Ten former Pittsburgh Pirates born on this date, including one who threw a no-hitter. We also have two games of note.
Starling Marte, outfielder for the 2012-19 Pirates. Marte was originally signed by the Pirates as an international free agent at 18 years old in 2007 out of the Dominican Republic. He spent his first two seasons in the Dominican Summer League, hitting .220 with one homer in 45 games in 2007. In 2008, he hit .296 with nine homers and 20 steals in 65 games. He moved up to Low-A in 2009 and batted .312 with 17 extra-base hits and 24 steals in 54 games. The next season was spent mostly in High-A, though a wrist injury limited him to 68 games total. He batted .319 with 26 extra-base hits and 26 steals that season. He made up some time in the Dominican playing winter ball that off-season. Marte spent all of 2011 in Double-A Altoona, where he hit .332 with 58 extra-base hits and 24 steals in 129 games. He played winter ball in the Dominican again and hit .328 in 30 games. Before making the majors in 2012, he hit .286 with 46 extra-base hits and 21 steals in 99 games with Triple-A Indianapolis.
He debuted with the Pirates in July of 2012 and homered on the first big league pitch he faced. He hit .257 with five homers and 12 stolen bases in 47 games as a rookie. Marte held down the left field position for the next five years, before moving to center field full-time in 2018. In 2013, he batted .280, with 12 homers, 41 stolen bases and 83 runs scored. That was followed up by a .291 average in 2014, with 73 runs scored, 29 doubles, 13 homers and 30 stolen bases. Marte won his first of two consecutive Gold Glove awards in 2015. He batted .287, with 84 runs scored, 19 homers, 81 RBIs and 30 stolen bases. In 2016, Marte made his only All-Star appearance. He batted .311 with 71 runs scored, and career highs of 34 doubles and 47 stolen bases. Unfortunately that was followed up with a PED suspension, and he played just 77 games in 2017. He batted .275 with 48 runs scored, seven homers, 31 RBIs and 21 steals. In 2018, Marte hit .277 in 145 games, with 81 runs scored, 32 doubles, 20 homers, 72 RBIs and 33 stolen bases. He had a career high .845 OPS in 132 games in 2019, hitting .295 with 31 doubles and 25 steals, while setting career highs with 97 runs scored, 23 homers and 82 RBIs.
After the 2019 season, Marte was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who in turn traded him to the Miami Marlins during the 2020 season. He batted .281 with six homers, 27 RBIs, ten steals and 36 runs scored during the shortened season. Due to the timing of the trade, he was able to play 61 games during the 60-game schedule. The Marlins traded Marte during the 2021 season to the Oakland A’s. Through late September, he was hitting .311 in 116 games, with 27 doubles, 12 homers, 86 runs scored and 45 steals, which is the most in baseball, but he won’t lead either league because of the split. Marte hit .287 in 953 games with the Pirates, with 108 homers, 239 stolen bases, 555 runs scored and 420 RBIs. He ranks 20th in Pirates history in homers and eighth in stolen bases.
Bob Moose, pitcher for the 1967-76 Pirates. He was drafted by the Pirates in the 18th round of the 1965 amateur draft at age 17 and it took him just two years to make the majors. He flew through the minor league system posting a 29-10 record on his way to the majors, making his big league debut 20 days before his 20th birthday on September 19, 1967. Moose went 8-2, 1.95 with 75 strikeouts in 60 innings over 18 relief appearances in the Appalachian League during the 1965 season. He split the 1966 season between two A-Ball clubs, going 11-5, 3.91 in 138 innings, with 122 strikeouts. Before he debuted in the majors in 1967, he made ten appearances in both Double-A and Triple-A, combining to go 10-3, 3.23 in 120 innings. He got a no-decision in his big league debut, which saw him allow just one run over the first five innings before the Houston Astros put up four runs in the sixth to tie the score. The Pirates ended up winning 11-7. In his second career start ten days later he threw a complete game victory over the Astros allowing just one run.
