12/7 Through 1974: Woodling-Lopez, Connie HoF, Bob & Joe Go, Flew The Coop; HBD Bo, Don, Ken, Hal, Vinnie, Gee Whiz, Tony & Bobby

• 1886 - C Bobby Schang was born in Wales Center, New York. Bobby spent 1914-15 with the Bucs, hitting .194. He was nothing if not persistent - he toiled in the minors for the next 12 years before getting five more MLB at-bats as a Cardinal at the age of 40 in 1927. He was the brother of catching great Wally Schang, who had a five-team, 19-year big league gig. 
• 1897 - The Pirates traded C Joe Sugden to the St. Louis Browns for C Morgan Murphy. Sugden played for six more years, batting .243 over that span, while Murphy played five games for Pittsburgh before being released and claimed by Philly, playing 45 games in three years with a .220 BA. 
• 1906 - 2B Tony Piet (Pietruszka) was born in Berwick, PA. Tony started his career with the Bucs, playing from 1931-33 and hitting a solid .298. He was traded in 1934 as part of the Red Lucas deal after he led the NL in games played in 1932 with 154. Name game: his son told UPI that “He changed his name to Piet because Pietruszka wouldn't fit on the scoreboard in Pittsburgh.” 
• 1915 - LHP Johnny Gee was born in Syracuse. In August 1939, the top minor league prospect was purchased by the Pirates for $75,000 and four players, the highest price paid by the Bucs for a player until the purchase of Hank Greenberg in 1947. Nicknamed “Gee Whiz,” he lasted parts of four seasons (1939, 1941, 1943-44) with the Bucs, winning five games. Also known as “Long John” (the bonus baby was also called the “$75,000 Lemon”), he never recovered his form after a 1940 arm injury. Gee was the tallest person at 6’9” to play MLB until 6’10” Randy Johnson debuted for the Montreal Expos in September, 1988. He also went on to play pro hoops for the NBA Syracuse Nationals; the big guy had been captain of his Michigan Wolverine five while in college. 

Johnny Gee - 1941 photo via Out Of The Ballpark

• 1915 - C Vinnie Smith was born in Richmond. Smith’s career, like those of many wartime players, was defined by WW2; his rookie campaign was in 1941 and then he was drafted into the Navy. He returned to the Pirates in 1946 and played in a handful of games (he hit .259 over the two seasons) before being relegated to the minors afterward. Smith got a taste of umpiring on the farm when a crew couldn’t get to the game and the players had to police themselves; Vinnie found the job to his liking. He began as an arbitrator after he hung up his spikes in 1954 and returned to the majors in that new role in 1957. Smith became part of Pirates history while in blue: he was behind the plate on May 26th, 1959 when Harvey Haddix threw his 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves. 
• 1930 - C Hal Smith was born in West Frankfort, Illinois. Although the backup catcher only played two seasons (1960-61) in Pittsburgh, his three-run homer in the seventh game of the 1960 World Series, though overshadowed by Maz’s climactic walk-off, may have been the key blow of the entire set. Mel Allen called it "one of the most dramatic base hits in the history of the World Series." It put the Bucs up, 9-7, after eight innings of a see-saw battle and set the stage for Maz, whose blow elbowed Smith out of the history books. Hal played for five clubs and retired after 10 years in the show, batting .267 overall while playing games. 
• 1930 - Scout Ken Beardslee was born in Vermontville, Michigan. Beardslee was called high school’s first ace - he set national records in strikeouts in a 9-inning game (26), threw eight no-hitters, won 24 of 25 games and set the national record for career strikeout average (18 out of every 21 batters) and season average (19 of 21 batters in 1949) while tossing two career perfect games for VHS. It led to six minor league campaigns before back injuries forced him off the mound. Beardslee went on to scout/supervise for the Pirates for 21 years, and found enough offseason dead time to write eight books, including novels, poetry and a pitching how-to titled “Making Every Pitch Count.” 

