12/6 From 1960: Tanner, Heaton, Smith Sign; Law Wins Gehrig; Meek, Tudor, Ribant Pick-Ups; Dead Deals; $$$ Pit; HBD Adam

• 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 became the only other Pirate to win the Gehrig, being honored in 1974. 
• 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. 

Adam Hyzdu - 2003 Fleer Tradition

• 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. 
• 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, 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 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 hangin’ ‘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. 

Neal Heaton - 1990 Topps Wide

• 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. 
• 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 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. 

Evan Meek - 2008 Upper Deck Rookie

• 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 the 1950s: Pirates Pick Up Long, LaPalme, Westlake & Adams; Release Big Poison; HBD Pink, Bill, 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 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 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 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). 

Snake Wiltse - 1902 photo via Library of Congress

• 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 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, spending nine years on various farm clubs. 
• 1922 - The Pirates sent RHP Fred “Sheriff” Blake, OF Ray Rohwer and $15,000 to Seattle of the Pacific Coast League for IF Spencer Adams. After a year with Seattle, Blake went on to pitch for nine MLB seasons while Rowher 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. 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. 
• 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, 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 in the minors, then came back for parts (61 games total) of two final MLB tours in 1949-50. 

Lefty LaPalme - 1953 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. 
• 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 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.

12/5 From 1960: Dealing; Sid Goes, Pete Sez No; RIP Joe; HBD Oscar, Sam & Tony

• 1963 - SS Sam Khalifa was born in Fontana, California. 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. 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 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 Beasley - 2009 Pirates Promo Card

• 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 (4years/$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, 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 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, which proved to be his MLB career. 
• 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 lefty to LA in April of 1979 for Rick Rhoden and then signed Hassler as a free agent to work the 1980 campaign. 
• 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 college baseball to coach different levels of school ball. In 2010, it paid off when the Rangers hired him as their minor league pitching coordinator. He left them for the Mariners in 2017-18, then became an MLB’er with the Rangers in 2019 when he returned as their bullpen coach. Marin was hired to join Derek Shelton’s staff in December 2019 to replace Ray Searage. 

Sid Bream - 1990 Bowman

• 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, 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. 
• 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 did both and Joe was with him beginning in 1971 at Chicago, 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 dabbled a little in managing at the lower levels and then spent 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.

12/4: '58 Reds Swap; Sluggo, Spanky, McKinnon & Brandt Deals; Big Poison MVP; AVS, BB Gold Gloves; Fences In; HBD Big Joe, Johnny & Ted

• 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 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 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, tops in the NL, 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. 
• 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. 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. 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 Dodgers in 1937, his last year of MLB ball. 

Ed Brandt - 1937 Retro Images Collection

• 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; there was no reviving those talks. 
• 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, batting .236 over that time. 
• 1974 - The Pirates 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 bring them into agreement with five other NL ballyards during the era of cookie-cutter stadia. 
• 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. 

Sluggo & Spanky - July 1990 Pirates Magazine

• 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. 
• 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) then posted a 3.86 ERA in 2020 despite missing time with a triceps injury.

12/3 Through the 1940s: Small Deals; Mungo Wanted Man; RIP Lefty; HBD Suitcase, Lou, Hickory & James

• 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 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. 

Suitcase just before he became a Bucco - 1960 Topps

• 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 (Pittsburgh was his third team of the season). 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.” 
• 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 other than that season, he 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. 
• 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 team 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, with a 112-82/3.97 overall slash as a Bucco. 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 from a building he owned after he retired. He’s buried in Allegheny County Memorial Park in Allison Park. 

Monty Basgall - 1949 Eureka Sports Stamp

• 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. 
• 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 a 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 NL Rookie Pitcher of the Year award in 1974 with the Giants.

12/3 From 1950: Deacon, Dreyfuss HoF; Chico & Junior Join, Jerry Leaves; CF Hole; Little Deals; Graham In, Kent Out; HBD Steve

• 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 and putting up 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 started the season hot 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 signed Vic Janowicz, football star from Ohio State, to a contract w/$25,000 bonus despite the fact he didn’t play baseball for the Buckeyes, focusing his college years on the gridiron.

