Pittsburgh Pirates.

Date of birth: April 30, 1949 Jefferson City, TN

Date of death: April 11, 2026 (76)

High School:  Bearden High School (Knoxville, TN)

College: University of Tennessee

Nickname: Scrap Iron. What a nickname in the Steel city.

First Impression; If anyone looked the “Pirate” part it was Phil Garner. If he wore the head rags these guys wear today he would totally be a Pirate they could have made a logo out of.

Of these two pirates logos, the first is Ok, its kind of mean but something about it does not hit with me. The second, yeah thank goodness they put that one to pasture, geez.

I asked AI to make the left one tougher and the right one less drunk guy with a caved in face.

It doesnt matter because nobody, and I mean NOBODY beats ole, I spent 20 minutes looking but could find nothing other than Pirate Guy, who should have a better name. Let’s unofficially name him now, what about Forge Gritsburgh? It is better than Jolly Roger which could be another.

He is quite happy, that is because he was created at a time when the Pirates did a lot of winning.

Era	Seasons	Wins	Losses	Win %	W–L Diff
1934–1957 SCRIBBLE MAN	24	1,625	1,762	.480	–137
1958–1967 SCRUFF CITY	10	842	745	.530	+97
1968–1986 HANDSOME DAN	19	1,567	1,451	.519	+116
1987–1996 FROZEN FOOD ICON	10	787	765	.507	+22
1997–2013 HOUSEMAID	17	1,131	1,541	.423	–410

*logos from SportsLogos.Net, thank you.

Career stats player: Scrap Iron would be proud of that analysis. 

And onto his prowess on the field, he was a three time All-Star who won a ring with the 1979 Pirates.  He hit .260 with 109 homers over 16 years mostly with the Pirates, Astros and A’s.  Before the 1977 season, the A’s dealt Garner, Chris Batton, and Tommy Helms to the Pittsburgh Pirates for Tony Armas, Rick Langford, Doug Bair, Dave Giusti, Doc Medich, and Mitchell Page.

A six for 3 deal.  Maybe the A’s were trying to cash in on Garner’s ’76 All-Star season at age 27.

Garner would play 664 games with Pittsburgh.  Batton never played again (he had 4 career IP). Tommy Helms played in 77 games.

For the A’s Armas would play 694 games and hit 111 homers. Langford would pitch 10 years for Oakland with a 73-105 record. Doug Bair pitched 128 innings for Oakland  going 6-9 out of the pen.  Doc Medich was 10-6 in one season.  Mitchell Page made his debut after the trade and was 2^nd in the Rookie of the Year voting to Eddie Murray.  He would play 657 games with Oakland  hitting .266 with 72 homers.  Giusti never pitched for Oakland, he was sold to the Cubs, they were like we got way too many guys in this trade, lets make some dough.

I think the A’s won that one, despite Garner being a fixture in Pittsburgh, and he got a ring.

All Time Stat: Lets do a block set, see what that Garners. For players with these stats 1500+H, 200+SB and 110 or fewer HR. There were 128 players in history that were in those parameters. The likes of Rod Carew and all guys who player before World War II. Of them Garner’s 780 runs ranks 104th out of 128.

Career stats manager: 985-1054. Had Brad Lidge been a little more dialed in, he might have gotten 1000 wins. Or any other closer. CJ Nitkowski, or Doug Brocail or Doug Henry or Mike Fetters.

In 1992 Tom and the Trebelhorn’s hit the road and Scrap Iron docked in Milwaukee. He was hired by former teammate Sal Bando. He had immediate success finishing in 2nd.

However, it would be the last time until 2007 that the team would finish above .500.^[33] Garner would lead them to more than 80 losses in four of his six full seasons spent with the team,^[1] which saw icons such as Paul Molitor and Robin Yount leave (the former in free agency and the latter due to retirement). He was fired in the midst of a 1999 season that saw them at 52–60 (Jim Lefebvre would replace him and go 22–27 to close out the year).*

Oh but Scrap Iron was quickly snatched up by the Tigers who else, who canned Larry Parrish, and what followed were two medocre seasons losing 83 and 96 games and then before he could go 0-7, he was fired after 6 games in 2002, to make way for the Luis Pujols and Alan Trammell eras.

Then he was heard uttering, “Dear God. We humbly pray that you will guide and protect us as we gird up our loins to take the field of battle lead us.” as he went back to Texas. Houston that is. He took over for ole ‘one M’ Jimy Williams after a 44-44 start. And they responded by going 48-26 winning the Wild Card on the last day of the season. That year they won their first postseason series by beating the Braves and then had a 3-2 lead on the Cardinals and lost the last two games. Those were those balls that Pujols hit that haven’t landed.

Not phased, well initially they were phased, because they stumbled to a 15-30 start but they again turned on the jets, or the Rockets or sumthin’ and would again make the Wild Card. This time they would get their revenge on the Cardinals beating them to get to the World Series. They would be swept by the White Sox. I was at game 1 of that World Series but this time seeing Scrap Iron in person, I was rooting against him.

They were 1 game over 500 the next season and after a 58-73 the Astros decided old iron was too rusty and let him go.

Fun Fact: He was manager when interleague play began. I attended the first Brewers Cubs game June 13, 1997. A 4–2 Brewers victory at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Back then I had been forced into defense mode being a 100% full time Sox fan. I wore my Brewers gear for the game. They would play their first division game the next season as the Brewers left the American League after 1997.

Ever a Future Star?  Pretty good one here, 1975 Topps Rookie Infielders with Keith Hernandez, Tom Veryzer and Bob Sheldon.

Rookie or final card? Nope, and Mr. Mustache would have other cards (some clean shaven, “Boo, you AstroTurf floor.”) and manager cards in 1992-1993, 2001-2002, as well as 2005-2007.

Hall of Fame? Number retired? Houston Astros Hall of Fame

Links to stories including Phil Garner.

*wikipedia