Six former Pittsburgh Pirates born on this date and five of them were significant contributors.
Pedro Alvarez, third baseman for the 2010-15 Pirates. He was the first round draft pick of the Pirates in 2008, selected second overall out of Vanderbilt. The Boston Red Sox originally selected him in the 14th round out of high school three years earlier. Alvarez signed too late to play in 2008, then split his first season of pro ball between high-A Lynchburg of the Carolina League and Double-A Altoona of the Eastern League. He was rated as the 12th best prospect in baseball prior to his first pro game. Alvarez combined to hit .288 with 80 runs, 32 doubles, 27 homers, 95 RBIs and 71 walks. Going into the 2010 season, he was ranked as the eighth best prospect in baseball by Baseball America. He moved to Triple-A Indianapolis of the International League for 2010 and hit .277 with 42 runs, 15 doubles, 13 homers and 53 RBIs in 66 games. Alvarez made his big league debut on June 16, 2010 and he hit .256 in 95 games for the Pirates, with 16 homers and 64 RBIs, giving him 117 total runs batted in on the season. He struggled badly during the 2011 season, while also spending 50 days on the disabled list, and he was even optioned to the minors for part of the year. In 74 games in the majors that year, he hit .191 with four homers and a .561 OPS. In 2012, Alvarez rebounded to hit .244 with 64 runs, 25 doubles, 30 homers and 85 RBIs. However, he also struck out 180 times, setting a franchise single-season record.
In 2013, Alvarez won the National League home run crown with 36 homers, which was the most for the Pirates since Brian Giles hit 38 in 2002. Alvarez drove in a career high 100 runs that season, and he won the Silver Slugger award and made the All-Star team for the only time in his career for both honors. He also batted just .233 and struck out 186 times, breaking his own team record. For the second straight year he led all of baseball with 27 errors. Despite the power numbers, he finished with a .770 OPS, which didn’t even come within 100 points of the top ten OPS numbers in the league that year. He had an injury in 2014, which limited him to a .231/.312/.405 slash line in 122 games, with 18 homers and 56 RBIs. Alvarez moved to first base in 2015 and hit .243, with 60 runs, 18 doubles, 27 homers and 77 RBIs. He was let go after the season with one year remaining before free agency and ended up signing with the Baltimore Orioles, where he played 168 games over the next three seasons.
The move to the American League helped Alvarez’s value because he was able to serve often as the DH, keeping him out of the field, where he compiled a -7.2 dWAR during his nine-year career. Overall, he had 5.1 WAR in his career, thanks almost solely due to his power. In 2016, he batted .249 in 109 games, with 43 runs, 20 doubles, 22 homers and 49 RBIs. In 2017, Alvarez spent almost the entire season in Triple-A with Norfolk of the International League, where he hit .240 with 31 doubles, 26 homers and 89 RBIs in 138 games. He played 14 games that year with the Orioles and hit .313 with a homer and four RBIs. The 2018 season, which was his last in pro ball, was split evenly between Baltimore (45 games) and Norfolk (43 games). Alvarez hit just .180 with eight homers and 18 RBIs for the Orioles that year. He finished with a .236/.309/.441 slash line in 742 games in Pittsburgh and he put up a .794 OPS in Baltimore. Alvarez ranks 13th in franchise history with 131 homers. He scored 300 runs and had 401 RBIs for the Pirates. Despite a somewhat short stay in Pittsburgh, he ranks seventh in franchise history with 809 strikeouts.
Richie Zisk, outfielder for the 1971-76 Pirates. He was a third round draft pick of the Pirates out of high school in 1967. Zisk spent six seasons performing well in the minors, hitting .300 with 129 homers, before earning his first Opening Day job in the majors. He debuted in pro ball at 18 years old with Salem of the short-season Appalachian League in 1967. He hit .307 in 56 games, with 16 homers, 51 RBIs and 40 walks. In 1968, he moved up to Gastonia of the Class-A Western Carolinas League, where he batted .281 in 53 games, with 13 homers and 41 RBIs. In 1969, Zisk played for Salem of the Carolina League and hit .317 with 28 extra-base hits and a .919 OPS in 78 games. He went to the Florida Instructional League after the season, back when they kept stats for the league, and he had a .958 OPS in 19 games. Zisk moved up to Waterbury of the Double-A Eastern League in 1970, where he hit .296 in 125 games, with 83 runs, 17 doubles, six triples, 34 homers, 88 RBIs and 57 walks.
