Saturday is going to be a special day for the Pittsburgh Pirates organization, the players, the coaches and the fans.
Barry Bonds, Jim Leyland and Manny Sanguillen will be immortalized in Pirates history as the representatives of the 2024 Pirates Hall of Fame class, and each had, and still have, their own unique impact on the Pirates organization.
Let’s take a look at the impact the trio has had on the Pirates and why Saturday will be such an important day.
Jim Leyland
Of the three gentleman getting inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame on Saturday, only one is in Cooperstown, and that’s Jim Leyland, who was inducted in the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame earlier this year.
Leyland, a Toledo, Ohio native, is highly regarded as one of the best managers in Pirates history and well, MLB history, as he ranks third in victories among all Pirates managers, trailing only Fred Clarke and Danny Murtaugh. Leyland ranks 18th all-time among managers in wins.
Many Pirates fans will usually point to the success Leyland had in the early 90s, when he won Manager of the Year in 1990 and 1992 and led the Pirates to three consecutive East Division championships, the last time the Pirates won their division to this day.
1992 is usually a year Pirates fans grimace about when thinking about Sid Bream sliding into home plate to secure a NLCS Game 7 victory for the Braves, especially considering the Pirates would not have another winning season until 2013 after that play, but Leyland’s success as manager of the Pirates for 10 years from 1986-1996 is very hard to deny.
Take Tony La Russa for instance, who is one of the best managers to step into a dugout, and when speaking to Bob Nightengale of USA Today prior to Leyland’s Cooperstown speech, La Russa had nothing but praise for Leyland.
“When you weigh all the outstanding managers during my generation, I think Jim’s the best of all of us. You weren’t going to out-manage Jim.” – Tony La Russa
That is especially important from La Russa, considering La Russa gave Leyland his start in coaching at the MLB level with the Chicago White Sox as a third base coach in 1982. The rest is obviously history, as Leyland joined the Pirates four years later and although he never won the big one in Pittsburgh, he won with the Florida Marlins in 1997 and later managed Colorado Rockies and the Detroit Tigers and had his number retired by Detroit.
There is actually a quote I read quite often from Jim Leyland that gives me motivation for the things I love, liking writing on this site and hosting Locked On Pirates, and it’s a short quote, but has plenty of meaning.
“You’re not always going to be at your best, but it better be the best you’ve got that day.” – Jim Leyland
Jim Leyland deserves all the praise that goes his way, he was one of the most influential managers ever across MLB’s storied history, and his ovation on Saturday will surely be a strong one.
Barry Bonds
Barry Bonds ladies and gentleman, what isn’t there to say about him?
Bonds is one of the greatest baseball players to ever live, despite everything that comes with discussing his storied career.
In Pittsburgh, Bonds was one of the best Pirates players ever, winning the MVP award twice in 1990 and 1992 while being a runner-up in 1991, a year many will tell you he probably should have the award in that year also.
Bonds is also the only Pirates to hit 175 home runs and steal 200 bases and ranks fifth in homers all-time across Pirates history.
Of course, Bonds would depart the Pirates for the Bay when he headed to the San Francisco Giants, where many fans remember his infamous home run, number 756, that allowed him to surpass Henry “Hank” Aaron as the all-time home run leader in MLB history.
When asked what it means to get inducted into the Pirates Hall of Fame, Bonds kept it short, but also honorable.
“This is great. Pittsburgh is where my career started. That’s who drafted me, and I couldn’t have had a better manager, a better team and a better starting point. It was perfect.” – Barry Bonds
Bonds of course enters the Pirates Hall of Fame alongside Leyland, who of course had their differences when they were with the Pirates, but Bonds, along with Leyland, have nothing but great things to say about one another nowadays.
“We built a bond that… there’s no way it’s ever going to be broken.” – Barry Bonds on Jim Leyland
Although Bonds will likely never be immortalized in Cooperstown due to a steroids scandal that riddled throughout his time with San Francisco, seeing him get his flowers with Pittsburgh feels special, mainly due to the fact that he was one of the best to put on a black and gold uniform and gave Pirates fans many fond memories from the early 1990s to look back on.
Barry Bonds is a controversial star when it comes to baseball, but there won’t be anymore controversy as far as he where he stands with Pittsburgh this Saturday, and he deserves it.
Manny Sanguillen
If you’ve been to PNC Park, which I assume plenty of you reading have been, then you know all about Manny’s BBQ, the center field BBQ staple started by former Pirates catcher Manny Sanguillen, and I’ll tell you what, his food and well, Manny himself, are an experience in their own right.
Of these three inductees, Manny is the one I have the most attachment too, seeing as a young 11-year old, Manny took time out of his busy day to talk to a young kid who was at PNC Park for the first time, and although I couldn’t understand a word he was saying to me, and he likely couldn’t understood me, it still is one of my favorite moments I have ever had at a baseball game.
On top of having insanely good BBQ, Sanguillen is also one of the best to suit up for the Pirates, standing atop the best catchers to ever play for the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Debuting in 1967, the Panama native had to wait until 1969 to become the Pirates starting catcher, but after that, he quickly became a staple of many, many good Pirates teams.
Sanguillen was of course apart of the 1971 and 1979 World Series title teams, and his accolades as a catcher are hard to ignore, and in the 1448 games he appeared in, he recorded 1500 hits, 585 RBIs, 65 home runs and a .296/.326/.398/.724 slash line throughout his long, storied career.
Sanguillen’s happy demeanor is infectous, and that stems from his playing days to the present day, as its hard to never not smile when discussing baseball, life or anything with Sanguillen.
Notoriously, Sanguillen was best friends with Pirates great Roberto Clemente, and Clemente’s death hit hard for Sanguillen, who led a crew on a boat to try and recover Clemente’s body after his plane crashed, leading to his death.
“Yes, I remember we went out with a group of people. Neighbors, friends, all out on a boat. The waves were so high and people would jump in the water and swim down with their scuba gear 20-30 feet into the water. They helped me put on the gear and I jumped in and I swam down and when I got deep enough, I saw these massive sharks and I immediately came back up. We were out there for a long time. The current was so strong, you would’ve thought it was a tsunami. It was tough for all of us Latinos. One thing I’ll never forget is that Roberto was so afraid of flying. He would always tell me, ‘Manny, I have this feeling that when I fly, the plane is going to crash. And look, it’s terrible, but it’s what happened.” – Manny Sanguillen to the MLBPA
It breaks Sanguillen’s heart to this day that Clemente is no longer with us, but with Manny’s induction, he gets to join someone he considered a brother in the Pirates Hall of Fame this Saturday.
Steel City Pirates 