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12/14: Lieber - Brown, Chief - Kunz, Slagle - Reitz, Matt, Lyle & Wil Sign, Roberto DD-MoY, Scott, Kingery & Flynn Join, Jason, Harvey & Emil Go, Money Matters, HBD Fraze, Jeff, Jerry, Lefty, Willie, Charlie & Ren

Saturday, December 14, 2024 12:49

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1861 – OF James “Ren” (Renwick was his middle name) Wylie was born in Elizabeth. His moment of baseball glory happened on August 20th, 1882 when the 20-year-old center fielder from Geneva College played in his only MLB game, going 0-for-3 for the Alleghenys. He went on to bigger and better things, becoming a successful banker, realtor and two-time Pennsylvania State Representative.
1896 – C Charlie Hargreaves was born in Trenton, New Jersey. He caught for Pittsburgh at the end of his career from 1928-30, and was a solid two-way guy for the first two seasons before fading in 1930, putting up a .273 BA over that period. Charlie rejoined the organization briefly, managing the Bucs’ Class C Keokuk Pirates squad of the Central Association in 1949.
1898 – 2B Henry “Heinie” Reitz was traded by the Washington Senators to the Pirates for OF/3B Jack O’Brien, IF Dick Padden and OF Jimmy “Rabbit” Slagle. It wasn’t a very good deal for Pittsburgh; Reitz played 35 games and was traded at the end of the 1899 season. O’Brien was a journeyman, Padden had three solid seasons remaining, and rookie Slagle went on to have a 10-year career, mainly with the Cubs, and a lifetime .268 BA. “Heinie” was a popular nickname for German baseball players, particularly those named Henry, or Heinrich in German.
1909 – Pittsburgh purchased 1B John Flynn from St. Paul of the American Association for $4,000. He was solid in 1910, batting .274 in 96 games, but fizzled the following campaign and was sent back to the Paulies in August. They flipped him to Washington in 1912 where he played his last 20 MLB games. John then played or managed in the minors through 1926.
1911 – Pirate owner Barney Dreyfuss proposed that each team in the World Series turn over one-fourth of its share of the gate to the league, to be divided as a bonus among the other top-finishing teams. It marked the beginning of changes that ultimately gave players of the top four teams in each league a share of the World Series money. Dreyfuss had put his money where his mouth was earlier when he added his owner’s cut of the 1903 World Series gate receipts to the players’ share, so the Pirates earned a larger payout than the winning Boston team that year.

1918 – RHP Willie Pope was born in Birmingham and raised in Library, just outside South Park. A 6’4” hurler known as “Wee Willie,” Pope began his career as a pitcher with the Pittsburgh Crawfords in 1946 but was mostly known for playing with the Grays during the 1947-48 seasons. During the 1947 campaign, the righty notched a 6-7 record, but pitched a no-hitter against the New York Cubans. In the 1948 season, he was a major contributor to the Grays team that won the last Negro National League Pennant and won the Negro Leagues World Series against the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. He played a couple of years in the minors while his brother Dave played for Cleveland and Baltimore. Willie remained home after his career, working in the City Controller’s Office, being a player in Pittsburgh ward politics and serving as a local black baseball historian. He passed away in 2010 at the age of 91.
1922 – In what looked like a big deal at the time, the Bucs sent RHPs Chief Yellow Horse & Bill Hughes, minor leaguers Harry Brown & Claude Rohwer, and $7,500 to Sacramento of the Pacific Coast League for RHP Earl Kunz, a “…real phenom…” per the Pittsburgh Press. The Chief and Hughes never pitched big league ball again, Brown and Rowher proved to be career farm hands, and the 23-year-old Kunz went 1-2/5.52 during 1923 in his only major league campaign.
1923 – LHP Paul “Lefty” LaPalme was born in Springfield, Massachusetts. Lefty began his career in Pittsburgh (1951-54) and was a starter in the last two seasons, with a Pirate line of 14-33-2/4.99. The knuckleballer was traded to the Saint Louis Cardinals in 1955, returned to his original role as a bullpen arm and tossed for three teams before retiring after the 1957 season.
1927 – The Pirates traded four-year man LHP Emil Yde and three-year vet C Roy Spencer to Indianapolis; the Bucs were to receive a PTBNL (or two) who never made the record books. Yde had won 41 games in his first three Pirates campaigns, but fell apart in ‘27, giving up 35 runs (32 earned) in 29-1/3IP. He had a last hurrah in 1929 with the Tigers, going 7-3/5.30, ending his MLB career. Spencer hung around for nine more seasons, getting regular time in the early thirties with Washington and Cleveland, before hangin’ up his mask.