 

Jerry Lynch - 1956 Topps

• 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. 
• 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. 
• 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’s now a division chief for the Maryland - National Capital Park and Planning Commission. 
• 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. 
• 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. He had debuted as a Pirate as a 22-year-old in 1982, and was traded to the Mets as part of the Marvell Wynne deal in June, 1983. 

Junior - 1987 Topps

• 1995 - The Pirates were kicking the tires of some FA outfielders, particularly to man the middle. John Perrotto of the Beaver County Times had them talking to Otis Nixon and Darron Lewis; they also had interest in corner guy Kevin Mitchell, fresh off a season in Japan.They didn’t ink any of the players on their 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 a for-grabs position until Nate McLouth handed it off to Andrew McCutchen a decade later. 
• 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. 
• 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 since has worked for golf’s PGA and Champions Tours. His replacement was Brad Henderson, who held down the job through 2011. 
• 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 during his term, 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 both inducted on July 28th, 2008. 

Barney Dreyfuss - 2015 Ars Longa Diamond Heads 

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

12/2 Through the 1960s: Ginger Added; Jeep Signs; Moves; HBD Andre, Johnny, Deacon, Roscoe & Mike

• 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 Hall.

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 (Montgomery County). 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. 
• 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 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 and so got to spend his last years at home - 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. 

Jeep - 1993 Conlon Collection

• 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!" 
• 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 Cards in the now defunct 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 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 Gibbons. 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.

12/2 From 1970: KC Six-Pack, Stew Deals; Strange Signing; Spanky GG; Barger Prez; Pedro & Bo Go; Shufflin'; RIP Danny; 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 KC and winning three All-Star berths. May was a backup who played through 2003. 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. 

Bob Johnson - 1972 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. 
• 1987 - Attorney Carl Barger was named team president, replacing Malcolm “Mac” Prine who lost an internal battle w/GM Syd Thrift. Barger was one of the architects of the Pittsburgh Associates ownership plan and well-positioned to take over the day-to-day operations of the club, although he still kept his day job with Eckert, Seamans, Cherin & Mellott. His immediate goal was to improve the team’s image and marketing, aiming for attendance to hit the 2M mark. He left in 1991 to become president of the new Florida Marlins’ franchise after he hit his attendance goal in 1990, helped greatly by the Buc’s NLCS club. Westinghouse Corporation’s Douglas Danforth was chosen as Chairman of the Board and CEO. 
• 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 as 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 of the Bucs’ short-season affiliate, the West Virginia Black Bears, and now is the skipper for the Low-A West Virginia Power. 
• 1987 - C Mike “Spanky” LaValliere was presented with his first (and only) Golden Glove as selected by the coaches and players. Spanky led the NL in throwouts (45%) in his first season as a Bucco (he replaced Tony Pena, who was part of the deal with SL that brought Lavalliere to Pittsburgh) and finished the year with a .300 BA, doing it with both his lumber and leather. It was also proved handy for his pocketbook; the honor triggered a $10K contract bonus. 

Spanky - 1988 Topps Wide

• 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 buyout of a second deal signed in 1999, turning $5.9M due to him in 2000 into $29.8M over 25 years. 
• 1997 - Free agent IF Doug Strange signed a two-year/$1.1M w/PA-based bonuses deal with the Pirates. The 34-year-old hit .173 in 1988 and didn’t make the cut for the second year of the deal, with his solo Bucco season ending his nine-year MLB career. No hard feelings, though - Strange joined the front office in 2002 and is still a Pirates suit involved with evaluation and scouting. 
• 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. He barely topped the Mendoza Line in his final two Bucco campaigns and was non-tendered after 2017. The Pirates also lost two fan favorites players on this date when 1B/OF Garrett Jones and C Michael “The Fort” McKenry were allowed to walk. 
• 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. 

