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11/9: Willie Launch, Bo Sez No, Moose Dealt, Sacman Signs, Ossie PC Again, Pgh Branch of Team USA, It's A Sport, Nixey in Town; HBD Andrew, Scott, Red, Jerry, Fred, Johnny, Nick, Blue Goose & Cyclone

Saturday, November 9, 2024 7:06

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1868 – RHP “Cyclone” Bill Phillips was born in Allenport in Washington County, between Charleroi and Brownsville. Phillips broke into the big leagues in 1890 at age 21, throwing 10 games for the Alleghenys with an 0-1/7.57 line (he was first a member of the Washington Nationals, but never got into a game and joined Pittsburgh when the DC club folded). He pitched for seven seasons in the majors, the last six with the Reds, and managed for a couple more. Bill died at age 72 in Charleroi and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Fayette City. He picked up his “Cyclone” moniker while with the Nats; it was a popular honorific for young fireballers. He was also known as “Whoa Bill” which was said to be the result of Phillips’, who was a miner before he became a ballplayer, futile attempt to tame a bronco. Many sites list him as “Silver Bill,” but we think that’s a crossed wire as that was the nickname of 1B Bill Phillips who played a decade earlier, although it’s possibly a hand-me-down legacy to our Bill. Phillips not-so-fun factoid: the righty was the first pitcher to allow two grand slams in the same inning during an 18-5 loss to the Chicago Colts while tossing for the Allegheny.
1885 – LHP Gene “Blue Goose” Moore was born in Lancaster, Texas. He tossed for parts of three MLB seasons with his first two years as a Pirate (1909-10; he didn’t make the World Series roster), posting a line of 2-1/4.66 in five outings. We can’t vouch 100% for his nickname, but he spent his entire 11-year minor league career in the Texas League, and while playing for Galveston (he spent five campaigns there) was known to frequent a tavern near the ballyard called The Blue Goose. His son, Gene Jr, had more success as a ballplayer and was an All-Star OF’er who played for six big league teams from 1931-45.
1886 – RHP Nick Maddox was born in Govanstown, Maryland. He tossed for four years (1907-10) for Pittsburgh, his entire MLB career, with a 43-20/2.29 line. He threw a no-hitter as a rookie, won 23 games in 1908, and claimed a World Series victory in 1909. Maddox won his first four starts, something no other Pirate would match until Gerrit Cole did the deed in 2013. After his career ended due to arm problems, Nick kept his home in the city, raising nine kids in Millvale while holding down a job at the Fort Pitt Brewery.
1897 – C Johnny Gooch was born in Smyrna, Tennessee. He caught eight years (1921-28) for the Pirates, hitting .286 in a part-time role and was a member of the 1925 and 1927 World Series clubs. Per Greg Tucker of the Rutherford County (TN) Historical Society, the fans liked Johnny in part because he had a “fun name.” When Johnny was introduced at the ballpark, the announcer would bellow “Johnny Gooooooch” and the fans would echo the “ooooo.” A lifelong friend of Pie Traynor, his minor league teammate, Gooch was a Pirate pitching coach and scout from 1937-42. Afterward, Johnny opened a factory making baseball bats in 1943 and was the exclusive supplier to the major leagues until 1947.

Fred Brickell (1928) – 1993 Conlon Collection

1906 – OF Fred Brickell was born in Saffordville, Kansas. Brickell played for Pittsburgh from 1926-30, hitting .312 as a reserve outfielder. Fred’s minor & major league career went from 1925-36 with Brickell elected into the Kansas Baseball Hall of Fame in 1951. His son Fritz also played in the major leagues for the Dodgers and Angels from 1958 to 1961.
1909 – CF Jerry Benjamin was born in Montgomery, Alabama. He played in the Negro Leagues from 1931-48, spending the majority of his days with the Homestead Grays (1935-47) where he hit .300+ three times, played on eight pennant winning squads, four Negro League World Series clubs (the Grays won two titles) and was named an All Star three times.
1916 – Manager Jimmy “Nixey” Callahan made the trip from Chicago to Pittsburgh to meet with owner Barney Dreyfuss and brainstorm over the coming campaign. Callahan was upbeat and told Pittsburgh Press beatman Ralph Davis that the team was set in the outfield and mound, with his middle infield the only soft spot with Hans Wagner moving to first base (although the only off-season move to improve it was to claim Greenfield Jimmy Smith off waivers), and to “emphatically” deny rumors that he was leaving to skipper another squad. Jimmy wasn’t a very good prognosticator – the Pirates started off 20-40 and he was fired. Hans Wagner briefly took the reins, followed by Hugo Bezdek, but it didn’t stop the bleeding. The Bucs finished 51-103 in 1917, in eighth (and last) place, 47 games behind the champion New York Giants. Nixey should have jumped if he had winter job offers; his seven-year managerial career (he spent five earlier seasons with the White Sox and started his Pittsburgh gig in 1916) ended when he was axed.
1931 – RHP George “Red” Witt was born in Long Beach, California. Red tossed for the Bucs from 1957-61, going 10-13/3.93 as a starter/long man, and worked three games in relief against the Yankees in the 1960 World Series without surrendering a run. Witt went 11-16 with a 4.32 ERA and 156 strikeouts in 66 career games after spending 1962 with Houston and the Los Angeles Angels. He looked like a breakout candidate after a strong 1958 season, but though he soldiered on for another four seasons, arm woes derailed his career before it got started.

