12/6 Moves: Lanning, Ribant, Tudor & Meek Deals; Heaton, Smith Sign; Trades Not Made

• 1939 - The Pirates traded P Jim Tobin to the Boston Bees for P 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 threw both a soft and hard hook. 

Johnny Lanning 1940 (photo via NCS Baseball)

• 1966 - Pittsburgh sent P Don Cardwell and OF Don Bosch to the New York Mets for P 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. The OF players never panned out. 
• 1983 - The Bucs traded OF Mike Easler to the Boston Red Sox for P 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. 
• 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. And the FO came up smelling like roses when they got their SS for the next eight years, Jay Bell, from the Indians just before the 1989 season started. 

All things come to he who waits...Jay Bell 1990 Fleer

• 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 AL teams 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 style: his 100th and final win was in June of that year, a six-hit, complete game shutout of the San Diego Padres. 

Adam LaRoche 2007 Bowman Heritage

• 2006 - The Pirates 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 Bravos 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 for parts of five years with 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 with a 2.14 ERA, arm injuries took their toll on the flame thrower’s (he could touch 98) career. 

12/5: Big Poison & Sid Go; Romo, Westlake Arrive; Charlie Hustle; HBD Pink, Tony, Sammy, Snake, Frank & Bill

• 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 like that 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 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 roots: Snake’s brother was George “Hooks” Wiltse, who pitched for 12 big-league seasons. Hooks featured a killer curve but earned his moniker because he caught everything as a fielder, showing off great “hooks’ (hands). 

Pink Hawley (2012 image via Local Leben Magazine)

• 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 and a 3.76 ERA. He was a workhorse, appearing in 56 games in 1895 while throwing 444-⅓ innings, both league-leading numbers. Pink was a stand up guy, once turning down a bribe to throw a game. But 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 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 to the major leagues. 
• 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. 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, hold the career record for hits by brothers with 5,611. 

Wally Westlake (photo via Baseball Hall of Fame)

• 1946 - The Bucs sent Johnny Hutchings and $35,000 to Oakland of the PCL for OF Wally Westlake. Wally spent 1947-51 as the Bucs starting outfielder, hitting .281 with an 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. 
• 1963 - SS Sam Khalifa was born in Fontana, California. Khalifa was a first round pick (#7 overall) from Arizona’s Sahuero HS, but in his three years MLB career, all as a Pirate (1985-87), he hit just .219. He’ll go down in the history books as the first player of Egyptian ancestry to play major league baseball. 
• 1966 - Coach Tony Beasley was born in Fredricksburg, 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, 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 and was named third base coach in 2008 by John Russell; he was considered instrumental in the transition of Neil Walker into a second baseman. After JR left, 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. 

• 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 Ohio horse farms. The Pirates admitted that their cash offer was half that of the Phillies, but didn’t confirm if any other sweeteners, especially those rumored to involve equine ownership as bait for Charlie Hustle, had been part of the proposed deal. 
• 1978 - Pitchers Enrique Romo and Rick Jones along with shortstop Tom McMillan were sent to the Pirates by Seattle, which got 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 Jones both ended up minor league players. 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, which proved to be his MLB career. 

Sid Bream 1991 Fleer

• 1990 - The Atlanta Braves signed Bucco free agent 1B Sid Bream to a three year/$5.6M contract. The Pirates were have reported to offer three years/$4.5M, but aside from the financial gap, the FO was leery of Sid’s knees plus Bream wanted 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. The heir-apparent at first was bench bat Carmelo Martinez going into camp, but he lost the job to Orlando Merced.

12/4: Briles, Robby, Cookie Go; Spanky, Sluggo, Ed & Alex Become Bucs; Waner MVP; AVS-GG; HBD Ted & Johnny

• 1886 - The St. Louis Maroons traded 1B Alex McKinnon to Pittsburgh for 1B Otto Schomberg and $400. Schomberg was the Alleghenys starting first sacker who had some power and a great eye, but the 30 year-old McKinnon was considered a potential star. The Boston native was hitting .340 for the Pittsburgh club in July when he contracted typhoid fever and died 20 days after his last game. 

