Bonds, Leyland, Sanguillen. These are the three new inductees into the Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame. I didn’t even know there WAS a Pirates HoF, but this is the third class.
Barry Bonds (Pirates 1986-1992) won the National League MVP award in 1990 and 1992. He’s the only Pirate with at least 175 homers and 200 stolen bases. He also had three Gold Gloves while with the team. Whatever you might think of Bonds in the years after 1998, he’s certainly worthy of this honor.
(BTW, I am STILL pained by this play. In the 1992 NLCS, Gm 7 PIT@ATL: former Pirate Sid Bream slides home in the ninth, beating Barry Bonds’ throw home and handing the Braves the pennant. The rest of his career (1993-2007), Bonds played for San Francisco Giants.)
Jim Leyland (Pirates manager, 1986-1996) ranks third in team history with 851 wins. He led the Pirates to three straight division championships from 1990-1992. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2024.
Manny Sanguillen (Pirates 1967, 1969-1976, 1978-1980)was a two-time World Series champion with the Pirates (1971 and 1979) when I was rooting for the team. He was a three-time All-Star (1971, 1972 and 1975). He finished third in the N.L. batting race in 1970, with batted .325 in 1970. Manny caught more games than all but two Pirates. According to StatMuse, his lifetime batting average of .298 is the tenth-highest for catchers in MLB history.
Previous years
2023’s Pirates HoF inductees were relief pitchers Elroy Face and Kent Tekulve, starting pitcher Bob Friend, and shortstop Dick Groat. Tekulve was on the 1979 World Series-winning team, while the other three were world champions in 1960. I remember all of them.
I was largely familiar with the inaugural class, which includes Jack Beckley, Honus Wagner, Fred Clarke, Max Carey, Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner, Oscar Charleston, Pie Traynor, Ray Brown, Arky Vaughan, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Ralph Kiner, Bill Mazeroski, Danny Murtaugh, Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Steve Blass, and Dave Parker. Okay, I didn’t know Beckley, but he played in the 19th century.
I should note that the Pirates Hall of Fame doesn’t just include Pittsburgh Pirates but members of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords of the Negro Leagues, where Charleston, Gibson, Leonard, and Brown played.
All those in that inaugural class except Murtaugh, Blass, and Parker are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. None in the subsequent classes except Leyland are, though Bonds is not in because of PEDs that he was not taking when he was in the Steel City.
Thus concludes Talk Like a Pirate Day.
He couldn’t throw out Sid Bream.
Cabrera had NO idea where the ball was when he swung, and I will die on that hill.
All season in 1992 the Pirates rode their “bullpen by committee”, and boy, did they pay a price for THAT decision.
I think Game 7 of the 92 NLCS looms even larger in my head than “Wide Right”.