Past Blasts: Bucco History 3/31-4/1

A little bit of past blasts:

• March 31, 1895 - OF Carson Bigbee was born. He played eleven years for Pittsburgh, his only MLB club, from 1916-26, and hit .287 lifetime. His best seasons where 1921-22, when he batted .323 and .350, scoring 213 runs over that span and leading the NL in singles both years.
• March 31, 2002 - “Operation Shutdown” OF Derek Bell was released, telling the media he would sail into the sunset on his yacht.
• March 31, 2003 - Pittsburgh helped the Reds christen Great American Ballpark. Cincy played second banana for the yard’s opening act; the Bucs won 10-0 behind homers from Reggie Sanders, Kenny Lofton and Jason Kendall.
• March 31, 2008 - In an Opening Day shootout at Turner Field, the Bucs beat the Braves 12-11 in 12 innings. Damaso Marte and Matt Capps blew a 9-4 ninth inning lead, capped by a fly ball dropping between Jason Bay and Nate McLouth with two outs to tie the score. Pittsburgh reclaimed the lead in the top of the 12th on a Xavier Nady three-run bomb, but Atlanta almost tied it again with two runs in their half before Franquelis Osario nailed down the save. The X-Man had four hits while McLouth, Freddy Sanchez and Ryan Doumit had three to prime a 17-hit attack.
• April 1, 1979 - The Pirate Parrot was “hatched” at Three Rivers Stadium as a response to the Phillie Phanatic, introduced the year before. The idea of a parrot came from Robert Lewis Stevenson’s pirate tale “Treasure Island.
• April 1, 1987 - St. Louis sent OF Andy Van Slyke‚ C Mike LaValliere‚ and P Mike Dunne to Pittsburgh in exchange for All-Star catcher Tony Pena. Van Slyke thought it was an April’s Fool joke when first told of the trade, and Pena cried at the press conference when the deal was announced.