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This Date in Pirates History: January 28

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Six former Pittsburgh Pirates born on this date and we start with Emil Yde, a starting pitcher for the 1925 Pirates team that won the World Series. He spent three seasons in the minors before making his debut with the 1924 Pirates. Yde had gone 28-12 in 47 games and 339 innings for the Oklahoma City Indians of the Western League in 1923. The Pirates acquired him for minor league outfielder Ed Hock in December 1923. They would use him sparingly to start the season but after pitching a shutout in his second start on May 31st he began to see more time. He would go on to have a terrific rookie season, finishing with a 16-3, 2.83 record in 33 games, 22 as a starter. He led the NL in shutouts with four and in winning percentage with a .842 mark. In 1925 he wasn’t quite as good as his rookie season but the Pirates were a better team. He went 17-9, 4.13 in 207 innings as Pittsburgh won the NL by 8.5 games over the Giants. In the World Series, Yde pitched poorly in his only start, losing game four after failing to make it out of the third inning.

Yde began his career with eight straight wins

Yde split his 1926 season between starting and the bullpen, pitching 37 total games, 22 as a starter. He went 8-7, 3.65 in 187.1 innings, in what would be his last full season with the team. The 1927 Pirates would make it back to the World Series but Yde contributed very little to that team, pitching just nine games spread out through the year. He had a 9.71 ERA in 29.2 innings. The Pirates traded him to a minor league team following the conclusion of the season. He pitched once more in the majors, throwing 29 games for the 1929 Detroit Tigers. Yde finished with exactly 100 minor league wins and his major league record is 49-25, 4.02 in 141 games.

Other former Pirates born on this date include:

Lyle Overbay (1977) first baseman for the 2011 Pirates. He signed with the Pirates as a free agent on December 14, 2010 after spending the previous five seasons with the Blue Jays. In 103 games for the Pirates he hit .227 with eight homers and 37 RBIs before being released in early August. He finished the season with the Diamondbacks, who resigned him for 2012. Overbay has a career average of .267 with 147 homers and 640 RBIs in 1466 games during his 13 season career.

Chris Peters (1972) lefty pitcher for the Pirates from 1996 until 2000. He was drafted late, going in the 37th round of the 1993 amateur draft but made it to the majors in just over three years. In 1995 he went 13-5, 2.33 in 26 starts split between high-A and AA. He began 1996 back in AA, making 14 starts before being promoted to AAA where he dominated in four starts and earned a big league promotion. In 16 games that rookie year for the Pirates he went 2-4, 5.63, making ten starts. He began 1997 back in AAA, was called up in late April, sent back down in late June for two months before returning in late August to finish the season. The Pirates used him in the bullpen all year where he went 2-2, 4.58 in 31 games and 37.1 innings. The 1998 season was the only full year he spent in the majors. He pitched 39 games, making 21 starts and he went 8-10, 3.47 in 148 innings. He struggled in 1999, posting a 6.59 ERA in his 19 games, 11 as a starter and he would spend half the year in the minors. Chris pitched 18 games in relief for the Pirates in 2000 before the team released him in December. He would play for four more organizations, only appearing in the majors one more time, with the Expos in 2001. He pitched in the minors until 2003 and finished with a 19-25, 4.81 record in 136 major league games.

Carlos Bernier (1927) outfielder for the 1953 Pirates. He spent five seasons in the minors before he got his first shot at the big leagues after hitting .301 in 177 games with 65 steals in 1952 for Hollywood of the Pacific Coast League. He would play 105 games for the Pirates in 1953 in what would end up being his only season in the majors. He hit .213 but drew 51 walks and hit eight triples, one more than the amount of doubles he hit. He stole 15 bases but also led the league in caught stealing, getting thrown out 14 times. He split his time between all three outfield positions, playing center field the most often. He would play another 11 seasons in the minors before retiring, getting into exactly 2200 games and accumulating 2291 hits, a .298 average and 200 homers. When he made his major league debut, he was just the fifth player even in the majors to be born in Puerto Rico

Bob Muncrief (1916) pitcher for the 1949 Pirates. He was already ten seasons into his career when the Pirates purchased him for $20,000 following the 1948 season. He won a career high 13 games in four different seasons prior to joining the Pirates, the last time coming in 1945 which was the third straight season he accomplished that feat. In 1948 he went 5-4, 3.98 in 21 games for an Indians team that won the World Series. Muncrief did not fare well with the Pirates, making four starts before he was moved to the bullpen where he would end up allowing eight runs over six appearances and 3.2 innings. After his last appearance he was put on waivers and immediately picked up by the Chicago Cubs, where he finished the season. He pitched all of the next six seasons in the minors except for a two game stint with the Yankees in 1951. Bob finished his major league career with an 80-82, 3.80 record in 288 games.

Alf Anderson (1914) shortstop for the Pirates in 1941-42 and 1946. Anderson was in his third season of minor league ball when the Pirates traded longtime infielder Pep Young to the Atlanta Crackers of the Southern Association on September 30,1940 in exchange for his contract. He had hit .351 with 41 doubles in 148 games that 1940 season. He started six of the first 11 games of the 1941 season at shortstop for the Pirates then went 47 games straight without a start before taking over the starting job at SS for the rest of the year. He played a total of 70 games, hitting .215 with 32 runs scored and his defense was below average, making 19 errors in 58 games at shortstop. He was the backup shortstop for most of 1942 getting a majority of his games in early June and the entire month of September. In 54 games he hit .271 and drew 18 walks, four more than the previous season in 53 less plate appearances. He spent the next three seasons, first working a wartime job in the states, then joining the Navy. He returned to the Pirates in 1946 but only appeared as a pinch hitter twice before they released him to the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League where he finished his playing career that season.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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