Zisk played 24 games with the Pirates between the 1971-72 seasons, mostly as a September call-up, though he did have a short stint in July in 1972. It was a bit surprising that it took him that long to finally earn a spot, and it took the passing of Roberto Clemente to open up a spot. Before his first September trial in 1971, he batted .290 in Triple-A (Charleston of the International League), with 90 runs, 29 homers, 109 RBIs and 94 walks. Zisk stole just 36 bases in his entire 17-year pro career, but he ended up going 16-for-20 in steals that season. He batted .200 with one homer in seven games for the Pirates. He did even better in 1972, at least with the OPS, going from a .953 mark, to a .969 OPS in 1972, yet his big league time was limited each year because the Pirates were a playoff team. He batted .308 in 122 games with Charleston, collecting 30 doubles, 26 homers and 86 RBIs. For the Pirates that year, he hit .189 in 17 games, with three doubles and four RBIs.
In 1973, Zisk made the Opening Day roster and he was the everyday right fielder for the last two months of the season. He played 103 games that year, hitting .324 with 44 runs, 40 extra-base hits and 54 RBIs, leading to a ninth place finish in the Rookie of the Year voting. The 1974 season would see him finish ninth in the MVP voting, as he drove in 100 runs for the first time, while putting up a .313 batting average, which was the sixth highest average in the National League. He scored 75 runs and collected 50 extra-base hits, which included 30 doubles and 17 homers. Zisk batted .300 during the NLCS series that year. He hit .290 with 69 runs, 27 doubles, 20 homers, 75 RBIs and a career high 68 walks in 147 games in 1975, helping the Pirates to the playoffs for the second straight year. They would lose both years in the NLCS, but Zisk hit .500 this time in the playoffs. Those two brief series would end up being the only playoff experience of his 13-year career.
In 1976, Zisk set career highs with 91 runs and 35 doubles. He hit .289 with 21 homers (his high while with the Pirates) and 89 RBIs. With Omar Moreno establishing himself as a regular, and Zisk having just one season left before he hit free agency, the Pirates traded him to the White Sox for Goose Gossage and Terry Forster on December 10, 1976. The Pirates needed pitching at the time, so they traded from their surplus of outfielders. Zisk went on to hit .290 with 78 runs, 30 homers and 101 RBIs in 141 games during his only year in Chicago, making the All-Star team for the first time in his career. He signed a ten-year deal for $2,750,000 with the Texas Rangers on November 9, 1977, then played the first three seasons of that deal in Texas before he was traded to the Seattle Mariners, where he finished his career in 1983. During the first year of his big contract, he hit .262 in 140 games, with 68 runs, 19 doubles, 22 homers, 85 RBIs and 58 walks. He made his second All-Star appearance during that 1978 season. Zisk put up very similar numbers to the previous year in 1979, hitting .262 again, this time with 69 runs, 21 doubles, 18 homers, 64 RBIs and 57 walks. During his final season in Texas, he batted .290 in 135 games, with 48 runs, 17 doubles, 19 homers and 77 RBIs. On December 12, 1980, he was part of a ten-player deal with the Mariners, which saw five players going each way.
Zisk hit .311 in 94 games during the strike-shortened 1981 season, with 42 runs, 12 doubles, 16 homers and 43 RBIs. In 1982, he batted .292 in 131 games, with 68 runs, 28 doubles, 21 homers, 62 RBIs and 49 walks. The Mariners were awful in 1983 and they sent Zisk and veteran outfielder Steve Henderson to the bench in June so younger players could get playing time. Zisk hit .242 in 90 games, with 12 doubles, 12 homers and 36 RBIs. A knee injury kept him out of action in 1984, then the Mariners released him with three years remaining on his contract in January of 1985. Zisk hit .271 in 419 games with the Rangers, with 69 homers and a 226 RBIs. He hit .286 in 315 games with the Mariners, collecting 49 homers and 141 RBIs. He was a career .287 hitter with 792 RBIs in 1,453 games over 13 seasons. With the Pirates, he finished with a .299 average, 285 runs, 119 doubles, 69 homers and 324 RBIs in 578 games. After his playing days, he became a hitting coach in the minors for the Cleveland Indians at the end of the 1985 season. He also spent 15 seasons coaching (two years managing) for the Daytona Cubs. He’s also done scouting work for the Chicago Cubs.