Alex McKinnon 1887 Goodwin Old Judge

• 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 him 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 never returned to MLB after switching leagues. 
• 1925 - 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. 
• 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 his 54 votes. In his second year in the show, Waner hit .380, drove in 131 runs, scored 114 and banged out 237 hits to lead Pittsburgh to the NL title. He entered the Hall of Fame in 1952.

• 1936 - The Brooklyn Dodgers traded LHP Ed Brandt for Pirates IF Cookie Lavagetto and LHP Ralph “Lefty” Birkofer. 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. Brandt lasted two years with the Bucs as a swingman, going 16-14 with a 3.23 ERA before he retired at age 34 after 11 MLB campaigns. While here, he tied a Bucco mark held by several by winning three 1-0 games in 1937, a record no Pirate has matched since. Lefty made 11 appearances for the Dodgers in 1937, his last year of MLB ball. 
• 1973 - The Pirates traded P Nelson Briles and IF Fernando Gonzalez to the KC Royals for UT Ed “Spanky” Kirkpatrick, IF Kurt Bevacqua and minor league 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 as a utility guy with the Bucs until 1977. 
• 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 the Royals, Rangers, Yankees, Pirates, Angels, White Sox, and Padres in his 16 year career; a catcher with a .283 lifetime BA has an awfully long shelf life in MLB. Robinson tossed for three more seasons in the AL, while Smith threw seven frames in 1994 in his only taste of the show. 

Don Slaught 1991 Bowman

• 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.

Notes: Hot Stove a Few Logs Shy of a Flame...

And the news of the past couple of weeks:

Player News:

• As expected: The Pirates tendered contracts to their arb-eligible players: Gerrit Cole, George Kontos, Jordy Mercer and Felipe Rivero.
• The Giants are checking in on Andrew per Jon Morosi as a Plan B if they lose out in the Giancarlo Stanton derby. We suspect Cutch will be in-play for quite a few clubs after Stanton sets the market free. Speaking of  McCutchen, congrats are due - he and Maria became the proud parents of Steel Stefan McCutchen this week.

Will he stay or will he go... (Topps 2017 Opening Day)

• If you're curious, GM Neal Huntington said the Pirates are in on the pursuit of Japanese superman Shohei Ohtani, along with the rest of planet.
• The Bucs claimed LHP Sam Moll from Oakland. But it was a quick visit. Pittsburgh put him on waivers (apparently they hoped he'd clear so they could take him off the 40-man roster) and Seattle claimed him three days later. Easy come...
• The Pirates released RHP Angel Sanchez to allow him to pitch in Korea. KBO club SK Wyvern inked him to a $1.1M deal.
• Kang Jung-ho has been released by his Dominican Winter League club, Aguilas Cibaenas, after batting .143 with a home run and 10 RBIs in 24 games. Kang also booted four balls at the hot corner. That doesn't make any difference in his visa situation although it does show the effects of a long layoff from live action.
• MiLB has named it's Pirates organizational All-Star team for 2017.

Mitch Keller 2017 (photo via MLB Pipeline)

• RHP Mitch Keller, the Pirates top minor-league arm, was named to the All-Arizona Fall League Team with a 4-0/1.52 slash in six starts. His four wins were the AFL's most this season.
• Trevor Williams announced that he'll wear No. 34 next season to honor Cory Hahn, his former roommate and teammate at Arizona State University. Hahn, who wore No. 34 at ASU, had his career cut short in 2011 when he fractured his neck and was paralyzed from the chest down while sliding headfirst into second base. Adam Berry of MLB.com has the tale.
• Felipe Rivero has left Scott Boras and taken on Francis Marquez of Magnus Sports as his agent per Liz Bloom of the Post-Gazette. The agency reps Aroldis Chapman, so they can line up some big bucks for their guys, too.

