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11/7: Elias & Francisco Sign, Syd Hired...& Fired, Jake Wins GG, '83 FA Class, '72 MVP Race, No Sale, Politickin', Pops Pins; RIP Fred, HBD Roansy, Todd, Dave, Stu, Bill, Ed & The Only

Thursday, November 7, 2024 7:06

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1857 – RHP Ed “The Only” Nolan was born in either Canada or Patterson, New Jersey; no one is quite sure. Nolan was a two-fisted drinker who made a brief stop with Allegheny in 1883. The following is per the Baseball Reference Bullpen page: He lost the seven games he pitched, and then, after he was fined $10 for misbehaving, went on a drinking spree and put it on the team’s tab. He was fined an extra $100 and suspended for the rest of the season. One fan even sold a line of T-shirts featuring Nolan, Buttercup Dickerson and the 1883 Allegheny as “The Hardest Drinking Team of All Time.” There are several theories regarding his nickname. One claimed it was because he would demand to be the only pitcher employed by the teams on which he played. Others believe that it was lifted from a burlesque actor named “The Only Leon.” Another explanation is that “The Only” was a commonly used term during Nolan’s time, applied to anyone who excelled at something, and so Nolan took the moniker to feed his ego. Guy Smith, who wrote “Heroes of Baseball,” followed that line of thought, writing that he got the nickname as a minor league pitcher after he started and won 11 straight games, six by shutout, for Indianapolis. And in a bit of irony, our mischievous lad Nolan became a cop after he returned to life after baseball.
1885 – SS/OF Ed Mensor was born in Woodville, Oregon. He played three years for Pittsburgh (1912-14) and hit .221 from the bench. Baseball players weren’t exactly noted for politically correctness back in the day; the 5’6” Mensor’s nickname was “The Midget.” Mensor mention: Ed was the first Jewish switch-hitter in major league history per the Jewish Baseball Museum.
1904 – C Fred Carroll died in San Rafael, California at the age of 40 after a heart attack. He was one of the top hitting catchers of his era, with a .284 BA, and had his hand in all the Pittsburgh franchises, playing for the Allegheny, Burghers and Pirates for seven (1885-91) of his eight big-league years. He was a complete player – he also spent some time in the OF, corner IF and short while stealing 137 bases during his career and even umped a game in ‘87. Fred had nine hits during an 1886 twin bill and was the first Pittsburgh player to hit for the cycle (both as an Allegheny) in 1887. He’ll always be a part of local baseball lore for allegedly burying his pet monkey and team mascot under home plate at old Recreation Park before a game. He left baseball early at age 26, partly because of a sub-par year at the dish with the Pirates (he hit .218) and partly because the Sacramento native wanted to return to the west coast.