In 1968, Moose started the year in the bullpen, then moved to the starting role in early June and finished the season with an 8-12 record, despite an ERA of just 2.74 over 170.2 innings pitched. At age 21 in 1969, he led the National League in winning percentage with his 14-3 record, with 19 of his 44 appearances coming as a starter. His 1969 ERA was actually 17 points higher (2.91) than his mark in 1968, which just shows you how unpredictable win-loss records can be. On September 20th of that 1969 season, Moose pitched a no-hitter over the New York Mets at Shea Stadium, shutting down the team that went on to win the World Series just a few weeks later.
For the next four seasons, Moose was mostly used in a starter role, and he won at least 11 games each year. He was 11-10, 3.99 in 189.2 innings in 1970, then lost his only start in the NLCS to the Cincinnati Reds, allowing three runs in 7.2 innings. During the World Series winning 1971 season, Moose went 11-7, 4.11 in 140 innings over 18 starts and 12 relief appearances. He threw two shutout innings in relief during the NLCS that year, then had some troubles in the World Series, allowing seven runs over 9.2 innings, making one start and two relief appearances. He didn’t factor into any of the decisions. Moose had a strong 1972 season, but the playoffs were a complete disaster for him. He helped the Pirates get to the postseason by going 13-10, 2.91 in a career high 226 innings. He started game two of the series and was pulled before he could record an out, allowing four runs. In the final game, his wild pitch in relief of Dave Giusti allowed the winning run to score. Moose had a solid 1973 season as the Pirates missed the playoffs. His 12-13 record was a reflection on the team, as he posted a 3.53 ERA in 201.1 innings.
Moose missed most of the 1974 season due to a blood clot in his right shoulder, which limited him to 35.2 innings and saw him post a 7.57 ERA. In 1975 he suffered a bad thumb injury which required him to spend part of the year in the minors on rehab. In five starts and 18 relief appearances, he went 2-2, 3.72 in 67.2 innings. The following year he was used almost exclusively in relief, making just two starts and 51 relief appearances. He recorded ten saves that season, one more than his previous nine years combined. Sadly, today is also the anniversary of his death. He died shortly after the 1976 season ended, due to injuries suffered in a car accident on his 29th birthday. Moose finished his career with a 76-71, 3.50 record in 1,303.1 innings, starting 160 games and relieving in another 129. He spent all ten of his seasons in the majors as a member of the Pirates.
Derek Holland, pitcher for the 2020 Pirates. He was drafted in the 25th round in 2006 out of Wallace State Community College by the Texas Rangers. Holland was a draft-and-follow signing, inking his deal to go pro right before the 2007 deadline to sign. He debuted in pro ball in short-season ball, going 4-5, 3.22 in 67 innings, with 83 strikeouts. In 2008, he started in Low-A and finished in Double-A, with his best results at the higher level. He combined to go 13-1, 2.27 in 150.2 innings, with 157 strikeouts. In 2009, he made one Triple-A start and spent the rest of the year with the Rangers, going 8-13, 6.12 in 138.1 innings. In 2010, Holland split the season evenly between Triple-A and the majors. He went 3-4, 4.08 in ten starts and four relief outings for the Rangers, throwing 57.1 innings. He pitched twice in relief during the World Series and managed to allow three runs in one inning of work without giving up a hit. In 2011, he spent the entire season in the majors and excelled, going 16-5, 3.95 in 198 innings, with 162 strikeouts and a league leading four shutouts. The Rangers made the World Series again, and while they lost the series again, Holland won game four by throwing 8.1 shutout innings. The next year saw him go 12-7, 4.67 in 175 innings, with 145 strikeouts. In 2013, Holland went 10-9, 3.42, while setting career highs with 213 innings and 189 strikeouts.
In 2014, Holland was limited to 37 innings due to an off-season knee injury that required surgery. He had a 1.46 ERA in his limited time. He came back in 2015 to 4-3, 4.91 in ten starts, this time missing a chunk of the season due to a left shoulder strain. In 2016, he went 7-9, 4.95 in 107.1 innings over 20 starts and two relief outings. Holland signed with the Chicago White Sox as a free agent prior to the 2017 season. He went 7-14, 6.20 in 135 innings that year before being released in September. He signed a free agent deal with the San Francisco Giants for 2018 and had a 7-9, 3.57 record in 171.1 innings, with 169 strikeouts. He made 30 starts in 2018, but he moved to more of a relief role in 2019 when he re-signed with the Giants, who traded him mid-season to the Chicago Cubs. Holland combined to go 2-5, 6.08 in 84.1 innings over eight starts and 43 relief outings. In 2020, he signed with the Pirates as a free agent. He went 1-3, 6.86 in 40.2 innings over five starts and seven relief outings in the shortened season. Holland signed with the Detroit Tigers as a free agent for 2021, posting a 3-2, 5.18 record in 48.2 innings over 38 games, through late September. In his 13-year career, he is 82-83, 4.63 in 1,465 innings over 228 starts and 117 relief outings.