FO/Baseball News:

• No reunion for the Bucs and Jim Benedict. He went over to the dark side and became a Special Assistant for Baseball Operations in Cubbieland.
• The Bucs may have got away easy by losing Rene Gayo. The Braves had a dozen Latino prospects declared free agents for their signing shenanigans and their former GM, John Coppolalla, was given a lifetime ban from baseball. Looks like the buscone biz finally crossed MLB's line. Junior Vizcaino was named director of international scouting. Vizcaino, a former Pirates minor leaguer and Red Sox suit, will replace Gayo.
• The FO added Justin Meccage to major league staff as assistant pitching coach, named Steve Williams pro scouting director and bumped Greg Smith to special assistant to the GM. Meccage was highly regarded as the Bucs MiLB pitching coordinator and may be Uncle Ray's heir one day. 
• Expansion in the air? What would a 32-team MLB looklike? Tracy Ringolsby of Baseball America gives a preview.

Old Buccos News:

• One of Gayo's guys, Rudy Guzman, a once highly-touted outfielder, is suing the Bucs for $10M per Diario Libre, a Dominican newspaper, for breach of contract. He never made it out of the Dominican because he couldn't verify his age.
• Jared Hughes was non-tendered by the Brewers. He was 5-3-1 with a dozen holds and 3.02 ERA for the Crew last season.

Jared Hughes looking for a new home (photo 2016/Pittsburgh Pirates)

• The Orioles signed RHP Jhan Martinez (0-1, 3.18 w/Pittsburgh last year) and RHP Joely Rodriguez, who the Bucs sent to the Phils for Antonio Bastardo after the 2014 season.
• Rob Scahill inked a minor-league deal with the White Sox. He tossed for the Bucs in 2016 and then moved on to the Brewers.
• The Padres signed 25-year-old RHP Colten Brewer. The 2011 4th-round Pirates pick was converted to the pen last year and worked three minor-league levels with a combined 3-1-14/2.82 slash & 69 K in 60-2/3IP.
• Philadelphia and SS Pedro Florimon agreed to a minor-league deal. He played some for the Pirates in 2015-16 and spent time with the Phils last year.
• RHP Mark Appel passed through waivers, proof positive that it's better to be lucky than good (sometimes).

12/3 From the 60s Forward: Chico, Brian Signed; Barney, Billy & Deacon Called to Hall; 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 and the poster child of a AAAA player. Steve retired following the 1995 season after playing in Italy and Mexico. He’s now a division chief for the Maryland - National Capital Park and Planning Commission. 

Jose Lind 1989 Topps wide

• 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. 
• 2001 - Brian Graham was signed by the Pirates from Florida as Minor League Director, eventually becoming the Senior Director for Player Development. Under Graham, the Pirates minor league teams finished with combined winning records in four of his five seasons. Under his hand in 2002, the Pirate 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 Orioles and still works in their system as Director of Player Development. 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 out to Dave Miley. 
• 2007 - German-born Barney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pirates from 1900 until his death in 1932, was elected by 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 during his term, cleaned up the game and was considered one of the founding fathers of modern baseball. He was inducted on July 23rd, 2008. 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 1919-21 Strip Card

• 2007 - 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. Southworth was 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 also 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 from the hot corner. Deacon came by his nickname honestly; he was a devout Christian in an era when ballplayers were notoriously rowdy.

12/3 Through the 50s: Arroyo, McCullough, Fletcher Deals; Lynch Lost; HBD Suitcase Harry, Toad, 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 by their showing against him after the twin bill 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 gang 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 thankless job of backing up Josh Gibson. While he didn’t get much work for the Grays, Tillman 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. 

Elbie Fletcher 1947 Tip-Top

• 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 year ago 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 campaign. 
• 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 White Sox. He got into nine games and hit 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 character by that name with feet as large as suitcases, in the comic strip “Toonerville Folks.” 
• 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) with a line a 1-1, 2.63 from the pen. His ‘70 season was cut short by an arm injury, and in 1971-72 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 nickname of “Toad.” Family matters: Lou was the cousin of pitcher John D'Acquisto who won the NL Rookie Pitcher of the Year award in 1974 with the Giants.

