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2/23: Martin-Vander Wal; Raul, Vicente, Randy, El Tiante, Spanky, Pud Sign; Jose Loses Arb; Russ Takes Five; The Rock On TV; RIP Vic & Bill; HBD Jaff, Jason, Bo, Mike, Hedi, T-Bone, Bill, Ray & Barney

Friday, February 23, 2024 6:58

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1865 – Pirate owner Barney Dreyfuss was born in Freiburg, Baden (Germany). He is often credited with the creation of the modern baseball World Series. Dreyfuss also built one of baseball’s first modern steel and concrete baseball parks, Forbes Field, in 1909. During his period of ownership (1900-1932), the Pirates won six NL pennants, with World Series titles in 1909 and 1925; only the New York Giants won more NL championships during the same period. He’s in the Hall of Fame as one of the founding fathers that helped steer MLB through its early growing pains.
1888 – RHP James “Pud” Galvin signed with Pittsburgh for $3,000, including $1,000 in advance. The club offered the ace $3,500 with no front money, but Galvin needed the quick infusion to carry him through the off season. “Gentleman Jeems” ended up in the Hall of Fame as MLB’s first 300-game winner (he claimed 365 victories) but he was a much better pitcher than financial planner.
1908 – RHP Ray Brown was born in Alger, Ohio. He tossed for the Homestead Grays from 1932-45,winning 102 NNL games, and to cement the relationship, he even was married to owner Cum Posey’s daughter Ethel. Brown threw a one-hitter in the 1944 Negro League World Series to lead the Grays to the title and pitched a perfect seven-inning game in 1945. In 1938, the Pittsburgh Courier listed Brown as one of five Negro leagues stars who would be certain major leaguers if the color line didn’t exist, along with Cool Papa Bell, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard and Satchel Paige. It was pretty good prognosticating – all five were voted into the Hall of Fame, with Brown’s election occurring in 2006.
1928 – 2B Bill Regan of Brookline was honored by a local testimonial at the Roosevelt Hotel before he left town for camp. Bill was in the middle of a five-year run with the Red Sox, but was remembered by his local buds (he first made his name as a member of the semi-pro JJ Coyne’s ball club from Oakland) with Honus Wagner leading the speakers list, along with the president of City Council, James Malone, and Duquesne football coach Elmer Layden. Regan did come home again and joined the Pittsburgh nine for his final campaign in 1931.

Bill Regan – undated photo via Find-A-Grave

1958 – Coach John “T-Bone” Shelby was born in Lexington, Kentucky. A former big league CF turned coach, he followed manager Jim Tracy to Pittsburgh in 2006, where he was the club’s first base coach from 2006-07. He went on to coach in the Baltimore, Milwaukee and Colorado organizations. As for his nickname, he told Andrew Gruman of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that “I grew up being called T. I told my teammates in rookie ball to call me T and some clown on the team started calling me T-Bone and I hated it. It stuck because I hated it and now I love it.”
1959 – 1B Hediberto “Eddie/Hedi” Vargas was born in Guanica, Puerto Rico. The Bucs signed him in 1977 and he got cups of coffee with the big team in 1982 and again in 1984. Eddie hit .256 but without much power and he couldn’t dislodge Jason Thompson or win a bench spot. He was released in 1985, playing in Mexico & the minors before leaving the game after the 1989 campaign.
1961 – RHP Mike Smith was born in Jackson, Mississippi. Mike had gotten tastes of the show by working 17 games in four seasons for the Reds & Expos and got his longest exposure as a Bucco in 1989, working 16 times and covering 24 IP. His counting numbers were OK at 0-1/3.75, but his peripherals told a different tale and that season was his last MLB campaign. He closed his career by tossing five years (1996-2000) of indie league ball.
1963 – OF Bobby “Bo” Bonilla was born in the Bronx. The switch hitter spent six years in Pittsburgh (1986-91) with a line of .284/114 HR/500 RBI and was a four-time All Star for Pittsburgh before leaving in 1991 as an FA, signing a huge deal with the NY Mets. From 1992-94, Bo was the highest-paid player in the league, earning over $6M per season. When he was released with a year left on the deal, the Mets settled the contract by sending him $1.2M every season – for the next 25 years! Bobby played in 16 MLB campaigns with eight teams, retiring at 38 after the 2001 season w/a lifetime .279 BA, 287 HR, 1,084 runs scored and 1,173 RBI.

