12/6 Through the 1960s: Cardwell-Ribant, Tobin-Lanning, Law Wins Gehring Award, Bucs-Steelers Hoopin'; RIP Hans, HBD Tim, Johnny, Snookie, Frank, Walter & Tun

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

Johnny Lanning - 1940 George Burke photo

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

Honus Wagner - "Safe At Home" 12/7/1955 Cy Hungerford Post-Gazette

• 1961 - The Pirates played an exhibition hoops contest at the Civic Arena between college games as part of a Scoreboard Fund benefit for Children’s Hospital. The more-or-less current Bucs (Dick Groat, Bill Mazeroski, Dick Stuart, Bob Friend, ElRoy Face & Paul Smith) faced off against a mix-and-match squad (Bobby DelGreco, Tony Bartirome, Ronnie Kline, Nellie King, Ed Sadowski and Sudden Sam McDowell), while Steelers Big Daddy Lipscomb and Bobby Layne were the zebras in the 15-minute clash. For once, Groat wasn’t the leading scorer, but his infield pal, Maz, took the honors with six points, including the game winner (Del Greco had six for the losers), in a 17-16 win for the rostered Pirates. Sandwiched around them, Duquesne beat up Carnegie Tech 78-40 and Ohio State ran away from Pitt, winning by a 99-79 count in the games that counted. 
• 1965 - Vern Law won the Lou Gehrig Award as the “player who best exhibits the character and integrity of Lou Gehrig, both on the field and off it.” Willie Stargell later became the only other Pirate to win the Gehrig, being honored in 1974. 
• 1966 - Pittsburgh sent RHP Don Cardwell and OF Don Bosch to the New York Mets for RHP Dennis Ribant and OF Gary Kolb. Cardwell had three solid years with NY and appeared in the 1969 “Miracle Mets” World Series, while Ribant pitched for a year for the Corsairs before leaving and being converted to a reliever by the Tigers. Neither outfielder in the swap panned out.

12/6 From 1970: Easler-Tudor, Zane-Heaton-Tanner Signed, Meek Rule 5 Pick, Deals Undone, Kevin Carps; HBD Jose & Adam

• 1971 - OF Adam Hyzdu was born in San Jose. A first round draft pick of the Giants in 1990, he was a reserve outfielder for the Bucs from 2000-03 with a .231 BA in Pittsburgh. He had his shining moment, though. Adam was the NL Player of the Week in July of 2002 when he hit .588 (10-for-17) with three homers, six runs and 11 RBI, with all 11 driven in during a two-game span when he homered three times against the Cards, including his first grand slam. 
• 1971 - RHP Jose Contreras was born in Las Martinas, Cuba. He knew the Buc offices pretty well; the 41-year-old was signed and released by the team three times in 2013, managing to pick up seven outings lasting five innings in between visits to the unemployment line; his 9.00 ERA in what would be his final MLB season was the cause of the five-team, 11-year vet’s yo-yo existence. A true international player, he began his career as a member of the Cuban National Team in 1991 before defecting to the United States in 2002, and ended it with tours of the Mexican and Chinese leagues in 2016. 
• 1979 - Chuck Tanner was rewarded for his World Series title with a four-year contract extension running through 1984. Although the details weren’t released, the media guesstimated that the deal was worth $75K per year. GM Pete Peterson claimed that Tanner was “the best manager in the game today,” triggering the contract (the old one still had a year remaining). In other news, the FO was trying to close on a deal that would have landed them Joaquin Andujar but couldn’t get across the finish line. Also, in a recap of the 70’s, Willie Stargell was declared the “HR King of the Decade,” belting out 296 long flies to edge Reggie Jackson, who banged 292 during the 1970’s. Al Oliver was third in the decade’s hit parade, behind Pete Rose and Rod Carew. 
• 1983 - The Bucs traded OF Mike Easler to the Boston Red Sox for LHP John Tudor. Easler had a big year with the Red Sox before fading. Tudor went 12-11 in 32 starts for the Pirates in 1984, then was traded to St. Louis for OF George Hendrick. Tudor was brilliant in 1985 for the Cards, with 21 wins and 10 complete game shutouts. He led St. Louis to the World Series, and after pitching masterfully against KC in games 1 & 4, he fell apart in Game 7, losing 11-0. The lefty cut his pitching hand punching some locker room equipment while in a snit after the defeat and he never won more than 13 games afterward. 

