 7-1/2 innings because of darkness. It had a touch of the big leagues as former Alleghenys’ pitcher turned Allegheny City bar owner Ed “Cannonball” Morris umpired the game. The Keystones warmed up with the weather and avenged the loss in an April rematch. 
• 1900 - RHP Webster McDonald was born in Wilmington, Delaware. McDonald was a submariner who played in the Negro Leagues from 1920 through 1940 and then managed for Washington and Philly. He tossed and won one game for the Homestead Grays in 1928 and would later join them on an All-Star barnstorming tour. Webster's nickname was "56 Varieties” due to his deep toolkit of pitches, with his bread-and-butter servings being a sinking fastball, curveball and changeup. 

Hank Greenberg - 1973 TCMA All Time Greats

• 1911 - Hall of Fame OF Hank Greenberg was born in New York City. He played for the Bucs in 1947, teaming up with Ralph Kiner in the middle of the Pirate order. The original Hammerin’ Hank signed with Pittsburgh for a reported $90,000, the biggest MLB contract inked to date. Team minority owner Bing Crosby even recorded a song, "Goodbye, Mr. Ball, Goodbye," with Groucho Marx and Greenberg to celebrate Hank's arrival. The Pirates also brought in the left field fence at Forbes Field by 30’ for him, calling it "Greenberg Gardens" and then keeping it intact during the Kiner era as “Kiner’s Korner.” Though he hit just .249 in Pittsburgh, he had a .408 OBP (he walked 104 times), launched 25 homers and tutored Kiner while taking his major league bow. 
• 1919 - NL President John Heydler washed his hands of the entire NL 1918 batting championship brouhaha by not naming the league’s top hitter. Some writers felt the king should be the Pirates Billy Southworth, who hit .341 but played just 64 games w/275 at bats. A second school preferred Brooklyn’s Zack Wheat, who hit .335 in 105 games w/436 at bats, and who tops most lists as the champ, as 100 games/400 at bats was the unwritten rule-of-thumb cut-off line then. The Bucs’ Debs Garms got into the same kind of mud fight in 1940 when he won the title easily (he hit .355, 30 points higher than any other NL’er) while playing 103 games but with only 358 at bats, as he was hurt early in the year. In 1954, the league ended the debates and made 3.1 plate appearances per game over the season (currently 502 PA’s) the official gold standard. 
• 1943 - C Josh Gibson suffered from a brain tumor (not a nervous breakdown as often touted) and was admitted to St. Francis Hospital for rest and treatment. He was released 10 days later, in time to get to spring camp and play for the Homestead Grays. The Pirates, among other clubs, reportedly wanted to try out the future Hall of Famer, but the color line wouldn’t be crossed until 1945. Although he never got a MLB shot, Gibson was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1972. 

Bob Owchinko (he was between teams) - 1981 Donruss

• 1955 - LHP Bob Owchinko was born in Detroit. The vet made one outing for Pittsburgh in 1983 after signing as a free agent; he faced two batters against St. Louis, gave up two hits (Andy Van Slyke homered and Darrell Porter doubled) and blew the save in a 7-6 loss, forever maintaining a Pirates ERA of infinity. He spent most of the year as a starter in AAA Hawaii (10-6/4.25) and was sold to the Reds after the season. It was his second quick tour as a Bucco: the Pirates had originally gotten him as part of the Bert Blyleven trade with Cleveland in 1980, but sent him to Oakland for RHP Ernie Camacho early in April. His playing days ended in 1986, concluding a 10-year, six-team career split between starting and the pen. 
• 1961 - The Sporting News selected Bill Mazeroski as the Player of the Year and his boss, Danny Murtaugh, as the Manager of the Year. Maz was an All Star, Gold Glove, and hit the most memorable homer in World Series history while the Irishman guided the Bucs to the Promised Land (and presumably for penciling Maz’s name on the scorecard for all 159 games the Pirates played). The honors rolled in. The day before, Dick Groat was selected as the Lou Gehrig Award winner, adding that honor to his batting crown and National League MVP title. 
• 1970 - RHP Gary Wilson was born in Arcata, California. He was drafted by Pittsburgh in the 18th round of the 1992 draft from Cal State (Sacramento) and his MLB career consisted of 10 games tossed for the Bucs in 1995 with a line of 0-1/5.20. Following his playing days, Wilson briefly coached college ball, then became a scout for Colorado and later Kansas City. 
• 1980 - In the first year of fan voting, Willie Stargell ran away with the Dapper Dan Man of the Year award. It was Pop’s second Dapper Dan recognition, and he was presented with the prize the following month at the group’s annual dinner. Willie had already claimed the National League Playoff and World Series MVPs, then frustratingly tied with Keith Hernandez for the NL MVP and Terry Bradshaw for the Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year honors. 

Specs Hill - 1927 photo Mears/TSN

• 1990 - RHP Carmen “Specs” Hill passed away in Indianapolis at the ripe ol’ age of 94. Hill tossed eight years for the Pirates (1915-16; 1918-19; 1926-29) and was a late bloomer; in his first five Bucco campaigns, he bounced back and forth between the big club and the farm. He was 47-31/3.26 for Pittsburgh, but his heyday was 1927-28 (he won 21 times at Indy in 1926 to earn a return trip to the majors at age 31) when he won 38 games and was a member of the ‘27 NL championship rotation. Oddly, those were the only seasons - he spent parts of 10 years in the majors - that he won more than three games, although the screwballer claimed 202 victories in the minors. While mostly a depth arm, he was a member of good staffs - he was with the Giants, which won the 1922 World Series; the Pirates, winners of the 1927 National League pennant and the Cards, which claimed the 1930 NL flag. Carmen picked up the “Specs” moniker in 1915; he and fellow righty Lee Meadows (he also went by “Specs,” go figure) were among the first pitchers to sport glasses, and they were Buc teammates from 1926-29. 
• 1994 - Jay Bell was announced as the Dapper Dan Athlete of the Year, becoming the third Pirate (Syd Thrift, Jim Leyland) in the past seven years to earn the honor. He hit .310, scored 102 runs and earned an All-Star berth after signing a $20M deal in April while also earning Golden Glove and Silver Slugger honors. Jay’s award soiree was held February 11th at the Hilton.