Bill Koski, pitcher for the 1951 Pirates. He was rushed to the majors as a 19-year-old after just ten lower level minor league games in 1950. While playing for Mayfield of the Class-D Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League, he went 8-2, 2.42 in 78 innings. The Pirates were one of 13 teams interested in signing him right out of high school in June of 1950, so they used some star power to get his name signed to a contract. At the time, legendary actor Bing Crosby was a part owner of the Pirates, so the club had him call Koski’s father to help convince him to sign with Pittsburgh. It worked, and by July 10th, Koski was starting for Mayfield. The Pirates gave him the maximum bonus allowed without him qualify as a Bonus Baby player, which would have meant that the Pirates would have to immediately add him to the big league roster. Despite avoiding that rush to the majors, Koski didn’t take long to join the big league club. The Pirates assigned him to New Orleans of the Double-A Southern Association during the off-season, then purchased his contract on a 30-day trial basis. He began the 1951 season on the Pirates Opening Day roster and started his career with a three no-hit innings in relief during his first appearance. That earned him a start a week later and he picked up his only career decision in a loss to the New York Giants. Koski was with the Pirates through early June before returning to the minors. On June 15th, the Pirates made a 2-for-5 player swap with the St Louis Cardinals and Koski was one of the players sent to the minors (New Orleans) to make room for all of the new players. He came back up on September 5th and had two more relief outings. That would turn out to be his only season in the majors. He struggled with his control during his brief big league time, walking 28 batters in 27 innings with just six strikeouts. He had a 6.67 ERA and a 2.00 WHIP. While in New Orleans that season, he went 4-9, 5.24 in 91 innings over 15 starts, with 70 walks.
Koski spent 1952 in the minors with Burlington-Graham of the Class-B Carolina League, where he went 8-16, 3.51 in 187 innings. He then served in the Korean War, missing the entire 1953 season, before returning to minor league baseball for four more seasons. He actually rejoined the Pirates on July 14, 1954 ahead of a doubleheader, when the Pirates were short-handed. It was said that he was out of options and was placed on waivers immediately upon arriving with the Pirates. The reason for the move was that minor league waiver claims cost $500 and big league claims cost $10,000, so if they were going to lose him, they wanted the most money that they could receive. When he wasn’t claimed after ten days, the Pirates released him by sending him outright to Waco of the Class-B Big State League. Koski actually ended up back in Burlington-Graham that season, while also spending some time with St Jean of the Class-C Provincial League. In 1955, he gave up 19 runs in 13 innings for Burlington-Graham, while spending the rest of the year with Brunswick of the Class-D Georgia-Florida League, where he went 8-6, 2.47 in 102 innings. Koski played for Kingston of the Carolina League and Modesto of the Class-C California League in 1956, then finished his career in 1957 with Las Vegas of the Class-C Arizona-Mexico League. As it turned out, his one season in the majors, was the only year that he played above Class-B ball.
Smoky Burgess, catcher for the 1959-64 Pirates. He came to the Pirates in January 1959 from the Cincinnati Reds as part of the seven-player Harvey Haddix/Don Hoak trade. The 32-year-old Burgess already had nine years of big league experience at that point. He signed with the Chicago Cubs at 17 years old in 1944 and debuted in the majors five years later. In his first season of pro ball, playing with Lockport of the Class-D Pennsylvania-Ontario-New York League, Burgess hit .325 with 31 runs and 32 RBIs in 54 games. He played with Class-B Portsmouth of the Piedmont League in 1945, where he batted .400 in 12 games before joining the Army during WWII. He returned just in time for one game in 1946, playing for Los Angeles of the Pacific Coast League. He knocked the rust off quickly, batting .378 in 115 games during the 1947 season, splitting his time between Fayetteville of the Class-B Tri-State League (99 games) and Macon of the Class-A South Atlantic League. He had 82 runs that year, with 31 doubles, 11 homers and 83 RBIs. Burgess topped that high average from 1947 by putting up a .386 average in 1948, playing 116 games for Nashville of the Double-A Southern Association. That year he had 93 runs, 38 doubles, 22 homers and 102 RBIs, with 22 strikeouts in 465 plate appearances. Burgess played some with Los Angeles in 1949, but the majority of the season was spent in the majors with the Cubs. He saw limited time during his first season in the majors in 1949, starting five of his 46 games, while accumulating just 60 plate appearances total. He batted .268 with a homer and 12 RBIs.
