1/18 Through the 1970s: Sudden Sam, Hal & The Tiger Sign, Hank & Eddie Join, Pete GM, Dapper Ralph; HBD Wandy, Lauren, Eddie & Charlie

• 1855 - OF Charlie Eden was born in Lexington, Kentucky. He joined the Alleghenys for two seasons, 1884-85, hitting .258 after a five-year minor league stint. Charlie played a little corner infield and also pitched some, going 1-3/5.53 with Pittsburgh. Those campaigns ended the 30-year old Charlie’s four-year MLB career; it appears that he went back to barnstorming through the minors. 
• 1899 - Utilityman Eddie Moore was born in Barlow, Kentucky. Moore hit .301 as a Bucco from 1923-26 and was a starter on the 1925 WS club, but he clashed with management a couple of times and was sold to the Boston Braves after getting into a shouting match with Fred Clarke, who was not only a club exec at the time but also served a dual role as a bench coach. 
• 1931 - RHP Laurin Pepper was born in Vaughan, Mississippi. A football star drafted by the Steelers (he was an All-America halfback at Mississippi Southern), Pepper was inked for $35K by the Bucs in 1954 as a bonus baby, as the Pirates easily topped the Steelers’ $15K bid. He probably should have stuck with the pigskin, though: in four MLB seasons (1954-57), he worked just 109-2/3 IP, going 2-8/7.09 with 98 walks. He then spent some time in the minors before becoming a long-time HS football coach and Athletic Director back home in the Magnolia State. 
• 1947 - The Pirates purchased Hank Greenberg, the original “Hammerin’ Hank,” from the Tigers for somewhere between $40,000-$75,000 (the latter is the consensus figure) after he had a spat with Detroit owner Walter Briggs. It didn’t come easy; the Bucs had to talk the 36-year-old out of retirement, even after a 44-homer campaign in ‘46. To celebrate the move, team co-owner Bing Crosby recorded a song, "Goodbye, Mr. Ball, Goodbye" with Groucho Marx and Hank after the Bucs signed him to a reported $90,000 deal (it was never disclosed; some think it was $100K, making him baseball’s first six-figure payroller), the biggest in history at that time. In his one season with Pittsburgh, he hit .249 with 25 HR/74 RBI to become the first player with a 25-homer season in both leagues, walked a league-high 104 times and served as a mentor to a young Ralph Kiner. He inspired “Greenberg Gardens” when the Bucs shortened Forbes Field’s left field wall by 30’ for him. When he retired after the season, his nook became “Kiner’s Korner.” 

Ralph Kiner wins a watch - 1/18/1948 Press

• 1948 - Ralph Kiner was presented the Dapper Dan “Athlete of the Year” award at the DD’s annual dinner at the William Penn Hotel (he was gifted with a watch). Newly retired Hank Greenberg made the trip to Pittsburgh as an honored guest of Kiner’s. Ralph also set aside some face time to talk contract with the Bucco brass, and made out pretty well by more than doubling his 1947 salary, inking a deal that upped his paycheck from $15,000 to $35,000 (per Baseball Reference). OF Dixie Walker had been the first Bucco to sign the day before, John Hancock’ing a deal thought to be in the neighborhood of $25,000. Two days later after Mr. Swat’s deal, they agreed to terms with staff workhorse RHP Kirby Higbe, paying him $15,000. 
• 1948 - The Bucs bought IF Joe “Eddie” Bockman from the Indians for an undisclosed amount. The 27-year-old had hit .259 for the Tribe after coming off an All-Star season in the American Association. Bockman spent two years behind Frank Gustine and Pete Castiglione at the hot corner (.230 BA in 149 games) and then settled in the minors as a player/manager through the 1958 season. After his stint behind the bench, he became a long-time Philadelphia Phillies scout, finally closing out his baseball days as a bird dog for the expansion Florida Marlins. 
• 1960 - 3B Don Hoak, who the Pirates acquired the season before from the Cincinnati Reds, was rewarded with a fatter wallet by GM Joe Brown for anchoring third base during the campaign, playing 155 games at the hot corner while batting .294. The Tiger happily returned his signed contract to the club that jumped his salary from its current $20,000 to $27,500 in 1960. 
• 1961 - C Hal Smith signed the biggest contract of his career, a $25,000 deal, after hitting .295 as Smoky Burgess’ platoon partner and swatting a huge seventh-game homer in the World Series to set the scene for Bill Mazeroski’s blast into Bucco history. He also had a lucrative night shift job with an off-season gig singing in the clubs with Elroy Face and adding another $8-10,000 to his wallet. 

Sudden Sam - 1975 Topps

• 1975 - LHP Sudden Sam McDowell, 32, signed an NRI deal with the Bucs for an undisclosed amount. The Central grad who still lived in Monroeville was out to prove that despite posting a 1-6/4.69 slash with the Yankees in 1974, he wasn’t quite ready for last rites. He broke camp with the team and went 2-1/2.86 in 14 outings w/29 K in 34-2/3 IP, but the bullpen was overloaded with lefties and the Pirates released Sam in June, ending his MLB career after 15 seasons. His replacement was a scrawny righty called up from AAA Charleston, Kent Tekulve. 
• 1979 - The Pirates announced that Harding “Pete” Peterson would be the Executive Vice President, in effect the GM, ending the two-man system of him and Joe O’Toole, the VP of Business Administration, trying to share the duties of the prior GM, Joe Brown. Pete lasted until 1985 when he was let go in mid-season for the man he replaced, Brown, who kept the seat warm for Syd Thrift. Peterson was the New York Yankees GM for a season and finished his career in player evaluation roles for the San Diego Padres and Toronto Blue Jays. 
• 1979 - LHP Wandy Rodriguez was born in Santiago Rodriguez, Dominican Republic. Wandy joined the Bucs in 2012 when he was acquired from the Astros. He didn’t become a major contributor as hoped, as his 2013 season derailed because of arthritis in his pitching arm after a dozen starts. He claimed just 11 wins in 25 outings with a 3.66 ERA as a Pirate before being released in May of 2014. Wandy worked for Texas the next year in his curtain call campaign.