Jason Jaramillo, catcher for the 2009-11 Pirates. Jaramillo was a 39th round pick of the Philadelphia Phillies out of high school in 2001 and didn’t sign, then improved to a second round pick three years later out of Oklahoma State, once again being selected by the Phillies. He debuted in short-season ball in 2004, hitting just .235 with one homer in 32 games. In 2005, he spent the entire season with Low-A Lakewood of the South Atlantic League, where he hit .304 with 40 extra-base hits in 119 games. Most of 2006 was spent in Double-A. Jaramillo hit .248 in 93 games, with 25 doubles, six homers and 39 RBIs. He played in the Arizona Fall League after the season and hit .379 with eight doubles and two homers in 17 games. The 2007 season was spent in Triple-A Ottawa, where he hit .271 with 23 extra-base hits, 56 RBIs and 50 walks in 118 games. Jaramillo returned to Ottawa in 2008 and hit .266 with 20 doubles and eight homers in 115 games. He spent his first five seasons of pro ball in the minors for Philadelphia before the Pirates acquired him in December of 2008 for catcher Ronny Paulino.
Jaramillo spent the entire 2009 season with the Pirates, hitting .252 with three homers and 26 RBIs in 63 games. He split the 2010 season between the minors and majors due to a poor showing early in the 2010 season with the Pirates. He finished his big league time that year with a .149 average and one homer in 33 games. He was with the Pirates for the first two weeks of the 2011 season, then returned in September. He did well in his limited big league time that year, batting .326 in 23 games. Jaramillo was let go after the 2011 season and he ended up playing just two more years of minor league ball, while spending time with four different organizations, playing for the Milwaukee Brewers and Oakland A’s in 2012, and the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners in 2013. He hit .235 with four homers and 38 RBIs in 119 games with the Pirates.
Felix Fermin, shortstop for the 1987-88 Pirates. The Pirates signed him as an international free agent at 19 years old out of the Dominican in 1983. He debuted in pro ball that same year, playing 67 games in the New York-Penn League for Watertown, where he hit .197, with a .487 OPS. In 1984, he played for Prince William of the Class-A Carolina League, hitting .246 in 119 games, with 13 doubles, one triple and 32 stolen bases. In 1985, Fermin spent the entire season in Double-A, with Nashua of the Eastern League. He batted .226 in 137 games, with ten doubles, two triples and 29 steals. The 1986 season saw him drop down to Prince William for more than half of the season, while the rest of the time was spent in Triple-A, with Hawaii of the Pacific Coast League. He hit .253 with 15 doubles, 41 steals and 71 runs scored in 123 games that year. A majority of the 1987 season was spent in Double-A, but he made a big jump that same season. It took him just four years to work his way through the system, debuting in the majors on July 8, 1987. He played 23 games and batted .250 that season, while making 19 starts at shortstop. Fermin split the 1988 season between the majors and minors, getting into 43 games with the Pirates. He started 32 times at shortstop, but left often for a pinch-hitter, playing just ten games from start to finish. After the season, he was traded to the Cleveland Indians in a deal that landed Jay Bell back in Pittsburgh. Fermin stayed with the Indians until 1993, when he was sent to the Seattle Mariners for Omar Vizquel.
