1/13 Through the 1950s: Dickson Dump, Arky Signs; HBD Odell, Jim, Ron, Ben, Spades, Fred, Goat, Jud & Al
- 1865 – RHP Al Krumm was born in Pittsburgh. Al, who had a rep as a pot-stirrer, was ousted from his Lima squad by his teammates in 1888 and came home to work in J&L’s rolling mills. In ‘89, he tossed a game for McKeesport (it was his only outing with them; he couldn’t pitch much as the day games clashed with his steelworker schedule) but he still caught the Alleghenys eye. With Cannonball Morris and Pete Conway injured, they needed pitchers and gave Krumm a shot. He worked his mill shift, took a catnap, and caught a train to NY, getting there three hours before game time. It wasn’t auspicious – the tired hurler walked 10 and gave up two big innings in an 11-7 loss to the Giants. But the contest didn’t nick his confidence any – he vowed to buy a hat for any batter who could work him for a free pass in his next outing. That redemptive game never came, though, as he didn’t get a second start and he went back to his day job at the mill.
- 1869 – 3B Grant “Jud” (his middle name was Judson) Smith was born in Green Oaks, Michigan. He played off-and-on in the show for four seasons, spending 1896 and 1901 with the Pirates. He hit .268 but only got into 16 games over those two campaigns, though he was a part of the Pirates 1901 championship roster. It was Jud’s destiny to be a minor league depth player; he toiled for 15 years on various farm clubs, batting over .300 several times.
- 1880 – OF John “Goat” Anderson was born in Cleveland. He only played one MLB year, hitting .206 for the Pirates in 1908. But he was the regular right fielder and led off, with a .343 OBP and good base running skills. It wasn’t the lack of reaching base that did in the 27-year-old rookie; Goat developed arm problems and played his remaining ball in the minors through 1913. His nickname’s origin we can only speculate on, although based on his career line, we can safely eliminate Greatest Of All Time as a suspect. We’d guess it was because Anderson was small (his vitals aren’t listed, but he was compared to 5’4” Wee Willie Keeler), aggressive both on the bases & in the field, and stubborn to the point of argument with anyone on the field from umpires to his own manager.
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| Fred Schulte – 1936 Rowe Postcard |
- 1901 – OF Fred Schulte was born in Belvidere, Illinois. He was an 11-year MLB vet, and spent his last two campaigns in Pittsburgh in 1936-37, batting .248 (his lifetime BA was .291) before being released by the club at the age of 36. He managed and coached afterward in the minor leagues until 1946. Fred was also a scout for the Reds, White Sox, Indians, and Braves from 1947-64.
- 1909 – Charles “Spades” Wood was born in Spartanburg SC. The lefty twirled for two years in Pittsburgh, from 1930-31, mostly as a starter, and went 6-9/5.61. He had a little problem with the strike zone, walking 78 in 122 IP while fanning just 56. JC Bradbury of SABR explained his moniker: “Wood earned his nickname from a 13 spades bridge hand he was dealt on a Sunday, which resulted in his expulsion (from his school, Wofford College) – playing bridge on Sunday was not allowed.”
- 1920 – OF Ben Guintini was born in Los Banos, California. It took him a spell to get to the majors (two years of minor league ball, two years in the Army and two more years on the farm) but in 1946 the Bucs gave him a shot, picking him up in the Rule 5 draft from the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. He went 0-for-3 in two games and was sent back to the bushes, resurfacing for four at-bats with the A’s in 1950. He spent 10 years in the minors, mainly as a PCL player, and was considered quite an entertainer by the fans and even Joe E Brown, who tried to talk him into the movies. Fun fact: In one game when several hometown fans came to see him play, he did handstands on his way to center field to start the game. He was quickly benched by no-fun skipper Lefty O’Doul, per Baseball Reference. Alas, neither baseball nor show biz saved him from an eventual day job – he became a Cadillac salesman after he retired.
- 1939 – The Pirates announced that SS Arky Vaughan had agreed to a one-year contract worth an estimated $15,000, putting him in the same pay class as Paul Waner. Vaughan, who was two months shy of turning 28, turned in his fifth straight All-Star season (he would run his streak to nine in a row) while batting .322 in 1938 with a .433 OBP; he was also second in fielding percentage.
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| Ron Brand – 1964 Topps |
- 1940 – C Ron Brand was born in Los Angeles. Brand signed with the Pirates in 1958 as an 18-year-old high school kid and began his big league journey with the Bucs in 1963, hitting .288. After spending all of 1964 in AAA Columbus, Ron was plucked by the Houston Colt .45s in the 1964 Rule 5 draft and put together an off-and-on eight-year run in the show. He managed for three years after putting away the mask, and then took a long hiatus to raise his family. Brand came back in 1994 as a scout for the New York Yankees after tending to the home fires.
- 1949 – LHP Jim Foor was born in St. Louis, Missouri. Foor was a first round pick of the Tigers (15th overall) in 1967 out of high school. In 1972, he was traded to Pittsburgh by Detroit in a minor deal; the Bucs were looking for some back-end competitors for the rotation. Foor pitched in three games for the Pirates, walking one, striking out one and giving up no earned runs while spending most of the year at AAA Charleston in 1973. After the season, the Bucs shipped him to the Royals for Wayne Simpson. That was the end of his MLB career; after three more years in the minors, he hung up the spikes for good.
- 1953 – RHP Odell Jones was born in Tulare, California. Jones had several stints with the Bucs, starting out in 1975, spending a year in the minors and returning from 1977-78, then coming back via trade in 1981. He went 9-12/4.28, splitting his time between the pen and starting. The fastballer last pitched in the show in 1988; his final hurrah was in 1992 when he finished in the Mexican League.
- 1954 – The Pirates traded workhorse RHP Murry Dickson, a 1953 NL All-Star, to the Phils for RHP Andy “Swede” Hansen, IF Jack “Lucky” Lohrke and $80K. Dickson slashed 52-53-5/3.70 until he retired in 1959, while neither Hansen or Lohre ever suited up for Pittsburgh (or any other MLB club) as both were assigned to the top Bucco farm team, the Hollywood Stars. Dickson was a victim of a Branch Rickey payroll dump; both he and Ralph Kiner (in June, 1953) were traded, trimming $115,000 of Bucco salary. Swede’s moniker was because of his Scandinavian heritage (he was actually a Dane). Lucky came by his nickname honestly; by the time he was 22, he had several close brushes with the Reaper between WW2 combat and a couple of crashes.
Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2025/01/113-through-1950s-dickson-dump-arky.html
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