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2/2: Chris, Dale, Jeff Sign; Holdout Posse; Freddie, Schoolboy, Burleigh, Heinie HoF; Blass Bash; Retro Uni; NL Forms; Joel Comped; RIP Buck, Ed, Lenny; HBD Troy, Travis, Ronny, Pat, Manny, John, Fred & Bill

Friday, February 2, 2024 6:59

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1876 – The National League was formed in New York City, replacing the old National Association. The Pirates were not among the original group and the franchise didn’t join the NL until after the 1886 campaign, when the Alleghenys (re-formed in 1882) bolted from the American Association, but they’ve settled in nicely since then. They’ve collected 18 NL/Divisional pennants, made seven World Series appearances and claimed five Fall Classic titles.
1882 – 1B “Big Bill” Abstein was born in St. Louis. He was a Pirates backup in 1906 and after two years with Eastern League Providence, he returned as a starter in 1909, batting .258 for the Bucs and playing all seven games during Pittsburgh’s World Series win over Detroit. He closed out his brief career the following season with his hometown St Louis Browns. Bill was a two sport star; he also played soccer for a couple of St Louis clubs when he wasn’t swatting baseballs.
1927 – LHP Fred Waters was born in Benton, Mississippi. He came to Pittsburgh in the Danny O’Connell blockbuster and tossed from 1955-56, going 2-2/2.89, mainly from the pen. Fred was injured in winter ball and never made it back to the bigs, although he did spend 13 years toiling in the minors. He became a long-time coach and manager, primarily in the Twins organization.
1951 – Eight Pirates rejected contracts offered by Bucco GM Branch Rickey – pitchers Cliff Chambers, Murry Dickson and Vic Lombardi; catchers Clyde McCullough and Ed FitzGerald, 1B Jack Phillips, IF Pete Castiglione and OF Wally Westbrook. They all settled on deals before the season except for Lombardi, who had his salary offer cut by the 25% maximum allowed by the league, and instead signed with Hollywood of Pacific Coast League. He never earned another MLB job, but still tossed for nine more seasons. Except for a three-year stint with Toronto of the International League, he tossed on the left coast through the 1959 season, retiring at age 36 after 17 pro campaigns.

John Tudor – 1985 Fleer

1954 – LHP John Tudor was born in Schenectady, New York. He went 12-11/3.27 in his only Bucco season, 1984, with the team scoring two or fewer runs in nine of his losses. That December, the Bucs traded him & Brian Harper to the Cardinals for George Hendrick & minor-leaguer Steve Barnard. Tudor sarcastically said of the deal “I’ll miss the parrot” and then went on to win 21 games for the Redbirds to lead them to the NL title and World Series in 1985.
1956 – RHP Manny Sarmiento was born in Cagua, Venezuela. The Bucs purchased the five-year vet from the Red Sox and Manny tossed a pair of strong campaigns in 1982-83, slashing 12-9-5/3.25 as a swingman starter (he got 17 of his 22 MLB starts in 1982) and reliever (he was sent back full-time to the pen in 1983). He blew out his elbow during camp in 1984 and though only 28-years-old, he never pitched in the majors again.
1962 – LHP Pat Clements was born in McCloud, California. He was in Pittsburgh early in his career from 1985-86, going 0-6-4/3.12. He then became a piece of the 1986 deal with the Yankees that landed Doug Drabek for the Pirates. He worked through the 1992 season for NY, San Diego and Baltimore as a bridge reliever.
1964 – RHP Burleigh Grimes was selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee and was inducted on July 27th. The 270-game winner began, ended, and played some during the middle of his career with the Pirates. Also chosen was OF Heinie Manush, who spent his last two seasons (1938-39) in Pittsburgh, getting 25 at-bats. Heinie finished a 17-year MLB run with a lifetime average of .330, then managed in the minors, scouted, and coached.

Burleigh Grimes – Helmar Oasis

1969 – Steve Blass shared the Dapper Dan Award with Steelers running back Dick Hoak after they were tied with 25-1/2 votes each. Blass put together a slash line of 18-6/2.13 in his breakout campaign with a career-high 147 strikeouts, becoming the ninth Pirate since 1943 to claim a piece of the DD. The annual awards dinner was held at the Hilton Hotel, drawing a sellout crowd of 2,000+ fans.
1969 – RHP Waite “Schoolboy” Hoyt was voted into the Hall of Fame by the Special Veterans Committee. He spent 4-1/2 seasons in Pittsburgh between 1933-37, going 35-31-18/3.08, topped by a 15-5 record in 1934. Schoolboy had a 21-year career, played on three World Series championship clubs and then retired to the broadcasting booth. He was inducted on July 28th.
1976 – The Special Veterans Committee selected OF Freddie Lindstrom to the Hall of Fame. He played two of his 13 big league campaigns for Pittsburgh, hitting .302 and driving in 147 runs. Freddie hit .311 over his big league days and was considered the top third baseman of his era until he broke his leg and had to move to the OF. He was inducted on August 9th.
1982 – The Pirates lost Joel Skinner when the Chicago White Sox picked the catcher as compensation for their free agent relief pitcher Ed Farmer signing with the Phillies. It was a side effect of a hare-brained system developed in the early days of free agency that was scrapped in 1985 after a five-year run. Teams could protect 26 players and the rest ended up in a compensation pool to replace lost players, so a club didn’t need to participate but still could lose a prospect. Fortunately, it didn’t hurt anything but Bucco depth as Joel, OF Bob Skinner’s son, ended up bouncing between the majors and minors with the Yankees and Indians until his retirement in 1994, making more of a name for himself as a minor league manager than he did as a big league player.