In 1989, Fermin hit .238 in 150 games, with 50 runs scored and a career high 41 walks, while leading the league with 32 sacrifice hits. His defense that year was impressive, with a 2.3 dWAR mark, which really stands out when his career DWAR sits at 3.2 in ten seasons. In 1990, Fermin played 148 games, hitting .256 with 40 RBIs and 47 runs scored. On April 22nd, he homered off of Donn Pall, which was not only Fermin’s first big league homer, it was also his first homer in pro ball. He failed to hit a single homer in 683 minor league games during his career. In 1991, he batted .262 in 129 games, with 31 RBIs and 30 runs scored. The next season he began to see some work around the infield and wasn’t an everyday player. Fermin hit .270 in 79 games. He returned to the starting shortstop role in 1993, but poor defense led to a -1.0 season. He hit .263 with 20 extra-base hits, 45 RBIs and 48 runs scored in 140 games. After being traded the the Mariners for Vizquel before the 1994 season, it didn’t look like a bad trade at first. During that strike-shortened season, Fermin hit .317 with career highs of 21 doubles and 52 runs scored. However, it started becoming a one-sided deal in 1995 when he hit just .195 in 73 games and his defense was well below average.
Fermin was released by the Mariners in April of 1996 and signed with the New York Yankees, who released him after two weeks. He then signed with the Chicago Cubs and played his final 11 big league games, while spending time in the minors, before being released in August. That turned out to be his final season of pro ball. He batted .265 in 66 games during his two seasons with Pittsburgh, collecting two triples, with no doubles or homers. Fermin played a total of ten seasons in the majors, hitting .259 with 294 runs, four homers, and 207 RBIs in 903 games. Despite being a stolen base threat in the minors, he had 27 steals in the majors in 48 attempts.
Ray Krawczyk, pitcher for the 1984-86 Pirates. He was drafted three times in the first round before signing with the Pirates in 1981. The Boston Red Sox took him 23rd overall in the January 1980 draft out of Golden West College. That same June, the St Louis Cardinals took him 23rd overall again. He transferred to Oral Roberts, where the Pirates took him fourth overall in June of 1981. Krawczyk began his pro career in short-season ball, posting a 3.94 ERA in 64 innings between two stops in 1981. The Pirates sent him to the Class-A Carolina League for a short stint in 1982, but most of the year was spent with Buffalo of the Double-A Eastern League. He had an 0.48 ERA in 18.2 innings at the lower level, which jumped to 4.71 in 101.2 innings with Buffalo. He still moved up to Hawaii of the Pacific Coast League in 1983, where he stayed for the better parts of the next five seasons, even after he left the Pirates. Krawczyk went 5-7, 3.76 in 88.2 innings over 41 appearances in 1983. He picked up seven saves that year, then 15 more in 1984, when he had a 2.13 ERA in 72 innings for Hawaii. The Pirates used him four times over an eight-day span in June/July during the 1984 season, but he didn’t pitch with them again until 11 months later. In his brief time in Pittsburgh, he allowed two runs in 5.1 innings.
Krawczyk came up for four appearances in May of 1985 and threw just four total innings, while giving up runs in all four games. He returned in mid-September and pitched four more times, allowing five runs in 4.1 innings. He had control issues during his time with the team in 1986, though his stats were acceptable until his final outing of the season. In his last game with the Pirates, he gave up four runs on three hits and three walks in one inning. Shortly after the 1986 season ended, Krawczyk was released by the Pirates. He went 0-3, 8.65 in 26 innings over 24 games with the Pirates. After leaving the Pirates, he saw big league time with the 1988 California Angels and 1989 Milwaukee Brewers. The Chicago White Sox signed him as a free agent in 1987 and kept him in Triple-A all year, where he ended up back in Hawaii, which switched to a White Sox affiliate that same season. The 1988-89 seasons were his last in pro ball and they were mostly spent in Triple-A. Krawczyk had a 4.81 ERA in 24.1 innings over 14 appearances with the 1988 Angels. He made his only big league start that season and gave up eight runs in 4.2 innings. He had a 2.29 ERA as a reliever in the other 13 games. In 1989, he pitched two innings on April 28th for the Brewers and struck out six batters, though he gave up three runs in what turned out to be his final big game, and his only game with the Brewers.