Burgess, whose real first name was Forrest, spent the entire 1950 season in the minors, where he hit .327, with 55 runs, 33 extra-base hits and 52 RBIs in 88 games for Springfield of the Triple-A International League. He returned to the Cubs in 1951 and batted .251 in 94 games, with 21 runs, eight extra-base hits and 20 RBIs. After the season, he was part of a seven-player deal that sent him to the Philadelphia Phillies. He immediately did better at the plate with his new team, batting .296 in 110 games in 1952, with 49 runs, 27 doubles, six homers, 56 RBIs and 49 walks, with 21 strikeouts in 424 plate appearances. In 1953, Burgess hit .292 in 102 games, with 31 runs, 26 extra-base hits and 36 RBIs. During the 1954 season, he posted a .368 batting average in 345 at-bats over 108 games. He also made his first All-Star appearance that year. Burgess didn’t have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title race, but his average was 23 points higher than league leader Willie Mays that season.
Just seven games into the 1955 season, Smoky was traded to the Cincinnati Reds, where he made his second straight All-Star appearance. He hit .301 that season, with 70 runs, 17 doubles and 50 walks, while setting career highs with 21 homers and 78 RBIs. His playing time dropped off during the next three seasons in Cincinnati, failing to reach 100 games or 275 plate appearances in any of those years, though he still saw some decent time each year. In 1956, he hit .275 in 90 games, with ten doubles, 12 homers and 39 RBIs. He played 90 games as well in 1957, hitting .283 with 14 doubles, 14 homers and 39 RBIs. In the season before joining the Pirates, Burgess hit .283 with six homers in 99 games, though he started just 53 games.
After joining the Pirates, Burgess hit .297 with 59 RBIs in 377 at-bats in 1959. He had an OPS of .834 thanks to 44 extra-base hits in his limited at-bats. He also made the All-Star team for the first of three consecutive seasons. He hit .294 in 1960, with 24 extra-base hits and 39 RBIs in 110 games, then helped the Pirates to a World Series title by hitting .333 (6-for-18) in the postseason. He received mild MVP support for the only time in his career, finishing 20th in the voting. Burgess hit .303 with 17 doubles, 12 homers and 52 RBIs in 323 at-bats in 1961. He put up an .851 OPS that season, but he would be even better during the following season. In 1962, he had 360 at-bats and hit .328 with 13 homers and 61 RBIs, his high in all three Triple Crown categories while with the Pirates. He finished with an .875 OPS, which was also his high in Pittsburgh.
Burgess saw his playing time decreased in 1963, and his average dropped to .280. He played 91 games that year and he had 293 plate appearances. He finished with a .732 OPS, which was his lowest mark since 1951. He played sparingly for the 1964 Pirates and by early September, he was put on waivers, finishing the year with the Chicago White Sox. Burgess hit .246 in 66 games with the Pirates, then was used seven times as a pinch-hitter with the White Sox. He spent the next three years in Chicago, serving almost exclusively as a pinch-hitter, with just three starts during that time. He played a lot though, getting into 80, 79 and 77 games during those seasons. He was an effective pinch-hitter during that time, putting together a .734 OPS with Chicago. In 18 Major League seasons he hit .295 with 485 runs, 230 doubles, 126 homers and 673 RBIs in 1,691 games. He pinch-hit 551 times in his career, hitting .278 with 138 RBIs. With the Pirates, he batted .296 in 586 games, with 178 runs, 51 homers and 265 RBIs. Burgess led all National League catchers in fielding percentage in 1953 with the Phillies and 1960-61 with the Pirates.
Dale Long, first baseman for the 1951 and 1955-57 Pirates. He was in the minors for seven seasons before he got his first chance at the majors for the Pirates in 1951. He spent time playing for the minor league affiliates of the Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, Detroit Tigers and New York Yankees between 1945 and 1950. Long played one game at 18 years old with Milwaukee of the Double-A American Association. That was quite a starting spot, but he quickly dropped down to the bottom of the minor league ladder. In 1945, he played 103 games total split between Lima and Mansfield of the Ohio State League. While some stats are incomplete, he’s credited with a .306 average, 35 extra-base hits and 78 RBIs. In 1946, Long hit .330 in 116 games with Ogden of the Class-C Pioneer League. He had 32 extra-base hits, 65 runs and 62 RBIs. Most of 1947 was spent with Oneonta of the Canadian-American League, where he hit .311 in 90 games, with 49 runs, 24 extra-base hits and 60 RBIs. He also played 16 games for Providence of the Class-B New England League, where he had a .767 OPS in 70 plate appearances. In 1948, Long spent the entire season with Lynn of the New England League, where he hit .302 with 97 runs, 22 doubles, 18 homers, 119 RBIs and 56 walks. The 1949 season was spent with Williamsport of the Class-A Eastern League. He hit .288 in 140 games, with 35 doubles, 11 homers, 81 RBIs and 87 walks.