John Tudor - 1984 Topps Traded

• 1988 - The Pirates wanted a SS and thought they had their man in Atlanta’s Andres Thomas when they offered the Braves three players (speculated to be RJ Reynolds, Mike Dunne and another pitcher) but the deal fell through when the Bravos overplayed their hand and demanded Barry Bonds be included in the package. Better to be lucky than good; Thomas had just two more years left in the show and batted .215 over that time; Barry hit 19 homers in 1989 and was named the league’s MVP in 1990, collecting seven MVPs and 14 All-Star caps in all before hanging ‘em up in 2007. Patience pays: the FO got their SS for the next eight years, Jay Bell, from the Indians just before the 1989 season started. 
• 1989 - Pittsburgh signed LHP Neal Heaton to a three-year/$2.85M contract with incentives and a limited (eight team) no-trade clause after he went 6-7/3.05 for the Pirates the previous campaign. He started out on fire after signing; the lefty began the 1990 season 9-1 with a 2.87 ERA and made his only All-Star roster in a career that spanned 12 years and seven teams. But Neal had a bumpy second year and was traded in the 1992 preseason to KC for Kirk Gibson. His Bucco line was 21-19/3.46 with 43 starts in his 114 outings. He finished out his career pitching for three American League squads from 1992-93. 
• 1990 - The Pirates inked LHP Zane Smith as a free agent for four years/$10.6M after getting him from the Montreal Expos for Moises Alou in the middle of the 1990 season. Zane had good timing: he made $660K in 1990 and the Pirates had originally offered him $6M for three years. The market changed when the Giants signed Bud Black for four years/$10M, and Smith, with several suitors, used that deal as his model. The lefty pitched six of his final seven campaigns in Pittsburgh with a line of 47-41/3.35 and was part of the rotation for the 1990-92 playoff teams, winning 16 games in 1991. Though he was released in 1996 by the Bucs, he went out in grand fashion: his 100th and final win was in June of that year, a six-hit, complete game shutout of the San Diego Padres. 

Kevin McClatchy - "A little help, plz..." 2001 AP photo

• 2001 - Kevin McClatchy told the media that despite opening a new, publicly-financed ballpark, the team lost $1.2M in operating expenses and an additional $4.7M in interest payments. “If you took away the new stadium,” he said, “I may have been sitting in front of Congress explaining why the Pittsburgh franchise shouldn’t be contracted (the subject of a current Congressional hearing)...I’ve been saying for six years our game needs reform.” Still waitin’... 
• 2006 - The Bucs came close to landing 1B Adam LaRoche, but a swap with the Braves for LHP Mike Gonzalez fell through. Both were good fits - Gonzo was 24-for-24 in save opportunities while LaRoche was coming off a 32-HR season - but the Pirates said that Atlanta was lollygagging because of health concerns while the Bravos claimed Dave Littlefield dragged his feet too long without pulling the trigger. Either way, the Braves went in another direction and landed Rafael Soriano to make the matter moot. But the finger pointing resolved itself quickly; the two sides kissed and made up, and a few weeks later Gonzalez and SS Brent Lillibridge were sent to Atlanta for LaRoche and 1B/OF Jamie Romak. 
• 2007 - The Pirates, with the second pick in the Rule 5 draft, selected RHP Evan Meek from Tampa Bay. He stuck around for parts of five years with the Bucs (2008-12), going 7-7-4 with a 3.34 ERA. After a breakout All-Star year in 2010 when he went 5-6-4/2.14, arm injuries took their toll on the flamethrower’s (he could touch 98) career. Meek’s last MLB tour of duty was with Baltimore in 2014.

