Al McBean Stuck Like No One Before Him

And only a couple after him

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1967 Pirates Stickers Al McBean (#12) - Card of the Day

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In the history of Major League Baseball, there have been 14 players who were born in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The very first to make his way to the majors was outfielder Joe Christopher, who signed with the Pirates before the 1955 season and debuted for the Bucs on May 26, 1959.

A little over two years later, on July 2, 1961, Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh pulled starter Vern Law before the seventh inning of a 3-3 home game at Forbes Field against the Giants. In came rookie Al McBean to face San Francisco’s 5-6-7 hitters in his big league debut.

The outing didn’t go all that well for the 23-year-old right-hander.

Leadoff hitter Ed Bailey reached first on an error by second baseman Bill Mazeroski, and then Orlando Cepeda drove him home with a double. Next up, Jim Davenport dropped a sacrifice bunt to move Baby Bull to third, and then McBean uncorked a wild pitch to Eddie Bressoud — Cepeda scored.

Bressoud proceeded to single before Billy O’Dell popped out to catcher Don Leppert, who threw to first baseman Dick Stuart to catch Bressoud off the bag and end the inning.

Thus wrapped the first major league inning pitched by a Virgin Islander.

McBean would be back to start the eighth, giving up a single to Chuck Hiller before handling Harvey Kuenn’s grounder himself as Hiller moved to second. Murtaugh then brought in Harvey Haddix, and McBean’s day was done: 1.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 1 ER (Hiller eventually scored), 6.75 ERA. (And the Pirates went on to lose, 7-6.)

A rude welcome to the bigs, maybe, but cooler beans lay ahead for McBean.

In 26 additional appearances that summer, including two starts, the rookie posted an overall mark of 3-2 with a 3.75 ERA. Not a bad showing at all for a young pitcher breaking in with the defending World Series champions.

From there, McBean established himself as a regular part of Pittsburgh’s staff. Working mostly as a starter in 1962, he went 15-10 with a 3.70 ERA before moving to the bullpen in 1963. With an occasional start tossed in here and there, he appeared in 55, 62, 47, and 51 games over the next four seasons.

The last year in that run, 1967, turned out to be one of McBean’s best, as the 29-year-old went 7-4 with a 2.54 ERA. That same summer, Topps issued a couple of sticker test sets, and McBean was in the right place at the right time to land a pretty fab oddball issue.

The two 33-sticker sets focused on members of the Pirates and Red Sox separately, featuring each player as a floating head above Saturday-morning-cartoon lettering. The sets also included team logos and some rah-rah extras, like a Topps cartoon kid holding a pennant that says “Happiness is a Pirates win.” Distribution information is a bit sketchy, but the prevailing theory is that the stickers were issued only in the local markets — Pittsburgh and Boston, that is.

McBean made the Bucs cut at #12, and then cut back into the Pittsburgh rotation for 28 starts in 1968. The results weren’t quite as pretty as the preceding years had been, as he ended the season 9-12 with a 3.58 ERA.

That October, the newly-formed San Diego Padres selected McBean with the 50th overall pick in the expansion draft. He made one appearance, a start, for his new team, before they swapped him to the Dodgers in April of 1969 for Tommy Dean and Leon Everitt.

McBean went 2-6 with a 3.91 ERA in 31 relief appearances for Los Angeles that summer, then made one appearance early in 1970 before they released him in late April. The Pirates signed him as a free agent the next day but released him in May after he posted an 8.10 ERA in seven relief appearances.

At 32, McBean headed to the Phillies’ minor league system to finish out the season. He gave it another go there in 1971 before stepping away from pro ball.

It wouldn’t be until 2015 that Akeel Morris became the second pitcher born in the U.S. Virgin Islands to make it to the big leagues, though Elrod Hendricks did pitch 2.1 innings for the Orioles in 1978. The only member of the tiny fraternity (so far) is Jharel Cotton, who pitched in the majors from 2016 through 2022.

As for the founding member, Alvin O'Neal McBean — who passed away in January 2024 — was born on May 15, 1938.

Toy Cannon Born Too Soon?

McBean’s final major league appearance wrapped up with a 1-2-3 sixth inning of a 9-2 Pirates loss at the Astrodome on May 10, 1970. He set down Jesus Alou, Jim Wynn, and Tommy Davis before being lifted for pinch hitter Johnny Jeter in the seventh.

Wynn was at the end of his first run of big years before a downturn in 1971 and then another string of five All-Star-caliber seasons. But, even though he led the majors with 127 walks in 1976 and still flashed 20-homer potential, a dwindling batting average and high strikeout totals (for the time) spelled a quick exit from the game after a rough 1977.

Seems likely Wynn would have found several willing employers in today’s game, given his on-base skills and big-fly abilities. Could a bit of extra rope have pushed him into the Hall of Fame, or at least graced us with a card behind his non-career-capper 1977 Topps?

Worth pondering…which I did right here.

Elvis Has Entered the Building

Sticking with the “Last McBean Game” theme, Murtaugh brought in Chuck Hartenstein to pitch the seventh and eighth innings against the Astros. With the Bucs already down 7-1, Hartenstein padded the loss by giving up a couple more runs in his first frame.

The Pirates waived Hartenstein the next month, and he spent the rest of the season posting 8+ ERAs for both the Cardinals and Red Sox before entering baseball’s witness protection program. He wouldn’t surface in the majors again until the spring of 1977…and his last game was July 26.

Exactly three weeks later, on August 16, Elvis Presley “died” at Graceland.

The truth is out there…or maybe here.