Don Cardwell - 1978 TCMA The Sixties

• 1935 - RHP Don Cardwell was born in Winston-Salem, NC. He spent four seasons (1963-66) in Pittsburgh, where injuries led to a lot of bullpen time. He was 33-33-1 with a 3.38 ERA in his time with the Pirates, winning 13 games in 1963 and again in ‘65 when healthy and starting, but was dogged by arm woes in 1964. Cardwell lasted 14 campaigns, tossing for five teams. He threw a no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs and won a ring with the 1969 Amazin’ Mets. 
• 1936 - RHP Bo Belinsky was born in New York City. He was the closest thing baseball had to Joe Namath and brought his glitter to the Steel City in 1969 after his playboy career had pretty well dissipated. He went 0-3/4.38 and would pitch just one more major league game in the show after his Bucco stop. Bo did clean up his act later in life, flew straight and became a born-again Christian. 
• 1937 - Connie Mack was announced as a selection of the Centennial Commission to the Hall of Fame and was installed on June 12th, 1939, when the Hall officially opened its doors. Mack's last three seasons in the National League were as a player-manager with the Pirates from 1894 to 1896, compiling a .242 BA, close to his career average, and a 149–134 (.527) record as a field general. In 1901 he became manager, treasurer and part owner of the American League's first-year Philadelphia Athletics franchise. He managed the A’s through the 1950 season, compiling a record of 3,582–3,814 (.484) before he retired at 87. 
• 1946 - The Indians sent OF Gene Woodling to Pittsburgh for veteran C Al Lopez. Lopez played just 61 games in 1947, and Woodling spent a season as a reserve, hitting .266 before the Pirates sent him to the minor league San Francisco Seals. Woodling joined the Yankees in 1949, and by the time that he finally hung up his spikes in 1962, he had a 17-year career with three All-Star nods, five World Series rings and a lifetime .288 BA under his belt. 
• 1973 - RHP Bob Johnson was traded by the Pirates to the Cleveland Indians for OF Bill Flowers, who played prep ball in Cincinnati with Dave Parker and was drafted 13 rounds ahead of The Cobra. Johnson won three more games before ending his career while Flowers never made it out of the minors. In one of those close but no cigar scenarios, it was reported that a handshake deal had been made to get 24-year-old Cecil Cooper from the Tribe, but the deal between Boston and Cleveland that would have made that swap possible fell through.

12/7 From 1975: Redman-Bayliss, Craig-Buck, Nate & Bedard Sign, '22 Rule 5 Flux, AVS-GG, Shelty Hires Don, Solly-Gott-Wally-Cobra-Richie Go, Robby No-Go; HBD Steve

• 1976 - Pittsburgh traded shortstops Craig Reynolds and Jimmy Sexton to Seattle for LHP Grant Jackson. It was a win-win; the surrendered Pirates prospects had solid MLB careers while Buck was a key part of the bullpen for five years and pitched shutout ball during the 1979 postseason for the World Champion Bucs. Fun fact: this was the first trade ever made by the Mariners. 
• 1976 - Richie Hebner signed a deal with the Phillies after nine campaigns with Pittsburgh that was made official a week later after the paperwork and physical met muster. Per SABR, Buc GM Pete Peterson offered the FA $80,000, 90,000, and $100,000 across three seasons. Hebner received an offer from GM Paul Owens of the Phillies for $600K (Baseball Reference shows it at $550K) over three years on 12/6 and signed the contract a day later, becoming official on the 15th. But that superior bid didn’t stop the Pittsburgh FO from being steamed; The Gravedigger had promised they would get the last crack at an offer. Ooops. But they eventually kissed and made up; Hebner returned to the fold in 1982. 
• 1979 - The Pirates and Astros were itching to pull the trigger on a Bill Robinson for Joaquin Andujar swap as the Bucs were looking for one more arm to fill their rotation (other talks with the Tigers regarding Milt Wilcox eventually fell through; Robinson was again the main lure.) But at the last minute, Houston decided that they wanted another player to sweeten the pot, plus Robby was a 5-and-10 year man who could veto a trade. One or the other, or possibly both, came into play and soured the talks. Andujar had a rough year in 1980, but at St. Louis turned into a solid workhorse and from 1981-86 won 82 games with a 3.50 ERA while the 36-year-old Robby had a solid 1980, but never played in more than 100 games or topped 294 at bats in any of his final four campaigns (1980-83). 
• 1983 - After 11 years as a Pirate, OF Dave Parker ended his Steel City era by signing a two year/$1.6M contract with the Reds. Returning to his hometown Cincinnati for the next four campaigns, in 1985 he enjoyed his best season since he won the 1978 MVP, posting a line of .312/34 home runs/125 RBI and finishing second in MVP voting to Willie McGee. But the off season wasn’t all peaches and cream; he was a key witness during the coke trial held in Pittsburgh. The Cobra was originally suspended for a season by the league as a regular drug user, but eventually had the sentence reduced to community service and a 10% salary donation to drug treatment organizations. 