12/5 Through 1964: Westlake Trade Finalized, Big Poison Released, Dale-Lefty-Adams Pick-Ups; HBD Sammy, Bill, Pink, Snake & Frank

• 1868 - C Frank Bowerman was born in Romeo, Michigan. He spent a couple of his 15 pro seasons, 1898-99, in Pittsburgh, batting .265 while throwing out 49.5% of attempted base stealers and also playing 1B. But Bowerman had a hair-trigger temper, once giving manager Fred Clarke a shiner during a brawl, and incidents of that ilk led to a short stay in the Steel City. 
• 1871 - LHP Lewis “Snake” Wiltse was born in Bouckville, New York. He began his brief three-year stay in the show with Pittsburgh in 1901. Snake put up a line of 1-4/4.26 and was released in July, signing with the Philly Athletics. He also tossed for the Orioles and NY Highlanders before being sent down in May of 1903, then toiling in the minors through the 1910 campaign. Wiltse might have done better as a position player. His MLB line from the hill was 29-31/4.59, but at the plate he compiled a .278 lifetime BA; Baltimore played him at first, in the OF and even at second base once. Snake got his nickname in the minors thx to his twisty delivery. Wiltse family tree branch: Snake’s brother was George “Hooks” Wiltse, who pitched for 12 big-league seasons, mostly with the Giants. 
• 1872 - RHP Emerson “Pink” Hawley was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. He tossed for Pittsburgh from 1895-97 with a slash line of 71-61-1/3.76. He was a workhorse, appearing in 56 games in 1895 while throwing 444-1/3 innings, both league-leading numbers. Pink was a stand up guy, once turning down a bribe to throw a game. But then again, he came from good stock. His ancestor was the noted essayist Major Joseph Hawley, who joined with Samuel Adams and James Otis, Jr., as a revolutionary leader during the Stamp Act/Boston Tea Party era. Pink is his given middle name; he was part of a set of twins, and his family, as the story goes, put a blue ribbon on his brother and a pink one on Emerson so they could tell them apart. Fact of the day: The ribbon color really didn’t mean much. Up until the baby boomers came along, baby’s clothes colors were either considered sex-neutral or if anything, the opposite of today, with pink for boys and blue for girls. 
• 1922 - OF Bill Rodgers was born in Harrisburg. Bill was a wartime special - he played for the Bucs from deep off the bench from 1944-45, got into three games and went 2-for-5 with one run scored. Rodgers was drafted by the New York Yankees in 1946, but never again made it back to the major leagues, spending nine years on various farm clubs. 

Spencer Adams (Oakland) - 1924 Zee-Nut

• 1922 - The Pirates sent RHP Fred “Sheriff” Blake, OF Ray Rohwer and $15,000 to the Seattle Indians of the Pacific Coast League for IF Spencer Adams. After a year with Seattle, Blake went on to pitch for nine MLB seasons while Rohwer became a PCL fixture, playing in the league through 1931. Adams spent a year in Pittsburgh (.250 BA in 56 AB) before being traded back to the PCL (Oakland this time), and later played three more big league seasons as a backup. 
• 1940 - Paul Waner was released by the Pirates. The Hall of Fame OF’er played 15 seasons in Pittsburgh, hitting .340 with 2,868 hits, 1,627 runs and 1,309 RBI. He ended up playing into 1945 for the NY Yankees, Boston Braves and Brooklyn Dodgers. A party hearty type, Waner was famous for his ability to hit hung over. He gave up the bottle for a year in 1938 at management’s request, and only hit .280, the first time he failed to reach .300+. Needless to say, the teetotaler experiment ended after that campaign. Another bit of lore was that the Bucs discovered he was nearsighted late in his career and made him wear glasses. He gave those up when he found the large fuzzy object he had been swinging at all those years turned into a small spinning BB that was nearly impossible to hit when he had his peepers on. Paul and his younger brother Lloyd (Little Poison), one of baseball’s premier sibling duos, set the career record for hits by brothers with 5,611 and became the first set of player sibs to enter the Cooperstown Hall. 
• 1946 - The Bucs sent Johnny Hutchings to Oakland of the PCL to complete the deal for OF Wally Westlake (Pittsburgh had sent $35K to the Oaks on September 25th; Hutch was the PTBNL who was the second part of the swap). Wally spent 1947-51 as the Bucs starting outfielder, mostly in center and right, hitting .281 with one All-Star nod before being traded to St. Louis. He played through 1956, although he only had one strong season after he left the Pirates. It was a busy day; they also swapped LHP Al Gerheauser to the St. Louis Browns for IF Eddie “The Fiddler” Basinski. Al worked one more season and The Fiddler hit .199 for the Bucs in his final MLB campaign. Finally, they sold OF Tommy O’Brien to the Cards. He spent four years toiling in the minors, then came back to play for parts (61 games total) of two final MLB tours in 1949-’50. 