Jerry May – 1968 Topps

1943 – C Jerry May was born in Staunton, Virginia. May was mainly a backup catcher from 1964-70 (he started in ‘67-68) for the Bucs, hitting .237 in his seven year Pittsburgh stint. He was signed by Syd Thrift out of high school and tossed several no-hitters as an American Legion pitcher; the Bucs converted him to catcher and he was behind the dish for Dock Ellis’ infamous 1970 no-hitter. May was bumped out of the starting role by Manny Sanguillen. Jerry was a good tactician and glove guy throughout his 10 year MLB career, throwing out 43% of the base runners who tried to steal a sack on him, good for 11th on the all-time list. He led NL catchers in 1970 with a 50% caught stealing percentage.
1961 – RHP Jeff Mark Robinson was born in Ventura, California. He finished out his six-year career with a few weeks in the Bucco rotation after being claimed off waivers from Texas in June of 1992, getting seven starts (eight outings) with a 3-1/4.46 line and then being waived again in July. It was his last MLB campaign, and Robinson went on to become the pitching director, coach and instructor with the Natural Baseball Academy in Kansas. He just missed the three-year Pirates stint of fellow Golden State hurler Jeff Robinson (1987-89), saving all sorts of confusion of sportswriters, scorecard keepers and fans. The two were best identified by their middle initial – Jeff M was the starter and Jeff D the reliever.
1961 – Baseball players may be rolling in long green now, but for many decades, even the stars had a postseason job. ElRoy Face earned a Post-Gazette sports column mention on this date by selling Christmas trees grown on his Indiana farm at the corner of Bouquet Street and Forbes Avenue in Oakland, a block from the ballyard where he plied his summer trade. He was a carpenter during the off season and it became his full-time job after he retired from baseball.
1963 – The Pirates sent LHP Harvey Haddix to the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for SS Dick Yencha and cash. The Kitten, then 38 and a reliever, spent the last two years of his career in Baltimore, going 8-7-11/2.63 before retiring because of arm problems, while Yencha never made it past AA. Haddix later followed his rookie mentor Harry Brecheen (as St. Louis teammates, veteran Brecheen was “the Cat” and his protege, the young Haddix, was “the Kitten”) as a pitching coach, working with the Mets, Reds, Red Sox, Indians, and Pirates before passing away in 1994.

