- 1972 - OF Jermaine Allensworth was born in Anderson, Indiana. Jermaine spent the first 2-1/2 seasons of his four year career as a Bucco, hitting .272 from 1996-98 and saw considerable time in the pasture. He became a minor celebrity after he was portrayed during a Saturday Night Live skit by Tracy Morgan in 1997. He was traded to Kansas City for a minor leaguer, and they moved him to the Mets. His bat went cold and he was out of MLB after the 1999 season, playing for a couple of years on the farm followed by a long stint of indie ball.
- 1973 - This is a red letter day in baseball history. The owners voted to allow the AL to use a designated hitter, drawing a line in the sand that stood for 50 years between the junior and senior circuits. On April 6th, 1973, Ron Blomberg of the Yankees became the first regular season DH in major-league history, drawing a bases-loaded walk off the Red Sox’s Luis Tiant.
- 1974 - 2B Warren Morris was born in Alexandria, Louisiana. He made his major league debut in 1999, going from non-roster invitee in spring training to starting second baseman early in the season for the Bucs after coming over from Texas in the Esteban Loaiza deal. Morris had a sharp rookie campaign, hitting .288 with 15 home runs, 73 RBI and earning a spot on the 1999 Topps All-Star Rookie team at second base. But he went downhill fast, and the Pirates released him before the 2002 season; his last MLB campaign was in 2003 and he formally retired in 2006.
- 1994 - 1B/OF Orlando Merced signed a one-year/$1.45M contract after hitting .313 w/seven homers and 70 RBI during the past season, a nice jump from the $325K he had earned in 1993.With his signing, the Pirates had tied up their arb eligibles (there were just four, with Jeff King earlier agreeing to a $2.4M contract the other biggie) without a hearing for the first time since 1988.
 |
| Greg Brown - Pirates promo |
- 1994 - The Pirates hired Greg Brown, the Buffalo Bison broadcaster, as part of the TV/radio announcing team following the release of Jim Rooker and Kent Dedivanis (Bob Walk would later get the other spot). Brown had been a jack-of-all-trades for the Pirates before leaving for the Buffalo job in 1989 as media coordinator, PA announcer and TCI pre/post game host.
- 1995 - UT Nick Solak was born in Wooddridge, Illinois. The Yankees drafted Solak in the second round of the 2016 MLB draft out of Louisville, where he was second-team All-America. After a couple of swaps, he spent three years getting considerable time with Texas (he has a .252 MLB-BA), but since 2022 has mostly been a minor-league depth guy. The Pirates signed him after the ‘24 campaign and sent him to Indy, where he led the International League with a .393 BA to earn a May call-up. He failed to impress here, going one-for-11, and became a free agent at the end of the year.
- 2010 - The Pirates signed OF Ryan Church to a one-year/$1.5M contract with an additional $1.32M available in performance incentives that became official a couple of days later. The 31-year-old outfielder was expected to be the Bucs' fourth outfielder, behind Brandon Moss, Andrew McCutchen, and Lastings Milledge, but instead batted .182 with three homers for Pittsburgh and became part of a deadline package with Arizona. 2010 would be his last MLB season.
- 2013 - Andrew McCutchen was voted to be the cover athlete on the baseball video game “MLB 13: The Show.” Cutch gathered 108,147 votes from fans via Twitter and Facebook, besting New York Yankees' pitcher CC Sabathia, who came in second place with 89,054 votes.
- 2019 - The Buccos had two remaining arb contracts to sort out, and got them both done by the deadline when LF Corey Dickerson inked an $8.5M deal and RHP Keone Kela signed for $3.175M. Both posted productive 2018 campaigns and got healthy raises: Dickerson had earned $5.95M and Kela $1.2M. RHP Michael Feliz had agreed to an $850K/$375K split contract earlier in the off season.
No comments:
Post a Comment