Lefty LaPalme - 1952 Topps

• 1949 - The Bucs took LHP Paul LaPalme from the Boston Braves in the minor league draft. Lefty gave the Bucs four years of service, slashing 14-33-2/4.99 for the terrible Pirates clubs of the early fifties. LaPalme went to the Cards after the ‘54 season, and was converted to a reliever. He lasted three more years, and with better teams and a consistent role, put up a line of 10-12-11/3.29. In all, the Bucs claimed seven players during the two-day draft and lost six others; Lefty was the only player with notable MLB chops involved in the roster shuffling. 
• 1951 - Pittsburgh purchased 1B Dale Long from the St. Louis Browns. After 10 games, he was released and the Browns reclaimed him. Then in December, they sold him back to the Bucs, who stashed him in the minors for three years while he smacked 91 dingers. In the next 2-1/2 years and 400 games, he was with the big club, banging out 64 long balls, including an eight-game homer streak in 1956, before being part of a trade with the Cubs in 1957. 
• 1963 - SS Sam Khalifa was born in Fontana, California. A prep QB who received D-1 offers and an All-America SS, Khalifa was a first round pick (#7 overall) from Arizona’s Sahuaro HS, but in his three year MLB career, all as a Pirate (1985-87), he hit just .219. Sammy was the first player of Egyptian ancestry to play major league baseball. He now lives in Tucson and coaches HS football and baseball.

12/5 From 1965: Odell-Enrique, Marco Signed, Dealin' Jerry, '73 Purge, Bream To Braves, Pete Sez No; RIP Joe, HBD Cam, Oscar & Tony

• 1966 - Coach Tony Beasley was born in Fredericksburg, Virginia. A minor league infielder who spent time with the Pirates, Beasley became a farm coach/manager in the Bucco organization after his playing days. Starting out as a player/coach and roving batting instructor in 1998, Beasley then managed in the Pirates system for the next five seasons, making the playoffs every year. Tony became the Pirates roving minor league infield instructor (he was considered instrumental in the transition of Neil Walker into a second baseman) and was named third base coach in 2008 by John Russell. After JR left after 2010, Beasley spent four seasons in the Washington organization before getting the call from Jeff Banister to become the third base coach of the Texas Rangers. In 2016, he was diagnosed with cancer. After surgery and chemo, he was back in uniform at Arlington, albeit primarily as a quality control coach, and later reclaimed his third base box. Tony proved you can go home again when he joined Don Kelly’s Bucco staff late in 2025 as 3B coach. 
• 1973 - The Pirates did some addition by subtraction: LHP Luke Walker was sold to the Tigers, RHP Chris Zachary was sent to the Phils for UTIL Pete Koegel (whose last MLB outing was in 1972, with no more to come) and a couple of days later, RHP Bob Johnson was flipped to Cleveland for career minor leaguer OF Bill Flowers. Johnson worked 29 more games in two seasons, Walker lasted one year with Motown, and Zachary never appeared in another MLB game. 
• 1978 - 37-year-old Pete Rose signed a four-year/$3.2 million deal with the Phillies. He had been hotly pursued in free agency by several clubs including the Bucs, and owner Dan Galbreath had even invited Rose to his Columbus home & the Darby Dan stables in Lexington. The Pirates admitted that their cash offer was half that of the Phillies (four years/$1.6M), and their equine lure fell short. Rose had told the Pittsburgh Press a week earlier that “The Galbreaths may offer me a couple of horses, but in the end it will come down to dollars and cents.” 
• 1978 - Pitchers Enrique Romo and Rick Jones along with shortstop Tom McMillan were sent to the Pirates by Seattle for pitchers Rafael Vasquez, Odell Jones and shortstop Mario Mendoza in return. Romo pitched four years for the Pirates (1979-82) pretty effectively, going 25-16-26/3.56 and was part of the 1979 World Series club. Romo only tossed six seasons total in the MLB, but with good reason - he started late. He pitched 11 seasons in Mexican baseball prior to making his major league debut for the Mariners in 1977 at the age of 29. McMillan and Rick Jones both ended up minor league players. Odell Jones tossed six more years, including a brief 1981 return to Pittsburgh, Mendoza played for four more seasons and Vasquez appeared in nine 1979 games for Seattle. 