Clyde McCullough 1953 Topps reprint

• 1952 - Pittsburgh traded C Clyde McCullough to the Chicago Cubs for RHP Dick Manville and $25,000. Clyde made the All-Star squad in 1953, tho he only caught 77 games while hitting .258 and wound down his career from there while Manville never appeared in the majors after the deal. 
• 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. Lynch is considered one of baseball's all-time best 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. 
• 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.

12/2 TRS-PNC Park Era: KC Deal; Petey & Bo Go; RIP Danny; Stew Arrives; '16 Tenders; HBD Wyatt

• 1970 - The Pirates and the Kansas City Royals swung a six player trade with P Bruce Dal Canton, C Jerry May and SS Freddie Patek going to KC while C Jim Campanis, SS Jackie Hernandez and P Bob Johnson came to the Bucs. Patek and Dal Canton were everyday players for KC, with Patek playing nine years for the KC and winning three All-Star berths. Johnson was 17-16-7/3.34 with the Bucs and Hernandez was a reserve infielder, both lasting three years for the Pirates. Campanis didn't make the club until 1973, and he only had six at-bats. 

Jackie Hernandez 1973 Topps

• 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 only Fred Clarke, and took two World Series championships. His number 40 was retired by the Pirates on Opening Day, 1977. 
• 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 inked a player/coach and served in the first base box for the 2012 AAA Indy Indians. In January, 2015, Toregas was named as the first manager in the franchise history of the Bucs’ short-season affiliate, the West Virginia Black Bears, and now is the skipper for the Low-A West Virginia Power. 
• 1991 - After six years as a Pirate, Bobby Bonilla signed as a free agent with the New York Mets. 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, and 500 RBI's. He led the league in extra base hits in 1990 and in doubles in 1991. Bonilla also made the All-Star team four years in a row. Bo is currently being paid about $1.2M by the New York Mets each year up to 2035, as part of a negotiated buy-out of a second deal signed in 1999, turning $5.9M due to him in 2000 into $29.8M over 25 years. 

• 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 #2 man from 2014-15. Stew got into just 34 games in 2016 and had season-ending surgery on his knee in September. 
• 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 AL club for two years running. Jaff Decker, a depth outfielder, was also non-tendered. El Toro hit .249 w/22 HR with the Orioles in 2016, mostly as a DH (he handled nine balls in the field and made four errors). Jaff served as organizational depth for Tampa, getting into 19 games. 
• 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.

12/2 Expo Park-Forbes Field Era: Ginger, Jeep & Other Deals; HBD Deacon, Andre, Johnny,Mike & Rubberlegs

• 1847 - Hall of Famer C/3B James “Deacon” (he was a religious fellow) 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).

Deacon White 2012 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions

• 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 plays 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. Mike’s entire MLB career consisted of five appearances behind the dish and an 0-for-4 career 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 (photo via Racine Historical Society)

• 1898 - Pittsburgh traded IF Bill Gray and P 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 over that span, winning the NL batting title once and leading the league in hits three times. 
• 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 - he passed away in 1940 after a nine-month battle with 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 Giants in 1954, he finally cracked the majors in 1957 and played 11 big league seasons, finishing with a .249 BA. 

Andre Rodgers 1966 Topps

• 1936 - The Pirates signed 23 year old IF Lee “Jeep” Handley as a free agent. 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 Reds 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!" 
• 1963 - Win some, lose some… The Pirates lost OF Bobby Tolan to the Cards in the first-year player draft. Tolan ended up with a solid 13 year career with a .265 lifetime BA and even made a late stop back to his original Bucco club in 1977. Pittsburgh claimed LHP Luke Walker from Boston in the same draft, and Luke spent 8-of-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.