Freddie Patek, shortstop for the 1968-70 Pirates. The Pirates drafted him in the first amateur draft, which was held in 1965. Patek was a 22nd round pick. It took him just three years to make it to the majors and he never returned to the minors, playing until 1981. He debuted in pro ball in 1966 and played over three levels, starting in A-Ball and jumping to Triple-A by the end of the season. He combined to hit .277 with 81 runs scored, 41 steals and 58 walks in 118 games that year. In 1967, he batted .255 with 42 steals and a .662 OPS in 128 games at Triple-A Columbus of the International League. He began the 1968 season in Triple-A, but he was in the majors by early June, hitting .255 with 18 steals and a .620 OPS in 61 games as a rookie for the Pirates. He was the starting shortstop for Pittsburgh in 1969, hitting .239 with 53 walks, 15 steals and a .614 OPS in 147 games. Patek put up a .664 OPS in 84 games in 1970, but he was expendable to a team looking to build towards their fourth World Series title. The Pirates included him in a three-for-three swap with the Kansas City Royals after the 1970 season. That deal gave the Pirates Bob Johnson and Jackie Hernandez, two solid pieces for the 1971 World Series champs. While he didn’t get a World Series title during his career, the move helped Patek. He hit .244 in 292 games with the Pirates, then went on to play another 11 seasons in the majors, including nine with the Royals.
Patek got a full-time role immediately in Kansas City, hitting .267 with 49 steals, 86 runs scored and a league leading 11 triples in 147 games. That performance, along with some solid defense, earned him a sixth place finish in the MVP voting. In 1972, he hit just .212 in 136 games, seeing a 137-point drop in his OPS, yet he made his first All-Star appearance. Despite the poor offense, he post an incredible 3.2 dWAR, which is considered to be the best defensive season in Royals history. Patek batted .234 in 1973, with 54 walks, 36 steals and 82 runs scored. His average dropped to .225 in 1974, but it came with a career best 77 walks, along with 72 runs scored and 33 steals. He led all American League shortstops in double plays turned for the fourth straight season. In 1975, he hit .228, with a much lower walk rate and a drop in run production. He stole 32 bases and scored 58 runs in 136 games.
The Royals made the playoffs during the 1976-78 seasons and lost every year in the ALCS to the New York Yankees. Patek did his best in the playoffs during those first two seasons to try to help prevent those losses. After making his second All-Star appearance, while hitting .241 with 51 steals in 144 games during the regular season in 1976, he batted .389 in the playoffs and drove in four runs. In 1977, Patek hit .262 with 72 runs scored, while setting career highs with 26 doubles, 60 RBIs and 53 steals, which led the American League. He batted .389 in the playoffs again, this time with five RBIs and four runs scored. In the last year of that postseason run, Patek hit .248 with 54 runs scored, 46 RBIs and 38 steals in 138 games. He made his third All-Star appearance that year. His personal postseason success ended, going 1-for-13, though the one hit was a home run. He saw a drop in production in 1979, while also seeing an end to his days as a stolen base threat. In 106 games, he batted .252 and stole 11 bases, while getting caught 12 times.
Patek became a free agent and signed with the California Angels for the 1980 season. He played 86 games that first year, hitting .234 with 34 RBIs and 41 runs scored. During the strike-shortened 1981 season, his primary position was second base, though he was mostly a bench player. He hit .234 in 27 games. The Angels released him at the end of Spring Training in 1982, which ended his career. Patek was a career .242 hitter, who scored 736 runs and stole 385 bases in 1,650 games. He’s one of the smallest players in baseball history, standing in at 5’5″, 148 pounds. He still managed to hit for a little power, collecting over 300 extra-base hits in his career, including 41 homers.
Jack Tising, pitcher for the 1936 Pirates. Tising debuted in pro ball at 20 years old in 1924 with a 1-9 record, playing for three teams in the Class-D East Texas League. That’s a long way from the majors and a poor showing, which just shows how he battled to get to the majors 12 years later. He played pro ball briefly in the Texas area in 1925, then played semi-pro ball in 1926. He returned to pro ball in 1927, when he had a bit of controversy. He was listed as a rookie pitcher for Burlington for the Class-D Mississippi Valley League. I’ve never heard of this rule before, but that designation was found out to be false in June, which threw out the results of three games that he won. He still ended up the season with a 20-8 record and 270 innings pitched. Tising moved up to Class-C Fort Smith of the Western Association in 1928, where he went 12-8, 4.10 in 239 innings. His 1929 records show just three games pitched, and he has no pro experience listed for the 1930-31 seasons. He was playing that season for a semi-pro team called Postum in what was often dubbed the Cereal League, with a club called Kelloggs and another called the Battle Creek Cereals.