Ronny Cedeno – 2011 Topps

1983 – SS Ronny Cedeno was born in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela. He manned the spot for Pittsburgh from 2009-11, hitting a streaky .254 and never showing any consistency in the field, flashing the good, the bad & the ugly with both his stick and leather. He last played for the Phils in 2013 and since 2016 has played in the Italian, Mexican and Venezuelan leagues.
1988 – RHP Jeff Robinson avoided arb and signed a deal with the Bucs for $475K. He was looking for $540K while the FO countered with $375K, and they settled a little over midpoint. He had joined the Pirates in August as part of the Rick Rueschel swap and slashed 2-1-4/3.04 for the Bucs and 8-9-14/2.85 during the overall campaign, earning himself a nice jump over his $180,000 salary of ‘87.
1988 – OF Travis Snider was born in Kirkland, Washington. He came to the Bucs from Toronto in the 2012 Brad Lincoln deal. After sputtering for a couple of years, he had a solid 2014 season with 13 HR and a .264 BA, which earned him an off-season ticket to Baltimore for a pair of minor league prospects. Snider returned to the Bucs in August, 2015, was released after the year and signed with KC, bouncing around the minors since then before retiring after the 2021 season. He was known as “Lunchbox Hero” due to his team cookouts and hearty lunch grab-bags, always featuring his favorite, red meat. Earlier in his career, Toronto fans dubbed Snider as “Moonraker” due to the towering home runs he launched.
1993 – Len Levy, who did a little bit of everything for the Pirates but play, passed away at age 79 in Palm Desert, California. A Pittsburgh kid who went to Taylor Allderdice HS, Len started with the Bucs as a ticket taker, bat boy, and briefly as a minor league catcher – he had been signed to a contract by Pie Traynor in 1936 – before joining the Marines. Five years of service as a leatherneck ended his big league dreams and he began farm club/bullpen coaching in 1947. He became a Pittsburgh-area scout from 1951-56, bird-dogging local talent like Maz, Dick Groat and Frank Thomas, then became a Pirates coach from 1957-63. He ran an auto dealership on Forbes Avenue in Oakland for 30+ years and was inducted into the Western PA Jewish Sports Hall of Fame.

Dale Sveum – photo Mitchell Layton/Getty

1996 – The Pirates re-signed free agent IF Dale Sveum after he had been rostered at AAA Calgary for the 1995 campaign. Dale again spent most of ‘96 at AAA Calgary, getting into just 12 games, but was back in the show for ‘97, appearing in 126 contests and batting .261 with a dozen dingers. He left after that, to return in 1999 for his last hurrah before beginning his coaching odyssey by managing at AA Altoona for a couple of seasons; he managed & coached through 2019.
1996 – OF Troy Stokes Jr. was born in Columbia, Maryland. He was a fourth round pick of the Brewers in 2014 out of HS. He moved on to the Detroit organization in 2020 and had a strong spring, but hamate surgery on his hand caused him to miss the entire truncated season. He was released, ended up with the Pirates the following season as a spring training NRI, sent to Indy during camp and called to the show for the first time on May 9th. He started, and went 0-for-4 with a couple of nice grabs in right field. He was traded to Milwaukee in a minor deal in June, played indie ball & in the Mexican League during 2022-23 and is now an FA.
2001 – The Pirates proved that everything old is new again when they modeled their new PNC Park sleeveless tops, introducing them to the fans at Pirates Fest at the Carnegie Science Center. It was part of their “New Era of Baseball” promo and a nod to the old days of flannels; the Bucco singlet look began in 1957 and lasted until the final game at Forbes Field in 1970. The flavor that was replaced was the TRS era double knits. The vests lasted until 2009, with an additional season of sleeveless Sundays; now the unis appear during throwback games.
2008 – Ump Ed Vargo died of heart failure at age 79 in his hometown of Butler. Ed was a minor league catcher who took to umpiring while in the service. After eight years of arbitration in the bushes following the military, he became an NL ump from 1960-1983, then umpire supervisor from 1984-1997. Vargo worked the first night World Series game in 1971, Sandy Koufax’s perfecto, eight no-no’s, the last series at Forbes Field and the Polo Grounds, the game when Henry Aaron tied the Bambino’s HR mark, four All-Star Games, four NLCS, and four World Series. Ed was inducted into the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame in 1966 and the Western Pennsylvania Sports Hall of Fame in 1994.

Buck Jackson – 1977 Topps

2021 – LHP Grant “Buck” Jackson died at age 78 of Covid complications. The lefty tossed for six years (1977-82) for the Bucs, slashing 29-19-36/3.23 and he went 2-0 in six scoreless appearances during the 1979 NLCS/World Series, winning game seven of the Fall Classic against the Orioles. He shuffled among teams in his final two campaigns, but started and ended 1981-82 as a Pirate.
2023 – IF Chris Owings signed a minor-league deal with the Pirates as an NRI with an opt-out clause. The 11-year, multi-positional vet (mainly middle infield and outfield) didn’t make the Opening Day roster, but accepted his assignment to Indy and was rewarded by a call-up to the big club in May. He hit .160 in 10 games and was DFA’ed in early June; he’s now a free agent.

Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2024/02/22-chris-dale-jeff-sign-holdout-posse.html

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