Posted: Sunday, December 29, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

On this date in Pirates history in 1943, the Bucs traded veteran catcher Babe Phelps and cash to the Phillies for 1st baseman Babe Dahlgren. Phelps played just one season for the Pirates in 1942 and would never play for the Phillies. He batted .284 with 41 RBI's in 95 games and ended his 11 year career as a .310 hitter over 726 games.

Dahlgren was 32 years old at the time and coming off his only career all-star season. Babe would be the everyday 1st baseman and have perhaps his best season as he hit .289 with 101 RBI's, both career highs. In 1944, he would hit .250 with 75 RBI's in 144 games. That would be his last season with the Pirates and he would only appear briefly for the Browns the next season before retiring. He hit .261 career over 1137 games. Dahlgren might be best known as the replacement for Lou Gehrig when he ended his 2130 consecutive game streak.

Posted: Sunday, December 29, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

Former Pirates players born on this date include Clyde Barnhart, who spent his whole career as a member of the Pirates from 1920-1928. Born in 1895, Clyde, who went by the nickname Pooch, is the father of Vic Barnhart, who played shortstop for the Pirates from 1944-46.

Clyde got called to the majors on Sept. 22nd in 1920. He got into 12 games and hit .326 with 5 RBI's in his brief trial. The starting third baseman in 1921, he hit .258 with 62 RBI's in 124 games. In 1922, Clyde moved to the outfield to make way for future Hall of Famer Pie Traynor, who played his first full season that year. Barnhart hit .330 that season in 75 games and struck out just 7 times in 209 at-bats.

Posted: Saturday, December 28, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

On this date in 1953, the Pirates traded Danny O'Connell to the Braves for 6 players and $100,000. The move was made by Branch Rickey and despite seeming one-sided it was an unpopular trade amongst Pirates fans. A fan favorite because of his hustle, Danny hit .294 with 55 RBI's in 149 games in 1953, just his second season with the team. He played for the 1950 team and hit .292 over 79 games his rookie season. He split his playing time between 3b/ss/2b, but later on in his career he would play mainly 2nd base. He missed the 1951 and '52 seasons while serving in the military.

Posted: Friday, December 27, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

Former Bucs players born on this date include Jim Tobin, who pitched for the Pirates from 1937-1939. He made his debut as a 24 year old on April 30, 1937 during a 7-2 loss Vs the Cubs. That team would start the season 14-3, but finish in 3rd place. Tobin would go 6-3 3.00 over 20 games and he started 8 games, finishing 7.

In 1938, Tobin would finish second on the team in wins with 14 and the team would finish in 2nd place on the season, just 2 games behind the Cubs. He went 14-12 3.47 total and also hit .243 in 103 at-bats. He also led the team with 14 complete games and threw 2 shutouts. After a 9-9 4.52 season in 1939 Tobin was traded to the Boston Braves (known as the Bees then) for pitcher Johnny Lanning.

Posted: Thursday, December 26, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

Former Pirates players born on this date include 2 players named King who had much different success with the team. First Jeff King, who was the 1st overall draft pick in the 1986 draft, was a member of the Pirates from 1989-1996.

Jeff made his ML debut June 2nd, 1989, but struggled in his first stint with the team though he got plenty of playing time. He saw action in 75 games while hitting just .195, with 5 HR's and 19 RBI's. He played mostly first base that year with some time at each of the other 3 infield positions. In his sophomore season he would play 127 games hitting .245 14HR 53RBI's while playing almost solely at third base. In the playoffs he would go just 1-10, with 5 strikeouts.

Posted: Tuesday, December 24, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

Before I start the column, I'd like to say Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone! I'll try and keep it short today.

Former Pirates players born on Christmas include Hall of Famer James "Pud" Galvin, who was one of the best pitchers from the 1800s and retired as the all-time wins leader. He was a member of the Pittsburgh team from the American Association before they joined the NL in 1887. Galvin had played 9 seasons already by the time the Pirates team started in the NL and he had already won 247 games, including winning 46 games twice with Buffalo in 1883-1884.

Posted: Monday, December 23, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

Five former Pirates players were born on this date with the most prolific one being Frank Taveras, who played shortstop for the Bucs from 1971-1979. He made just one appearance during the 1971 season as a pinch runner on Sept. 25th. He would appear in 4 games in 1972 before spending the whole 1973 season in the minors with Charleston of the International League.

Posted: Monday, December 23, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

Born on this date in Pirates history in one of the best pitchers in team history, Sam Leever. Sam was born in 1871 and made his major league debut for the Pirates on May 26th, 1898. He pitched only 5 games that year going 1-0 2.45. The next year Leever established himself as a great pitcher for over the next 10 seasons. He would win a minimum of 14 games, 4 times winning over 20 games.

Posted: Sunday, December 22, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

On this date in Pirates, history the Bucs traded 4 minor leaguers to the Yankees for Lee Mazzilli. Lee was a 27 yr. old switch hitter at the time and coming off a season where he hit .251 with 10 HR's and 13 stolen bases in 95 games. For the Pirates, he would play some center field till Marvell Wynne joined the team, then Lee became a valuable pinch hitter off the bench. Lee hit .240 with 24 RBI's in 109 games while stealing 15 bases.

Posted: Saturday, December 21, 2002

By 81omar_moreno

On this date in 1935, the Pirates traded catcher Earl Grace and pitcher Claude Passeau to the Phillies for catcher Al Todd. Al, who was projected to be the Pirates everyday starter, hit .273 in 76 games his first year with the team but missed time with a broken finger. The next year however, he had his best season in the majors. He hit .307 with 86 RBI's in 133 games. He also finished 6th in the league in triples with 10.