Long played for Binghamton of the Eastern League in 1950, where he hit .287 in 133 games, with 26 doubles and 27 homers. He was taken by Pittsburgh in the December 1950 Rule 5 draft. He played just ten games with the 1951 Pirates before he was put on waivers, where he was picked up by the St Louis Browns on June 1st. The Pirates cut Long after they claimed outfielder Jack Maguire off waivers, only to lose Maguire on waivers to the Browns just five weeks later. The Pirates attempted to make Long a left-handed catcher during Spring Training, but it ended up being a failed experiment, though he was still the team’s emergency catcher early in the season. He lasted just 34 games in St Louis before the Pirates reacquired him on December 6, 1951 and assigned him to their affiliated team in New Orleans of the Double-A Southern Association. The Pirates received $10,000 when he was claimed on waivers, and they paid just $1,000 to get him back six months later. During his rookie season, he hit .231 with three homers and 12 RBIs in 44 games. Long became a feared slugger for their minor league affiliates during the 1952-54 seasons, but never got a second shot at the majors during that time. He hit 34 doubles and 33 homers for New Orleans in 1952, then hit smacked a total of 61 doubles and 58 homers for Hollywood of the Pacific Coast League during the 1953-54 seasons. He also had a combined total of 175 runs, 184 RBIs and 141 walks.
The Pirates gave Long his second chance in Pittsburgh in 1955 and he excelled. He hit .291 in 131 games, with 59 runs, 19 doubles, 16 homers, 79 RBIs, and he led the National League with 13 triples. He made his only All-Star appearance in 1956 when he slugged 27 homers and drove in 91 runs. From May 19th until May 28th, he homered in eight straight games, setting a still standing (since tied) record for consecutive games with a home run. Long struggled after the home run streak ended. He had a .411 average and a 1.288 OPS after play on May 28th. From May 29th through the end of the season, he had a .653 OPS in 114 games. He finished with an .812 OPS in 148 games that year. He was traded to the Chicago Cubs in early 1957 as part of a four-player deal that brought Gene Baker and Dee Fondy to the Pirates. Long would play in the majors until 1963, seeing time with the Cubs, Washington Senators, San Francisco Giants and New York Yankees after leaving Pittsburgh. After the trade in 1957, he hit .305 in 123 games, with 55 runs, 19 doubles, 21 homers and 62 RBIs.
In 1958, Long hit .271 in 142 games, with 68 runs, 26 doubles, 20 homers, 75 RBIs and a career high 66 walks. His production began to drop off in 1959, when he batted .237 in 110 games, with ten doubles, 14 homers and 37 RBIs. He had a limited bench role in 1960 after being sold to the Giants in April, then sold again to the Yankees in August. After batting .253 with six homers and 16 RBIs in 63 games during the season, he played against the Pirates in the 1960 World Series, going 1-for-3 in a pinch-hitting role. The Yankees lost him to the Senators in the December 1960 Expansion draft. He got to play full-time with Washington in 1961, where he hit .249 in 123 games, with 20 doubles, 17 homers and 49 RBIs. He began 1962 with the Senators, but the Yankees got him back in a trade mid-season and he won a World Series ring that year. He combined to hit .260 in 108 games that year, with 12 doubles, eight homers and 41 RBIs. He was released in 1963 after batting 16 times in 14 games. He played one season of minor league ball before retiring. Long finished his career with a .267 average, 384 runs, 135 doubles, 132 homers and 467 RBIs in 1,013 games. In his four seasons in Pittsburgh, he hit .272 with 44 homers and 176 RBIs in 296 games. During the 1958 season, he played two games at catcher, making him one of the last lefty catchers in MLB history to this day. Just Mike Squires (1980 Chicago White Sox) and Benny Distefano of the 1989 Pirates have been lefty catchers since then.
Glenn Wright, shortstop for the Pirates from 1924 until 1928. He had played three seasons of minor league ball before the Pirates purchased his contract from the Kansas City Blues of the Double-A American Association. Wright hit 22 homers during the 1921 season at 20 years old, spending most of the year in the Class-D Southwestern League playing for a team called the Independence Producers. He saw some brief time with Kansas City that year, making a jump over three levels of the minors to his new team. He did well there in 1922, hitting .299 in 142 games, with 40 extra-base hits. He followed that up with a .313 average in 153 games in 1923, collecting 58 extra-base hits. Right before the Pirates acquired him, the local Kansas City papers ran a story talking about Wright going up to the majors next year, saying that he took mean cuts at the plate, hitting the ball hard and far, and that he had a great arm and ran well. In particular, the story focused on the arm and on how he always played the cutoff man on throws from the outfield. There was a story in March of 1923 that Wright asked to remain in Kansas City for the 1923 season because he felt he wasn’t ready yet for the Major Leagues, so the team reportedly turned down a large offer from the Washington Senators to keep him one more year. However, the next month the Pirates were said to have acquired him for four players (plus cash reported to be no less than $40,000), with the understanding that he would remain in Kansas City for the entire season on option.