Red Witt – 1960 Topps

1953 – The Supreme Court confirmed by a 7-2 decision (Toolson v New York Yankees) that baseball is a sport, not a business, and therefore wasn’t subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act in a case brought before it by a minor league player who litigated his demotion from AAA to AA.
1971 – Willie Stargell (.295/48/125) was MVP runner-up to Joe Torre, who led the NL in RBI (137) and batting (.363) while hitting 24 HR. Torre received 318 points to Stargell’s 222. It was still a pretty good campaign for the Pirates slugger; Willie won a World Series and the MLB home run title. It did start a frustrating three-year run when Pops finished second, third and second again in the MVP vote before finally winning the award in 1979.
1971 – LHP Scott Sauerbeck was born in Cincinnati. The lefty spent the first five years (1999-2003) of his MLB career with Pittsburgh after being selected as a Rule 5 pick from the Mets. He went 19-15-5/3.56 in his Pirates time. The southpaw retired in 2008 after seven big league campaigns.
1978 – Don Osborn was appointed to his fourth stint as Bucco pitching coach by Chuck Tanner. He replaced Larry Sherry, who had replaced him in 1977. But it didn’t last long; Osborn was 70, and poor health forced him to resign a few weeks later (Harvey Haddix took over). He died in Torrance, California, during spring training in March 1979. Osborn was first named pitching coach of the Pirates in 1963, and served in that role in 1963–64, 1970–72, and 1974–76. During most of that time, he worked under Danny Murtaugh, and earned a ring in 1971.
1988 – 1B Randy Milligan was traded to the Orioles for a PTBNL (RHP Pete Blohm, who never got past AAA) as first base was getting a little jammed – Sid Bream held the fort in 1988, and the Pirates were considering moving Bobby Bonilla there after he added 20 pounds and committed 32 errors at third during the past season. But the anticipated shuffle ended up the same ol’ – Bream came back but had surgery on his knee, leaving first to Gary Redus, platooning with Benny Distefano and Jeff King while Bobby Bo started 156 games at the hot corner.

Randy Milligan – 1989 Fleer

1991 – Bobby Bo turned down the Pirates four-year/$18.5M contract offer with a fifth, $5M option season added in, and began what the local media dubbed the “Bobby Bonilla Solid Gold Tour ‘91.” The following week, he started visiting other clubs, beginning with Philadelphia and New York, with later stops on the gravy train scheduled for St. Louis, the White Sox and Angels. He could have saved the plane fare – the second team he talked to, the Mets, inked him to a guaranteed package for five years/$29M in early December, returning the Bronx-raised Bonilla to his home as the highest paid player in pro sports at the time.
1991 – C Andrew Knapp was born in Roseville, California. He spent five years as the Phillies reserve backstop before signing with the Reds after the 2021 campaign. They released him late in camp and the Pirates, thin in catching after the Jake Stallings deal, picked him up. “Knapp Time” had a .218 career BA and a 19% throw-out rate from behind the dish, yet was penciled in as Roberto Perez’s backup. In May, he was waived to Seattle. Knapp moved around several times since then, was in the Giants’ system in ’24 and is now a free agent.
1994 – After two years with the Cubs, veteran LHP Dan Plesac, 32, inked a two-year deal with the Pirates. The deal earned him $2.2M over its span as he tossed 131 games for the Bucs in 1995-96, with a 10-9-14/3.86 slash. He was part of a big, nine-player, 1996 postseason deal with Toronto that landed Craig Wilson and Abraham Nunez for the Pirates. Dan went on to pitch in 18 big league seasons and is now a talking head on the MLB Network.
2007 – The Italian nine defeated Team USA, 6-2, in the 2007 Baseball World Cup. Italy had not beaten the US for 21 years and had never before won against an American team with pro players. Pirate farmhands were complicit in the defeat – SS Brian Bixler committed a pair of errors (plus he was picked off) while Andy LaRoche mishandled a pick-off try while playing first, the pair combining to allow five unearned runs to the Italian club. Still, it was just a bump in the road as it was the USA’s only loss on their road to the crown. US teammates RHP Jeff Karstens, 1B Steve Pearce, and 2B Delwyn Young would also later suit up for the Pirates.

Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2024/11/119-willie-launch-bo-sez-no-moose-dealt.html

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