Bill Swift – 1938 Press/Berger

1969 – RHP Bill Swift passed away in Bartow, Florida at the age of 60. He tossed eight seasons (1932-39) for the Bucs, with a 91-79-18/3.57 record. Swift was a workhorse, going 200+ innings and picking up double-digit wins in his first five seasons, topping out with 16 wins in 1936. He was the poster child for pitch-to-contact hurlers, punching out just 3.4 batters/nine innings during his Pittsburgh career, but giving up less than two walks per game and a homer just once every 18 frames. He worked for 11 years in the big leagues for four different squads, and was 3-0-1 as a reliever for the 100-win Brooklyn Dodgers of 1941, the National League champs, in just nine outings.
1974 – RHP Jason Boyd was born in St. Clair, Illinois. He began with the Bucs in 1999 and ended it with them in 2004 after outings in Philly, Cleveland, and San Diego. Jason didn’t help himself much – he had a 1-0/4.91 line for the Bucs, broke his hand later in the season after punching the rubber when he was pulled from a minor-league game and had gotten into a couple of 2003 off-season fights. He spent 2005 in the Texas system before ending his pro ball tenure.
1978 – Vic Harris, longtime OF/manager for the Homestead Grays, passed away at age 72 in San Fernando, California. Vic was born in Florida and moved to Pittsburgh, attending Schenley HS in Oakland. As a player, Harris started with the ‘22 Keystones and spent 18 years with Homestead after his 1925 debut, hitting .304. In nine years as player/manager (with eight league titles) beginning in 1936, he led the Grays to a 406-281 record, per Seamheads. He even got in a season with his cross-town rivals, the Pittsburgh Crawfords, hitting .339 in 1934.
1981 – RHP Luis Tiant signed a minor league deal with the Bucs for a guaranteed $125K. He tossed in Class AAA Portland until August, when the 40-year-old El Tiante was called up, going 2-5 with a 3.92 ERA down the stretch. He was released at the end of the season and tossed in Mexico in ‘82, where he was purchased from the Plataneros de Tabasco in August by California. He appeared in six games for the Halos to end his MLB career after 19 seasons and 229 wins.

El Tiante – 1982 Topps

1988 – C Mike Lavalliere, coming off a season that saw him hit .300, throw out 45% of the attempted base thieves running against him and win a Gold Glove, signed for $215K. Despite the strong campaign, Spanky’s negotiating leverage wasn’t very strong – he was still a year away from arbitration. He was rewarded when his salary more than doubled for the next year.
1990 – OF’er Jaff Decker was born in Phoenix. A first-round pick of the Padres in 2008 out of high school, he put in a couple of stop-gap stints in Pittsburgh in 2014-15, getting in 28 games and hitting .214, but with a strong .371 OBP. He then hopscotched organizations and retired after the 2018 season. Jaff got his unique first name thanks to a slip of the pen; he was supposed to be named after his uncle Jeff, but the name was misspelled by a nurse and Jaff it became.
1991 – 2B Jose Lind lost his arb case, seeking $950K but instead awarded the Pirates offer of $575K. Chico was considered one of the best glove men at his position, but hit just .257 and slumped badly at the end of the year. The paycheck was an improvement over the $250K he earned in 1990, and he would come back in 1992 to win his next arb battle to even the count. LHP Randy Tomlin ($120K) and RHP Vicente Palacios ($125K) also signed new deals for the season.
2000 – The Bucs dealt Al Martin to the San Diego Padres for OF John Vander Wal and pitchers Jim Sak and Geraldo Padua. The Mariners had also been making a pitch for Martin since the winter meetings and finally got their guy when the Padres sent him to Seattle in July at the deadline. Martin played three more years as a platoon guy (career .289 BA v RHP, .218 v LHP) while Van der Wal lasted the better part of two seasons for the Bucs before being traded to the Giants and playing through the 2004 campaign. Sak and Padua never made it to the show.

John Vander Wal – 2001 Cover Boy

2004 – The Pirates, whose FO tried to pry OF Raul Mondesi from the Yankees the year before, reeled him in with a one-year/$1.75M free agent deal. Mondesi was off to a good start, hitting .283 w/two homers and 14 RBI, when he left the team in May to return to the Dominican Republic to fight a lawsuit; he never came back. The Pirates terminated him a couple of weeks later, citing breach of contract. His game plan to switch employers worked as he signed with the Angels at the end of the month, where he tore a quad and was released from that contract for not showing up for rehab. He finished his 13-year MLB career with a 41-game stint with the Braves in 2005. He went into Dominican politics afterward, and in 2017 was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $1.3M for mishandling of public funds while mayor of San Cristóbal.
2005 – John Wehner made the move from hitting instructor at Altoona to road-crew color man for Fox Sports Net Pittsburgh. He took over for Steve Blass, who decided that he was just going to work home games. The Rock only got to make a couple of cameo spring auditions after applying late in the process, but he aced them to join Lanny Frattare, Greg Brown and Bob Walk in the broadcast booth. He still serves as an AT&T SportsNet analyst on both radio and TV.
2013 – C Russell Martin withdrew from the Canadian team roster of the World Baseball Classic because he wasn’t allowed to play shortstop. Both the Pirates and the Canadian team were uncomfortable with the switch, while Martin, who had signed a two-year/$17M deal with the Pirates, told MLB.com that “…I simply didn’t want to catch,” citing concern about the pre-season tournament wear and tear. He had caught in 2009 for the Canadian WBC nine.

Source: https://oldbucs.blogspot.com/2024/02/223-martin-vander-wal-raul-vicente.html

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