Petey - 2015 Topps Heritage

• 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. 
• 2019 - The Pirates brought in Steve Sanders, 31, the Director of Amateur Scouting for Toronto, as an AGM, becoming new GM Ben Cherington’s first front office hire, officially announcing his hiring the next day. The two had a history: Sanders was a scout for Boston in 2012 when Cherington was the GM, and was the Blue Jays Scouting Director during Cherington’s stint with Toronto. Sanders replaced Kyle Stark, who had been relieved of duty in mid-November.

12/1 Through the 1940s: Gornicki, Yde & McKinnon Deals; Winter Meetings; HBD Cal, Cookie, Eppie, Mike, Paddy & Jake

• 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 added 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. 

Alex McKinnon - 1887 Goodwin/Old Judge

• 1886 - The American Association Alleghenys traded 1B Otto Schomberg along with $400 to the St. Louis Maroons in return for 1B Alex McKinnon. Schomberg was in the minors for a year and then finished out his MLB days with a two-season stay with the NL Indiana Hoosiers. The 30-year-old McKinnon was just blossoming, getting into 48 games and batting .340 for Pittsburgh. But he caught pneumonia brought on by typhoid fever early in the season and he passed away in July of 1887. Pittsburgh wore black crêpe on their uniforms for the rest of the season to honor their fallen teammate. 
• 1895 - OF Jake Miller (Muenzing) 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 (July 16-17th) for the Pirates, going 1-for-11 against Brooklyn. The newspapers said he was “ripe for the big leagues” but apparently the Bucs had a different take. 
• 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 whiffs) 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 a small town Illinois barkeeper. 

Mike Cvengros - 1927 via 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. 
• 1923 - The Bucs sent a PTBNL (OF Ed Hock) to Oklahoma City of the Western League for LHP Emil Yde. The lefty went 41-19/3.53 for the Pirates from 1924-26, but the wheels fell off in ‘27, he was waived, and spent one more season in the majors, with Detroit in 1929. Hock did get to sip some coffee in the big leagues, appearing in 19 games and getting one hit over the three campaigns. 
• 1925 - RHP Calvin Coolidge “Cal” Julius Caesar Tuskahoma McLish (Cal explained that “There were eight kids in the family, and I was number seven and my dad didn’t get to name one of them before me. So he evidently tried to catch up.”) was born in Anadarko, Oklahoma. He also went by “Bus,” a childhood nickname his pop (he had a way with names) dropped on him, who said the first time he saw his son that “He’s as big as a bus!” McLish didn’t hit his stride until the fifties, but got in three games for the Bucs in 1947-48, giving up seven runs in six innings as a 21/22-year-old and mostly working at Indy before being traded to the Cubs with Frankie Gustine. Cal ended up more of a workman (4.01 lifetime ERA) than All-Star, but still won double digit games in five of six seasons from 1958-63, with a 19-win year for Cleveland in 1959, his only AS season. His last campaign was in 1964 and he stayed in baseball as a pitching coach and scout for Philly, Montreal and Milwaukee. 
• 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 to be voted on at that 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. 

Barney hosted the league for a couple of years - photo NL Service Bureau

• 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 American League adopted it in 1973. 
• 1941 - The Bucs claimed RHP Hank Gornicki off waivers from the Cards, and the righty lasted three seasons (1942-43, 1946) with Pittsburgh, posting a line of 14-19-6/3.38 while swapping in his 1944-45 tour of duty from the Pirates to the Army, where he suffered from a bad leg that eventually squelched his return to baseball (being 35-years-old upon discharge didn’t help, either).