12/1 From the 50s Forward: Draft ElRoy & Rocky; Trade For Matty, Maury & S-Rod; Sign Kevin, Doug & Abraham; HBD Reggie

• 1952 - The Pirates drafted ElRoy Face from the Montreal Royals, the top minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers. During a 15-year career with the Pirates, Face led the NL in saves three times, collecting 100 wins and 188 saves as a Bucco while popularizing the forkball, a prototype of the modern day splitter. He retired to North Versailles where he made his living as a carpenter. During his career, he was known as “The Baron of the Bullpen” thanks to Bob Prince and is still considered a pioneer in the closer’s evolution. 

ElRoy Face 2003 Topps

• 1958 - The Pirates drafted Rocky Nelson from Toronto of the International League for a $25,000 fee in the minor-league Rule 5 draft. He was already 34, but spent three seasons with the Bucs, hitting .270 as a platoon player and pinch hitter. Rocky went 3-for-9 in the 1960 World Series with a home run.
• 1965 - The Bucs traded for Giants’ CF Matty Alou‚ who was coming off a .231 season‚ sending LHP Joe Gibbon and IF Ozzie Virgil to the Bay. Alou played five seasons in Pittsburgh, promptly winning a batting crown in 1966 and putting up four straight .330+ years after manager Harry “The Hat” Walker retooled his batting approach. He finishing in the NL’s top five in hitting from 1966-69. In 2007, the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum Hall of Fame inducted Alou into their Hall of Fame after he finished his 15 year career with a .307 BA. 
• 1966 - The Pirates sent 3B Bob Bailey and SS Gene Michael to the Dodgers for SS/3B Maury Wills. Wills hit .290 and stole 81 bases for the Bucs in his two seasons as the club’s third baseman. He was lost in the 1968 expansion draft, played a year with Montreal and then closed out his career where he started it, in Los Angeles. The highly-hyped Bailey had been signed out of Wilson High School in Long Beach in 1961, and was given the largest signing bonus ever paid up to that time, a reported $135,000, by the Brooklyn Dodgers. 

Reggie Sanders 2003 Spectrum SP

• 1967 - OF Reggie Sanders was born in Florence, South Carolina. Reggie played 17 solid seasons in the show and his 2003 stay in Pittsburgh was excellent as he hit .285 with 31 homers and 87 RBI. The Pirates had signed the 35-year-old to a one-year/$1M contract and he doubled it the next season by jumping to the Cards. Sanders played into the 2007 campaign, racking the bat for the final time at age 39. 
• 1997 - The Pirates signed 1B Kevin Young to a two-year, $3.7M contract after he hit .300 and led the team in homers (18) and RBI (74) during the season despite missing 35 games with a thumb injury. That worked out well; KY spent the next five years as a starter for Pittsburgh, mainly at 1B. They also inked free agent Doug Strange to a two-year, $1.1M deal after he hit .257 w/12 HR and 47 RBI as a part-timer at Montreal. That didn’t work out so well; Strange hit .173 in 1998 and collected his second year’s salary while playing at AAA Nashville. 
• 2003 - The Pirates signed IF Abraham Nunez to a one-year, $625K contract in his eighth season with the club. He’d hit .236 in 2004 (just about at his .238 Bucco career clip) , be released and sign a deal with the Cards for 2005. 

Abraham Nunez 1998 Bowmans Best

• 2014 - The Pirates picked up utilityman Sean Rodriguez from Tampa Bay for minor league RHP Buddy Borden to replace newly minted starter Josh Harrison on the Buc bench. Rodriguez hit a career low .211 in 96 games for the Rays in 2014, but set career highs in home runs (12) and RBI's (41). He became available after being DFA’ed when the Rays signed RHP Ernesto Frieri, who the Pirates had cut loose, so the move in effect was a Rodriguez-for-Frieri swap with Borden tossed in. S-Rod hit .246 for Pittsburgh in 2015 while playing every infield position and both corner OF spots but broke out in 2016, batting .270 with 18 HR. That led to a two-year/$11.5M deal with the Braves for 2017, but the Pirates decided they wanted him back and sent minor leaguer Connor Joe to the Bravos to get S-Rod back in August.