AVS - 1988 Donruss Diamond Kings

• 1988 - CF Andy Van Slyke won his first Golden Glove from The Sporting News. He would go on to win four more in the next four years. It was a good six-year run (1988-93) for AVS; he also won two Silver Sluggers and was named to all three of his All-Star games during that span. 
• 1988 - The Twins sent pitching prospects Jeff Bumgarner, Steve Gasser and Toby Nivens to the Buccos for IF Wally Backman. It proved a quite minor deal - Wally had three seasons and 300 at-bats left in his career while none of the gang shipped to Minnesota progressed past AA ball. 
• 1989 - RHP Jim Gott opted to fly the Bucco coop and sign with the LA Dodgers. Coming off elbow surgery, both clubs offered the reliever a base salary of $300K with incentives to hike the deal to $1M, but the Pirates bonus was based on performance (innings, saves, etc) while LA’s bonuses were tied to roster time. Recovering from a sore wing, “The Mayor” (Gott had been deeply involved with the community during his three-year stay) felt the Dodger incentives, coupled with Bill Landrum returning as the Buc closer, made LA’s deal more attractive. Neither Jim nor the Dodgers had any issues with Gott’s arm holding up after the signing; he pitched for five years in Los Angeles, making 272 outings before closing out his career in a 1995 reunion finale with Pittsburgh. 
• 1990 - C Steve Baron was born in Miami. He was the first round pick (#33) of the Seattle Mariners in 2009 out of high school, with a rep as a great glove guy. Baron got a cup of coffee with Seattle in 2015, but was later DFA’ed and taken by the Cards. The Pirates signed him as a free agent for 2019, and he served as the third catcher in September after spending the year at AAA Indy. Steve spent 2020 with the Indians and at last check was working as a coach at Driveline Baseball while chasing a Computer Science degree at Northeastern University. 

Mark Redman - 2005 Topps Heritage

• 2005 - The Pirates traded LHP Mark Redman to the Kansas City Royals for RHP Jonah Bayliss and a minor league player, RHP Chad Blackwell. Redman had gone 5-5/4.90 with the Bucs and was due $4.5M. He won 11 games for KC and an All-Star berth (though he finished the year with a 5.71 ERA) and won four more games in 2007-08 to end his career. Reliever Bayliss worked 50 games for the Bucs in 2006-07, going 5-4/6.75, and never landed another MLB job. 
• 2006 - Hello, ka-ching, goodbye. The Pirates took 25-year-old righty Sean White from the Braves in the Rule 5 draft and then turned around and sold him to the Seattle Mariners the same day. He did stick in the Great Northwest through 2010, and had one excellent season in 2009. 
• 2007 - The Pirates dealt reliever Salomon Torres to the Milwaukee Brewers for pitchers Marino Salas and Kevin Roberts. In 2006, Torres was the Pirate set-up man, appearing in a record 94 games, and was anointed closer after the year. But after blowing four saves, he was replaced by Matt Capps and dealt in the off season. Torres spun a solid season as Milwaukee's closer, saving 28 games, while Salas and Roberts floundered. They also signed 35-year-old C Raul Chavez to a minor league deal. Raul caught 31 games and hit .259, throwing out a dandy 12-of-25 base stealers. He closed out his career in Toronto the following season. 
• 2011 - The Pirates signed free agent LHP Érik Bédard to a one-year/$4.5M contract. After going 7-14/5.01, he was released in August after beginning the year as the Opening Day pitcher. 14 of his 24 starts lasted five or fewer innings. His peripherals weren't bad, but the numbers didn't translate into very many Bucco victories. After a quick start - he had a 3.12 ERA at the end of May - the team lost 10 of his next 14 starts. They also inked former CF’er Nate McLouth to a one-year/$1.75M deal. He lasted for 34 games, batted .175, was released on May 31st and then was claimed by the Baltimore Orioles. Nate the Great played one more season for the Washington Nats before he retired. 

Erik Bedard - 2012 AP photo

• 2019 - New manager Derek Shelton started to fill out his coaching staff by hiring Astro’s first-base coach Don Kelly as his bench coach. Kelly had deep local roots as a Butler resident, Mt. Lebanon HS & Point Park grad and former Pirate player. The team also announced that hitting coach Rick Eckstein and third-base coach Joey Cora would return while assistant pitching coach Justin Meccage was also retained in a role to be determined (he became the bullpen coach). 
• 2022 - The Pirates claimed three players in the Rule 5 Draft, taking LH reliever Jose Hernandez from the LA Dodgers in the MLB portion, then adding RHP Wei-Chieh Huang of the Giants and OF Josh Palacios of the Nats in the MiLB draft. Hernandez and Palacios both saw considerable MLB time with up-and-down performances. But the newcomers came at a cost to the system: the Bucs lost twelve prospects during the Rule 5 Draft, one during the MLB phase and the remainder during the minor league draft. The dozen players they lost were the most claimed from one team during the day, easily ahead of the San Francisco Giants’ going eight men down. Pittsburgh could have protected 38 players by rostering them with Indy, but only used 32 spots, opting to keep the rest of the slots open and available for their own signings. The prospects taken were: C Blake Sabol (CIN/SF - MLB Draft), RHP Joelvis Del Rosario (OAK), LHP Joe Jacques (BOS), RHP Wilkin Ramos (NYM), RHP Domingo Gonzalez (ATL), RHP Austin Roberts (MIA), OF Jared Oliva (LAA), RHP Trey McGough (BAL), RHP Enmanuel Mejia (TBR), RHP Christian Charle (MIA), RHP Peter Solomon (ARI) and IF Joyner Fajardo (MIN). The Bucs only lost a pair of players in 2021. GM Ben Cherington told the media “We knew we were going to lose some guys. Didn’t anticipate 11.”

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.