12/1/From 1950: Face, Nelson Taken; Young, Nunez & Tenace Signed; Alou, Wills & S-Rod Deals; Pops Switched; Kent To Booth; RIP Gene; HBD Reggie

• 1952 - The Pirates chose ElRoy Face from the Montreal Royals, the top minor league affiliate of the Brooklyn Dodgers, with the first overall pick of the minor league draft. GM Branch Rickey said the decision was between Face and C Johnny Bucha. He made a good choice; Bucha was taken by the Tigers and lasted one more big league season, hitting .222. 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” as popularized by Bob Prince, and is still considered a pioneer in the closer’s evolution. GM Branch Rickey also selected vet pitchers Johnny Hetki and Swissvale’s Bob Hall. Hetki, who had worked for the Browns & Reds, lasted two more seasons, making 112 appearances, and Hall, who had tossed for the Braves, one more, both ending their MLB careers in Pittsburgh. 
• 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 would spend 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. 

Rocky Nelson - 1960 Topps

• 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 finished 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 during a Pirates youth movement, 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. Michael was 28 and didn’t find a groove in LA, but went on to become the Yankees’ starting shortstop for five years (1969-73) and played until age 37 before going on to a managerial career. 
• 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. 
• 1972 - Manager Bill Virdon announced from the winter meetings in Honolulu that Willie Stargell, who had moved from left field to first base in July of the prior season (101 games played with a league-leading 15 errors) to replace a cold-hitting Bob Robertson, would stay at the position while Big Red would get work at the corners and left field. It didn’t quite work out that way; Robby did start 32 games playing LF/3B, but got 106 starts at first while Willie played exclusively in left (CF Al Oliver got 99 games in at first in 1973-74). Roberto Clemente’s tragic death created an outfield void that Manny Sanguillen and then Richie Zisk tried to fill in right while Willie provided stability in left. Dave Parker’s emergence allowed Zisk to flip to left in 1975 and Pops with his creaky knees finally made the move to become the Buccos’ full-time first-sacker at age 35. Other news from the winter get-together: Commissioner Bowie Kuhn confirmed that the 1974 All-Star Game would be held in Pittsburgh at Three Rivers Stadium. 

Gene Tenace - 1984 Donruss

• 1982 - The Pirates inked 36-year-old FA Gene Tenace to a multi-season deal, thought to be two years/$400K. He was brought aboard as a replacement for Willie Stargell, who was Jason Thompson’s back-up/bench bat during Pop’s last campaign. Gene got into 53 games in 1983, batted .177, and Pittsburgh ate the second year of the agreement. 
• 1989 - Kent Derdivanis was named as John Sanders replacement in the KDKA booth, joining Lanny Farattare on the play-by play and color men Steve Blass and Jim Rooker after signing a two-year contract. He worked for Pittsburgh through the 1993 season before returning to his home base in Arizona. Sanders, who spent nine years as the voice of the Buccos, later landed a deal in Cleveland and was their announcer from 1991-2006. 
• 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. KY spent the next five years as a starter for Pittsburgh, mainly at 1B, and hit .263 with 103 homers in that span. Young spent 11 of his 12 MLB seasons in Pittsburgh, and is still with the organization as a special instructor. 
• 1999 - Gene Baker passed away in Davenport, Iowa, at the age of 74. The backup infielder spent the last four years of his MLB career with the Bucs, capped by the 1960 World championship. He retired after that year, and Baker became the first African-American manager in organized baseball when the Pirates named him skipper of their Batavia Pirates farm club in the New York–Penn League. In 1962, the Pirates named him player-coach of the AAA Columbus Jets. In 1963, Baker was promoted to coach with the Bucs. He was the second black coach in the big leagues, following Buck O'Neil by a half-season. Gene then closed out his career as a Pirates scout. 
• 2003 - The Pirates signed IF Abraham Nunez to a one-year, $625K contract in his eighth season with the club. He hit .236 in 2004 (just about at his .238 Bucco career clip), was released and signed a deal with the Cards for 2005. He played well for them, hitting a career-high .285, but returned to earth during his final three campaigns with the Phils and Mets, finishing up his career in 2008. 

S-Rod - 2015 Topps Heritage

• 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. 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, short-circuited by a shoulder injury suffered in a car crash. The Pirates decided they wanted him back and sent minor leaguer Connor Joe to the Bravos in exchange for S-Rod in August. He was released a year later and played for Philly, moving to Miami in 2020.