12/1 Through the 20s: DH; Sked; HBD Cookie, Mike, Eppie, Jake & Paddy

• 1868 - 1B/C George “Paddy” Fox was born in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He played for Louisville in 1891 and then took a long hiatus from the show before making it to Pittsburgh in 1899, hitting .244 in 13 games. He did have some value, though - he was sent, along with Jack Chesbro and a couple of other guys to Louisville for the bulk of their roster, a master move by owner Barney Dreyfuss to pick up the nucleus (Honus Wagner, Deacon Phillippe, Tommy Leach, Fred Clarke & Claude Ritchey w/nine others) of his powerhouse turn-of-the-century Pittsburgh clubs. Paddy finished his playing career in Louisville. 

Paddy was part of the "Big Deal" (Pgh Press 12/9/1899)

• 1895 - OF Jake (Muenzing) Miller was born in Baltimore. Jake was a minor league lifer who played on various farm clubs from 1913-30. His taste of the high life came in 1922 when he got into three games in two days for the Pirates, going 1-for-11. 
• 1900 - IF Everett “Eppie” Barnes was born in Ossining, New York. A basketball and baseball star at Colgate, he got seven at-bats for the Pirates with a hit during 1923-24, but had a long and distinguished athletic career afterward. A noted semi-pro player, he was later the athletic director at his alma mater and the baseball coach, along with being the president of the NCAA for three years and Director of the 1968 US Olympic Committee. Eppie was named to the American Association of Baseball Coaches, United Savings-Helms Athletic Foundation and Colgate Halls of Fame. Barnes was also a member of the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues set up by the Hall of Fame from 1971-77 to elect Negro League players to the Hall. 
• 1900 - LHP Mike Cvengros was born in Pana, Illinois. Mike had a long and solid career in the minors, toiling from 1921-37 on the farm, but in six big league seasons, his 1927 campaign with the Pirates was the only year he finished with an ERA under four (2-1-1, 3.35). As a bonus, he got to toss a couple of frames against the Yankees in the WS, holding his own. The Pirates apparently weren’t that impressed (he had more walks than Ks) and traded him to minor league Wichita Falls for another lefty, Fred Fussell. Mike got one more shot in the show with the Cubs in 1929, then spent the next eight years in the bushes before retiring to the life of an small town Illinois barkeeper. 

Mike Cvengros 1927 (photo Harwell Collection/Detroit Public Library)

• 1912 - IF Attilio Harry “Cookie” Lavagetto was born in Oakland, California. He started his MLB career as a Bucco bench player, batting .249 from 1934-36. He was then traded to the Dodgers, where he blossomed into a four time All-Star before losing the next four years to WW2, then returning to Brooklyn for two more campaigns. In 1961, he became the Minnesota Twins first manager and was a coach for the New York Mets (1962-63) and San Francisco Giants (1964-67). He got his nickname as an Oakland Oak farm hand early in his career as a hand-me-down from team owner Cookie DeVincenzi, who was fond of the young Lavagetto. 
• 1927 - The coming year’s schedule was finalized by the leagues at the William Penn Hotel. It was a departure from the norm as the schedules were usually drawn up at the winter meetings, but the AL passed a resolution that their dates be already prepared and voted on at the get-together. The NL wasn’t under the gun but decided to set the games ahead of time too, with Pirates owner Barney Dreyfuss being the lead man, assisted by Senior Circuit President John Heydler and his aide Harvey Traband. Junior Circuit prez Ernest Barnard and his secretary William Harridge were also at the William Penn doing the AL honors. 
• 1928 - During the winter meetings, NL President John Heydler proposed a “ten man team” that included a designated hitter in place of the pitcher. The senior circuit voted in favor of the proposal, but the AL nixed it, more because the NL proposed it than on its merits. The DH in one form or another had popped up on occasion going back to the 1890s but didn’t see the light of day until the junior circuit adopted it in 1973.