Wright had an outstanding rookie season in 1924 with the Pirates, finishing third in the National League with 111 RBIs, third with 18 triples, and he led the league with 616 at-bats. He also added 80 runs, 28 doubles and seven homers. On defense, he set a record for assists by a shortstop with 601, a total that has been topped only once since (Ozzie Smith in 1980). Wright would finish 11th in the National League MVP voting that season. His 4.0 dWAR that season ranks second all-time in Pirates history behind Jack Wilson, who put up a 4.1 mark in 2005. Wright’s season is tied for the 19th best all-time in baseball for defense. His second season was even better of offense than his first. He hit .308 and drove in 121 runs while scoring a career high 97 runs. He collected 60 extra-base hits (32 doubles, ten triples and 18 homers), led NL shortstops again in assists and this time finished fourth in the NL MVP voting. The Pirates went to the World Series that year and Wright struggled with a .185 average, but the Pirates still took the series in seven games. On May 7, 1925, he turned an unassisted triple play, just the sixth in MLB history at the time.
In 1926, Wright played just 119 games, missing some time in August after suffering an injury during a clubhouse scuffle. Prior to the injury he was hitting .324, but upon returning three weeks later, his average dropped down below .300, only coming back to .308 by going 6-for-8 in the last two games of the season. He finished the year with 73 runs, 15 doubles, 15 triples and 77 RBIs. Healthy for the entire 1927 season, he hit .281, with 78 runs, 26 doubles and nine homers. He drove in 105 runs, topping the century mark in RBIs for a third time in four years. He led all NL shortstops in games played, putouts and also errors, though he was still well above average defensively. The Pirates made the World Series, and once again Wright had his postseason troubles, hitting .154 with a run and two RBIs, as the Pirates lost in four games to the New York Yankees. Wright played just 108 games in 1928, missing some time with off-field problems and he was now in the manager’s doghouse. He hit .310 with 63 runs, 20 doubles, eight triples, eight homers and 66 RBIs. After the season, the Pirates traded him to the Brooklyn Robins/Dodgers in exchange for pitcher Jesse Petty and a backup infielder named Harry Riconda. It was an awful return for a star shortstop, but it wouldn’t go as poorly as it could have for the Pirates.
Wright would be injured almost all of 1929, as he was relegated to a pinch-hitting role when he was able to play during the first half of the year. He batted just 30 times total in 24 games, then had surgery on his ailing arm that caused him to miss the rest of the season. He came back healthy in 1930 to hit .321 with 83 runs, 28 doubles, 12 triples, 22 homers and 126 RBIs in 135 games, though the arm injury limited his value on defense. That injury would effectively end his days as a star shortstop, and multiple ailments/injuries limited his effectiveness after 1930. He posted a .284 average and a .772 OPS in 1931 in 77 games and even got some mild MVP support, but he saw his value on defense drop along with his hitting. In 1932, Wright had a .732 OPS in 127 games, which was his last productive year in the majors at age 31. He hit .274 that year, with 50 runs, 31 doubles, 11 homers and 60 RBIs. He batted .235 with one homer in 71 games for the Dodgers/Robins in 1933, then finished his big league career with nine games for the 1935 Chicago White Sox. He spent the 1934 season back in the American Association with Kansas City. He was a career .294 hitter with 584 runs, 203 doubles, 76 triples, 94 homers and 723 RBIs in 1,119 games. Wright was done as a big league player in 1935, but he continued playing in the minors until 1939, the last three years as a player-manager. He also managed in the minors in 1946 and 1955, and he scouted for a long time for the Boston Red Sox. With the Pirates, he hit .298 in 676 games, with 391 runs, 226 extra-base hits, and 480 RBIs. Despite his arm injury costing him some of his defensive abilities, he finished with 13.5 dWAR in his career. His 9.1 dWAR with the Pirates is 13th best all-time for the franchise. His actual first name is Forest, but he went by his middle name.