In 1932, Tising returned to pro ball with Kansas City of the American Association, where he went 5-12 and pitched 153 innings in 30 games. No ERA is available, but he allowed 6.35 runs per nine innings. He pitched for Indianapolis of the American Association for all of 1933 and part of 1934. He went 11-13, 3.79 in 204 innings in 1933. There’s no ERA available for 1934, but between Indianapolis and Louisville (also of the American Association), he had an 11-14 record and threw 186 innings. He went 13-15, 4.88 for Louisville in 1935. On November 23, 1935, the Pirates added Tising on a conditional deal, which said that he would go to Spring Training with the club and they had time to decide on whether to keep him or not. In exchange, the Pirates sent shortstop Tony Malinosky to Louisville. The Pirates had big plans for Tising in 1936, as he came advertised as the “strikeout king” of the American Association. For the record, he had 142 strikeouts in 269 innings in 1935, though batters were more concerned about putting the ball in play, used bigger bats, took shorter swings, and they choked up with two strikes, so strikeout totals were low.
Tising debuted in the majors at 32 years old and lasted just one partial season, putting up a 4.21 ERA in 47 innings over six starts and four relief appearances. He wasn’t with the Pirates long, debuting on April 24th and pitching his final game on May 30th. He was released just two days later back to Louisville, with the Pirates getting Malinosky back at the end of the minor league season. When he was released, Pirates President Bill Benswanger was rather blunt in his assessment of the decision, saying “Tising failed to show enough with the Bucs and we would rather try and get another hurler than the waste time with a failed one”. Tising spent 20 seasons in pro ball, but he never returned to the majors. He spent the 1939-44 seasons playing in the International League, seeing time with Buffalo, Syracuse and Baltimore. He had a nice season with Portland of the Pacific Coast League in 1945, going 11-10, 2.92 in 145 innings at 41 years old. The next year was his final season and he spent it in Class-B ball, where he allowed 49 runs in 39 innings.
Arnie Stone, pitcher for the 1923-24 Pirates. The 6’0″ lefty didn’t make his debut in the majors until after his 30th birthday. He played independent ball before signing his first pro deal. Stone was said to be 25 years old when he signed with the Pirates, but he was actually 30 at the time. The Pirates signed him on February 27, 1923 under the recommendation of Ben Shaw, who played against Stone during the 1922 season. Shaw was a catcher for the 1917-18 Pirates. Stone was with the Pirates in Spring Training and made the Opening Day roster in 1923, but failed to make an appearance before being sent to Hartford of the Eastern League, where he had a 2.01 ERA and 8-1 record in 112 innings. He rejoined the Pirates in late July and pitched nine games in relief, posting an 8.03 ERA in 12.1 innings. He was mostly used in a mop-up role, appearing in just one game that the Pirates won. In 1924, Stone started off strong, once they actually decided to use him. He threw 2.2 perfect innings during his season debut on April 27th, then tossed one-hit ball over five innings on May 3rd. That got him more time on the mound and eventually he made two starts. On July 5th, he pitched a complete game victory over the Reds, allowing just one earned run. Stone finished with a 2.95 ERA in 64 innings that season, despite being one of the most contact-oriented pitchers in history. In his 35 career appearances, he recorded more than one strikeout just once, racking up two against the St Louis Cardinals during a three-inning outing in 1924, on his way to nine career strikeouts.
Stone never pitched in the majors again after that 1924 season, finishing his career in the minors two years later. On December 3, 1924, the Pirates traded Stone (and cash) to Omaha of the Western League for young infielder Fresco Thompson. Stone played for five different teams over his final two seasons in pro ball, with just a brief stop in Omaha along the way. He went by the nickname “Lefty” and his real first name was Edwin (Arnold was his middle name). The scouting reports said that he had no curve ball, so that limited his potential. His fastball was said to move a lot and he had a strong changeup.
