Managed by Pie Traynor, the Pittsburgh Pirates signed  16  year old Cot Deal two years before his high school graduation.
As a sixteen-year-old, Deal was invited by the Pittsburgh Pirates to spend in week in Pittsburgh. By then, the club was managed by Pie Traynor, who gave Deal his first baseball tryout. After signing with Pittsburgh two years before his high school graduation, he spent 1940 with the Hutchinson, Kansas team of the Western Association, hitting a .312 average while splitting time between the outfield and third base. 