Post-Gazette 12/15/1966

1966 – NL MVP Roberto Clemente won his second Dapper Dan Man of the Year award (he won his first in 1961) in a romp, leaving the runner up, his skipper Harry “The Hat” Walker, in the dust by a 59-19 count. Clemente was the eighth Pirate in the past dozen years to claim the honor; teammate Vern Law was the 1965 awardee to give the Bucs back-to-back winners.
1991 – 2B Adam Frazier was born in Athens, Georgia. He was selected from Mississippi State in the sixth round (179th overall) of the 2013 draft and was signed for the slot value of $240,600. Fraze was known for his 24/7 stick and it earned him a call up in 2016, slashing .283/.346/.420 during his six Bucco campaigns. He’s played a half dozen positions, but he claimed Josh Harrison’s second base spot with a solid 2019 (.278 BA, +6 DRS) campaign. After an All-Star breakout in ‘21, he was traded to San Diego; the Padres flipped him to Seattle, from there he went to Baltimore and then to KC. Fraze is currently a free agent.
1993 – The State legislature cut the City’s amusement tax from 10% to 5%; one state senator said that the Pirates had informed him that without the lower rate that they could be forced to leave the City in two years. GM Mark Sauer told the Post Gazette that the team wouldn’t be cutting ticket prices (neither did the Steelers) and then ran down a financial wish list featuring revenue sharing and a salary cap from the MLB to go with a new stadium and lease for the team. Pirates ownership got three-out-of-its-four wishes granted eventually; good luck on the cap.
1995 – Pittsburgh signed 35-year-old free agent CF Mike Kingery to a two year/$1.5M agreement, planning to use him as a platoon bat & glove guy off the bench player after fanning on efforts to land their top target, Lance Johnson, who inked a deal with the Mets. It didn’t quite work out; Kingery, who had been a .272 lifetime hitter before the contract, hit .246 in 117 games and was released after the season. He opened Solid Foundation Baseball School the year after he retired, and makes appearances with the Kingery Family, a gospel/bluegrass group.

Mike Kingery – 1996 Fleer Ultra (reverse)

1998 – RHP Jon Lieber was traded to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for OF Brant Brown. Lieber tossed for nine more years in the show, winning 20 games for the Cubs in 2001 while Brown was one and done in Pittsburgh. After his breakout campaign, workhorse Lieber had TJ surgery in ‘02 and only reached the 30-start, 200 IP mark once more in his career. Brown’s slide downhill was just as dramatic. He hit .232 for the Bucs, then started the next year with the Florida Marlins after being traded for Bruce Aven. The Fish sent him back to the Cubs in June, where he couldn’t crack the Mendoza line, to end his MLB days.
1998 – The Pirates selected LHP Scott Sauerbeck from the New York Mets in the Rule 5 draft. Sauerbeck stuck with the Pirates until 2003, going 19-15-5/3.53 in his 4-1/2 year Bucco stint before he was traded to the Boston Red Sox. Sauerbeck missed 2004 after surgery, and after a fairly ineffective campaign in 2006, the LOOGY’s major league career ended.
1999 – “Wil Cordero, a good hitter who has had difficulty staying healthy and out of trouble, signed a $9M, three-year contract yesterday with the Pittsburgh Pirates, his fourth team in four years…” per the Associated Press. But Cordero proved to be a good pick up, as the left fielder banged 16 HR with 51 RBI before he was traded in late July to the Indians for Alex Ramirez (who wasn’t such a great addition – he hit .209 and was out of baseball the following year) and Enrique Wilson, a reserve infielder who hit .262 in 1-1/2 Pirates seasons. Cordero had one more strong year left in him as a Montreal Expo in 2003.
2001 – The Giants did what the Bucs couldn’t afford to do by signing RHP Jason Schmidt to a four-year/$31M contract (it became official on the 18th) after the Pirates had flipped him to the G-Men at the deadline of his 2001 walk year for Ryan Vogelsong. Jason wasn’t done mastering the art of the deal; he signed a three-year/$47M agreement with the Dodgers in 2006 after the SF contract expired. He earned about $92M in his career, with $8M from his five Bucco years.
2010 – The Pirates agreed to terms with 1B Lyle Overbay on a one-year/$5M contract; he was waived in August after hitting .227. The Bucs also signed 32-year old OF Matt Diaz to a two-year deal worth up to $5M with bonuses. He was sent back to the Atlanta Braves, his prior club, at the deadline for RHP Eliecer Cardenas after hitting .259 with no homers. Following 2012 thumb surgery, Matt announced his retirement after the ‘13 season.

Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2024/12/1214-lieber-brown-chief-kunz-slagle.html

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