Jerry Reuss - 1978 Topps

• 1978 - The Pittsburgh Press published a rumor mill report that the Pirates had offered the Red Sox Jerry Reuss for Andy Hassler. That swap fell through, but the Bucs came up roses when they traded the southpaw to LA in April of 1979 for Rick Rhoden and then signed swingman Hassler as a free agent during the off season. 
• 1982 - Pitching coach Oscar Marin was born in Los Angeles. He took a roundabout route to the show, never tossing pro ball but jumping straight from playing/coaching college baseball to a job with the Rangers as their minor league pitching coordinator in 2010. He worked a variety of minor league jobs, then became an MLB’er with the Rangers in 2019 when he was named their bullpen coach. Marin was hired to join Derek Shelton’s staff in December 2019 to replace Ray Searage, but after a largely successful run he was dismissed with Billy Murphy named as Don Kelly's new PC during the 2025 postseason. 
• 1990 - The Atlanta Braves signed Bucco free agent 1B Sid Bream to a three year/$5.6M contract. The Pirates reportedly offered three years/$4.5M, with the FO leery of Sid’s knees, and his request for a no-trade clause. Manager Jim Leyland was a fan of his, and told the Pittsburgh Press that “I just feel terrible that he left. I think it was a mistake not signing him...I’m not looking at this like we lost Babe Ruth. But he stood for something,” referring to Bream’s All-American demeanor helping to restore the Pirates image after the drug scandals. His heir-apparent was Carmelo Martinez going into camp, but he lost the 1B job to Orlando Merced. 
• 1993 - LHP Cam Vieaux was born in Novi, Michigan. A sixth round pick of the Bucs in 2016 from Michigan State. He worked his way through the levels, first as a starter, then as a swingman and finally as a reliever by 2021. He got his call to the show in 2022, working eight outings for the Pirates with a 10.38 ERA; he struck out 15 in 8-2/3 IP, but also gave up 15 hits, including two dingers, and five walks. He elected minor-league free agency at the end of the season and signed with the Angels, spending the year at AAA Salt Lake. Cam tossed in Mexico in ‘24 and in an indie league last year. 

Joe Lonnett - 1977 Pirates photo

• 2011 - Pirates coach Joe Lonnett, 87, passed away in Beaver Falls after battling Alzheimer's Disease. Joe, who spent four years in MLB, met future Bucco manager Chuck Tanner in 1957 on a barnstorming tour. The two were about the same age, born 25 miles apart (Lonnett in Beaver Falls, Tanner in New Castle) and hit it off. Chuck told him that if he made it as a manager, he’d call. Tanner kept his promise and called Joe to join his staff in 1971 at Chicago, then Oakland and Pittsburgh (1977-84). Lonnett handled third base and as an ex-catcher tutored Ed Ott and Steve Nicosia. After Tanner left Pittsburgh, Joe stayed with the organization and dabbled a little in managing at the lower levels before spending his later years as a scout and roving instructor for Pittsburgh and Toronto. He was inducted into the Beaver County Sports Hall of Fame in 1980. 
• 2023 - The Bucs traded for the Braves LHP Marco Gonzales (the Bravos had acquired him from Seattle two days before) pending his physical. Atlanta sent Pittsburgh cash ($9.25M - Gonzales was due $12M in 2024 with a $15M team option with no buyout in 2025) and will get a PTBNL. He had a weak 2023 campaign (5.22 ERA in 10 starts), but was dealing with a nerve issue that eventually required surgery. In his five seasons prior as a Mariner, he averaged 175 IP and had a 3.94 ERA to go with a 46-30 record, and the Bucs were rolling the dice on his return to workhorse status. The Pirates lost that toss of the bones - he went on the 60-day IL twice and finished the year with just seven outings. He wasn’t tendered, sat out ‘25 and is a FA.

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.