3/25: Bell Deal Finished; Maz Out; Vanimal Joins Up; HBD Frank, Jimmy & Lee

Saturday, March 25, 2017 4:09

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1868 – RHP Frank Dwyer was born in Lee, Massachusetts. Frank put together a solid 12-year MLB career with 176 wins and a 3.8 ERA. Unfortunately, his 1890 stop in Pittsburgh when he was 22-years-old was the lowlight of those dozen campaigns. He went 3-6-1/6.23 on the hill, although he did play a handful of games in the pasture and hit .264 for the Pirates. After he retired, he managed in Detroit for a year and umpired briefly in both leagues.

Jimmy Sebring 2003 Fleer Fall Classic

1882 – RF Jimmy Sebring was born in Liberty, PA, near Williamsport. He played for Pittsburgh from 1902-04, hitting .261, and in 1903 became the first MLB player to homer in a World Series game when he legged out an inside-the-park four-bagger against Cy Young while hitting .333 against Boston in that first WS. The talented OF’er (he was an early “can’t miss” prospect) had a rift with the team over a couple of different incidents and was traded. He then played with a series of outlaw teams, sidetracking his promising career. Sebring was on the comeback trail when he passed away from kidney disease in 1910 at the age of 27.
1955 – OF Lee Mazzilli was born in New York City. Mazzilli spent four of his 14 seasons as a Pirate, playing fairly regularly for his first two years (1983-’86) and hitting .244 overall. In 1986, the Mets were rumored to have offered Ray Knight (who was nearing the end of his career) for Mazzilli, but the Pirates turned them down. Instead, the Bucs released Lee in July when he was hitting just .226 and he joined NY for free.
1965 – Camp isn’t all fun and games. Bill Mazeroski broke a bone in his right foot and was out of the Bucco lineup until May. He came back to hit .271 and earned another Golden Glove for his trophy case. It was the only time between 1964-67 that he didn’t appear in every game, and Maz still played in 130 contests after his foot healed.

Maz proved human – 2013 Leaf Masterwork

1989 – The Pirates sent SS Felix Fermin and UT Denny Gonzalez to the Indians for SS Jay Bell to complete a PTBNL deal from November 28th, 1988. Bell manned the SS spot for eight years and earned an All-Star berth in 1993 for the Bucs. He returned to the team in 2013 as their batting coach before moving on to the Reds.
2014 – RHP Vance Worley was purchased from the Minnesota Twins. After going 1-5 with a 7.21 ERA in 2013, Vanimal started out at Indianapolis and following some tinkering with his arm angle, he was called up to start on June 15th to replace injured Francisco Liriano. He finished the campaign with an 8-4 record and 2.85 ERA. After a 4-6/4.02 line in 2015, he was released and went to Baltimore.

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