Fred Carroll -1887 Goodwin/Old Judge

1910 – 3B Bill Brubaker was born in Cleveland. He played nine years for the Bucs, from 1932-40, and batted .264 as a Pirate, earning most of his starts in 1936-37 (he was super in ‘36, hitting .289 w/101 RBI). After a couple of years in the service, he ended his career in 1943 with the Boston Braves. His grandson, Dennis Rasmussen, also played in the major leagues, putting together a 12-year career as a starting pitcher in the early 80s-to-mid 90s.
1932 – 1B Dick Stuart was born in San Francisco. “Dr. Strangeglove” played in Pittsburgh from 1958-62, hitting .273 with 117 bombs as a Bucco, and was a 1961 All-Star after losing 35 baseballs. The slugger’s inability to field was legendary; he was once hit in the back when Roberto Clemente threw behind a runner, and received an ovation for spearing a hot dog wrapper as it blew past him at Forbes Field. He led the league in errors a record seven years in a row (1958-64), drove a car with the vanity plate “E3″ and his 29 muffs at first base in 1963 remain the MLB record for the position. He said “As long as you drive in more than you let in, you get to play.” Oddly enough, stick-first Stu was the first 1B to record three assists in one inning; go figure. Stuart also mashed 66 home runs for the Lincoln club of the Class A Western League in 1956, proving that his glove wasn’t the main reason he got a paycheck. The apt nickname for the poor-fielding 1B was adapted from the movie “Doctor Strangelove,” and at 6’4”, he was also known as Big Stu. Per Wikipedia, other less well known but equally unflattering nicknames included “Iron Glove” and “The Ancient Mariner,” a literary-flipped-to-sports reference to the opening line of the Samuel Taylor Coleridge poem The Rime of the Ancient Mariner: “It is an ancient mariner, And he stoppeth one of three.”
1966 – OF Andy Tomberlin was born in Monroe, North Carolina. The strong-armed and fleet Tomberlin spent parts of six seasons as a big league bench outfielder after being converted from a pitcher, beginning in Pittsburgh in 1993, where he hit .286. Tomberlin played most of his games in the minor leagues from 1986 through 2000 for eight different organizations. After his playing days, Andy scouted and coached in the minors for the Brewers and White Sox.
1967 – Bob Friend made the transition from Sennett to Ross Street seamlessly by winning his first political outing, running as the Republican candidate for County Controller. He defeated the incumbent, James Knox, in a horse race. Those ‘60 Pirates pitchers were quite the political powerhouse: Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell would become a North Carolina congressman, Ronnie Kline became the mayor of Callery, PA after he retired and Diomedes Olivo wasn’t elected to office but was appointed as Director of the Ministry of Sports by the Dominican President.

Dave Wainhouse – 1991 image via Out Of the Ballpark

1967 – RHP Dave Wainhouse was born in Toronto, Ontario. The Montreal Expos selected Wainhouse with their first-round pick of the 1988 draft, making him the first Canadian-born player picked in the first round. He put in seven years as a middle reliever, spending 1996-97 with the Bucs, going 1-1/6.97 in 42 outings. He’s now affiliated with the Next Level baseball academy staff and is the pitching coach for the Seattle University Redhawks.
1971 – RHP Todd Ritchie was born in Portsmouth, Virginia. Ritchie went 35-32/4.29 for the Bucs from 1999-2001, winning 15 games in ‘99. In 2001’s off season, he was traded to the White Sox for Kip Wells, Josh Fogg and Sean Lowe. Derailed by a bum shoulder, he signed again with Pittsburgh in 2005, but retired during camp. Todd’s final comeback effort was in 2008 with the Rockies; he lasted through five minor-league starts before leaving the slab for good.
1972 – Willie Stargell came in third in the NL-MVP race, finishing behind winner Johnny Bench of the Reds and runner up Billy Williams of the Cubs. Bench had 263 vote count, Williams 211 and Pops 201. The Bucs had a gang of players finish in the Top 20 – Al Oliver (7th), Roberto Clemente (13th), Manny Sanguillen (17th), Steve Blass (18th) and Gene Clines (20th).
1973 – Some of baseball’s biggest names took their shot at throwing a strike at Willie Stargell’s Celebrity Bowling Tournament at the North Versailles Bowl, with the proceeds going to the Black Athletes Foundation to fight sickle cell anemia. Those attending included Henry Aaron, Reggie Jackson, Billy Williams, Brooks Robinson, Joe Morgan, Sparky Lyle, Jim Palmer, Satchel Paige and Joe Morgan, along with a small army of Pirates and Steelers (the Penguins were AWOL; they had a game that night); in all, over 50 athletes showed up for Pop’s event.
1974 – RHP Kris Benson was born in Kennesaw, Georgia. The first overall selection of the 1996 draft, the Clemson grad pitched for the Pirates from 1999-2004 (missing 2001 after TJ surgery) with a line of 43-49/4.26. His antics with wife Anna were sports page fodder throughout his career, culminating in a 2013 divorce. On the flip side, he and Anna also fronted many charitable causes and fundraised an estimated $750K during his nine-year big league career.

