Late in spring training in 1991, the Pittsburgh Pirates traded Tommy Shields to the Baltimore Orioles for fellow infielder Tony Beasley.
“He’s a great guy,” said Shields, who turned 56 on August 14th. “He’s had a battle with cancer (in 2016), which looks like he has beaten, which is great.”
Those two baseball lifers from Virginia would be connected after their playing days as coaches in the Washington Nationals’ system.
Fredericksburg native Beasley was a coach for the Nationals under the late Frank Robinson in 2006 and was also a manager in the minor-league system before joining the coaching staff of the Texas Rangers.