Al Maul, outfielder, first baseman and pitcher for the 1888-89 Pittsburgh Alleghenys, who rejoined the team during the 1891 season. Maul began his pro career and Major League career in 1884 as an 18-year-old, pitching one game for the Philadelphia Keystones in the Union Association, a one-season Major League that folded as soon as the season ended. He gave up seven runs over eight innings on June 20th in a loss. Maul spent the next two years as a pitcher/outfielder in the minors, returning to the big leagues with the 1887 Philadelphia Quakers, where he went 4-2, 5.54 in 50.1 innings, and put up a .915 OPS in 71 plate appearances. The Alleghenys purchased his contract on January 3, 1888 for $1,000. Maul batted well in 1887, but he hit just .208 in 74 games for the Alleghenys during his first season with the team. He also struggled during his limited time on the mound that year, going 0-2, 6.35 in 17 innings. The next season, Maul was even worse on the mound, posting a 9.86 ERA in 42 innings. However, his batting came around in 1889, as he hit .276, with 16 extra-base hits and 44 RBIs in 68 games. He split his time between first base and right field in 1888, then after Hall of Fame first baseman Jake Beckley joined the team, Maul split most of his time between left field and right field in 1889.
Most of the good players in the National League left for the newly formed Player’s League for the 1890 season. That was an exodus that decimated the 1890 Alleghenys’ roster and led to them finishing with a 23-113 record that year. When that season ended, the league folded/teams consolidated and most players returned to their former teams. Maul finally pitched well with the Pirates in 1891, posting a 2.35 ERA in 39 innings, but his batting fell well off, hitting .188 in 47 games, while seeing time at all three outfield spots. He had to return to the minors in 1892 to work his way back to the majors. Maul ended up making it back in 1893 and sticking around until 1901. He returned with the Washington Senators in 1893 and had a 12-21, 5.30 record in 297 innings, with twice as many walks (144) as strikeouts (72). In 1894, he went 11-15, 5.98 in 201.2 innings. Limited work on the mound did him well in 1895, when he went 10-5, 2.45 in 16 starts, leading the league in ERA (though not a recognized stat at the time). He was almost strictly a pitcher during this time, but he still hit better than most pitchers, putting up a .778 OPS in 1893 and a .715 OPS in 1894.
Maul suffered an arm injury during the middle of the 1895 season, which ended costing him the better part of three years, even though he made appearances during the 1896 season, going 5-2, 3.63 in eight starts that year, followed by three poor starts during the 1897 season. The last two starts in 1897 came in Baltimore with Ned Hanlon, who was the manager of the Orioles at the time. He brought back Maul the next year despite the results, and the move paid off. The injury caused him to lose velocity, but he was a better pitcher overall as shown in his vastly improved control numbers. He went 20-7, 2.10 in 239.2 innings over 28 starts with the Orioles in 1898. It was just a one-year return to glory, as the next three seasons saw him pitch 83 innings total, playing for the Brooklyn Superbas in 1899, the Phillies in 1900 and the New York Giants in 1901. He finished his career with a 84-80, 4.43 record in 187 games and a .241 batting average in 410 games, with 179 RBIs and 193 runs scored. He became a scout after he retired and for many years he worked at Shibe Park, the home of the Philadelphia Athletics.
The Games
On this date in 1960, the Pirates beat the New York Yankees in game four of the World Series by a 3-2 score in front of 67,812 fans in Yankee Stadium. Vernon Law started for the Pirates and pitched 6.1 innings allowing two runs and getting the win. Elroy Face pitched the final 2.2 IP for the save. He retired all eight batters he faced including the final two hitters of the seventh, taking over with two inherited runners on base. Law drove in the Pirates first run of the game with a fifth inning double, and he scored the eventual winning run one batter later on a two-run single by Bill Virdon. Here’s the boxscore.
On this date in 1972, the Pirates defeated the Cincinnati Reds in the NLCS by a 3-2 score to give them a 2-1 lead in the five-game series. Bruce Kison picked up the win in relief of starter Nelson Briles and Manny Sanguillen picked up two RBIs including a solo home run in the fifth inning. Roberto Clemente went 1-for-3 with a walk. He would play just two more games in his career after this game. Here’s the boxscore