Kris Benson – 1999 Sky Box

1983 – Dave Parker, Jim Bibby, Kent Tekulve, Richie Hebner, Miguel Dilone and Dave Tomlin became free agents and entered the convoluted compensation draft; only Teke (three years + option/$1M per year) and Tomlin (who spent two years at AAA Hawaii) returned to the Pirates. Parker went to Cincinnati, Bibby to Texas, Hebner to the Chicago Cubs and Dilone to Montreal.
1985 – As earlier leaked by the media, Syd Thrift was hired to replace the retiring Joe Brown as GM, signing a two-year deal. (Joe was on interim status, holding the seat after Pete Peterson was dismissed. He helped make Syd’s selection after turning down an offer to make his job full-time). Thrift’s last baseball job was in 1976, and he was working in real estate in Virginia when he got the call, although he was still highly regarded in baseball as a talent evaluator despite the hiatus.
1988 – The Pirates replaced Syd Thrift with Larry Doughty as GM, three years to the day after they officially announced Syd’s hiring. Doughty had been hired from the Reds and became the Pittsburgh assistant GM in 1987, served a brief apprenticeship as the acting GM and was passed the torch OTD. His background was in player evaluation; with Cincinnati, he had been the head of their scouting department. The Pirates won division titles in ‘90 and ‘91, but Doughty caught flak for his handling of young talent, losing top prospects like Wes Chamberlain on a waiver snafu and Moisés Alou via trade. In 1992, the club’s new president, Mark Sauer, replaced Doughty with Ted Simmons.
1997 – The Pirates reached agreement with RHP Francisco Cordova on a three-year/$4.1M contract with an option year. Cordova went 11-8/3.63 with a nine-inning no-hitter during the season. He went 27-32 over the three guaranteed seasons of the deal, but his ERA zoomed each year, from 3.31 to 4.43 to 5.21 as arm troubles limited his effectiveness. After his MLB days, the lefty went home to toss in his native Mexico from 2002 through 2011.

Francisco Cordova – 1997 Topps Stadium Club

1999 – RHP Roansy Contreras was born in Peralvillo, Monte Plata, Dominican Republic. Signed by the Yankees in 2017 as an international FA, he had a strong 2019 Class A campaign with Charleston before the minor-league 2020 season was scrubbed before he became part of the package sent to Pittsburgh for Jameson Taillon. An early season forearm injury limited him to 60 IP, mainly at Altoona, but he showed enough to get the call during the Bucs final 2021 homestand and an off season assignment to the Arizona Fall League. The Pirates were careful with his innings in 2022, when he went 5-5/3.79. He slid downhill in ‘23, going 3-7/6.59 with a loss of velocity, and was demoted from the rotation in late May. The Bucs sent him to Florida to tinker with his mechanics, then gave him some work at Indy (4.69 in 32-1/3 IP) before shutting him down in late September. He was ho-hum in ‘24 and sold to the Angels; they cut him and he’s now with Texas.
2005 – Owner Kevin McClatchy denied rumors that the Pirates had been sold to Dallas Maverick owner/Mt. Lebanon native Mark Cuban. McClatchy told Paul Meyer of the Post Gazette bluntly that “..the team was not for sale.” But the ownership deck was being shuffled: by January 2007, shareholder Bob Nutting had taken over as the principal owner of the club.
2008 – Scout Rene Gayo signed 18-year-old C Elias Diaz out of Venezuela. Eli developed slowly but steadily, outpunching first-round prospects Tony Sanchez and Reese McGuire. Baseball America named him the best defensive catcher in the minors in 2014. After being injury-bitten and sputtering in his early MLB calls, Diaz broke out in 2018 and became Fran Cervelli’s heir apparent, shaking his earlier backup rep, but then backtracked in the 2019 campaign. He was released in the offseason, went to Colorado and is now playing with San Diego.
2021 – C Jake Stallings won a Rawlings Golden Glove award, beating out Yadi Molina and JT Realmuto. He was the first Pirates catcher to win the award since 1987 when Spanky LaValliere took the gold. The only other Bucco backstop to ever earn a GG was Tony Pena, who took the prize twice, in 1983 and again in ‘85. Pittsburgh also had two other Golden Glove finalists who were in the race but fell short, CF Bryan Reynolds and SS Kevin Newman.

Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2024/11/117-elias-francisco-sign-syd-hired.html

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