The following is a history of the Pittsburgh Pirates of Major League Baseball.
Franchise beginnings (1870s–1899) Early baseball in Pittsburgh and the American Association
An early mention of "base ball" in the region is found in an issue of the Pittsburgh Gazette from 1857. After the Civil War, baseball was sufficiently popular that the city fielded several amateur teams considered to be strong: the Enterprise, Xantha, and Olympic clubs. The teams often competed at Union Park in what was then known as Allegheny City, across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh.
Recognized professional baseball in the Pittsburgh area began in 1876, when organizers formed the Allegheny Base Ball Club, an independent (non-league) club, as the ownership group lost their bid in February to join the newly created National League. The now-pro Allegheny played their first game in April of that year. The team joined the minor league International Association in 1877 and posted a decent 13–6 record, featuring future Hall of Fame pitcher Pud Galvin. But the Allegheny was hit hard in 1878 by player defections and competition from other, better-established teams in Pittsburgh, and the club folded.
On October 15, 1881, Denny McKnight held a meeting at Pittsburgh's St. Clair Hotel to organize a new Allegheny club, which began play in 1882 as a founding member of the American Association (AA). The league was created to take on the established National League. Chartered as the Allegheny Base Ball Club of Pittsburgh,"Charter of Incorporation of Allegheny Base Ball Club of Pgh. Penna." 11 March 1882. Pennsylvania Department of State, Business Entity Search , entity number 6131816. Retrieved 28 March 2018. the team was listed as "Allegheny" in the newspapers, and on occasion the "Alleghenys" or "Alleghenies" in that era's custom of referring to a team by its pluralized city or club name. The team played its games at Exposition Park I & II, located between the present-day site of Heinz Field and the Pirates' current home, PNC Park, before persistent flooding forced a move in 1884 to higher ground at Union (Recreation) Park.
The Allegheny had limited success during their five years in the AA. A .500 inaugural season was followed by two inept campaigns, including a disastrous 1884 effort in which the Alleghenys went 30–78 and used five different managers. The next year's team, aided by the signing of many players from the disbanded Columbus Buckeyes, rebounded to a marginally winning record and a third-place finish in the league.
Following their best showing in the AA—an 80–57 record and a second-place finish—Pittsburgh became the first AA team to switch to the older National League in 1887. At the time, William A. Nimick was club president and Horace Phillips manager.
Early struggles in the National League
The Alleghenys were severely crippled during the 1890 season, when nearly all of their stars jumped to the Pittsburgh Burghers of the Players' League. With a decimated roster, the team experienced what is still the worst season in franchise history, going 23–113. The allegiances of Pittsburgh baseball fans also jumped to Players League, leading to trouble at the box office for the Alleghenys. The Alleghenys ended up playing their last 29 home games on the road, and finished the season with a total attendance of about 16,000 fans.
Fortunately for the Alleghenys, the Players' League collapsed after a single season and the players were allowed to return to their former teams. A reorganized Pittsburgh club, formed from a merger of the Alleghenys and the Burghers, recovered the services of several players who had jumped to the upstart league a year earlier.
The new owners also signed highly regarded second baseman Lou Bierbauer, who had previously played with the AA's Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics failed to include him on their reserve list, and Pittsburgh picked him up. Nonetheless, this led to loud protests by the Athletics, and in an official complaint, an AA official claimed Pittsburgh's actions were "piratical". This incident (which is discussed at some length in The Beer and Whisky League, by David Nemec, 1994) quickly accelerated into a schism between the leagues that contributed to the demise of the AA. Although the Pittsburgh club was never found guilty of wrongdoing, its allegedly "piratical" act gained it the occasional nickname "Pirates" starting in 1891. Within a few years, the nickname caught on with Pittsburgh newspapers. Additional nicknames for the team in the 1890s included the Patriots, the Alleghenies (sometimes shortened to Allies) and the Braves.The 1898 Pittsburgh Patriots Pittsburgh Baseball History, February 2, 2021. By the turn of the century, "Pirates" had become the most popular nickname, and was first acknowledged on the team's uniforms in 1912.
The team moved into the reconstructed Exposition Park, built on the site of the previous Exposition parks but now with a capacity of 10,000. The Pirates experience a modicum of success in the early 1890s, finishing just five games back of the pennant-winning Boston Beaneaters in 1893. The rest of the decade was more mediocre, with the club consistently placing in the bottom half of the league.
After the 1899 season, the Pirates made what is arguably the best player transaction in franchise history when they picked up nearly all of the star players from the Louisville Colonels. Louisville owner Barney Dreyfuss had been told that the Colonels were slated for elimination when the N.L. contracted from 12 to 8 teams. He secretly purchased a half-interest in the Pirates, then after the season sent nearly all of the Colonels' stars up the Ohio River to Pittsburgh. Since the transaction occurred before the Colonels officially folded, it was structured as a trade; the Pirates sent four relatively unknown players to Louisville. Despite their nickname, the Pirates at least waited until after the season to pull off this blockbuster trade. This is unlike what happened in 1899 to the Cleveland Spiders and, to a lesser extent, the Baltimore Orioles, who were also part of two-team ownerships. Dreyfuss later bought full control of the team and kept it until his death in 1932.
Success under the Dreyfuss family (1900–1950) NL dominance, a World Series, and a world title Bolstered by former Colonels shortstop and Pittsburgh native Honus Wagner, along with player/manager Fred Clarke, the Pirates completely dominated the National League, in part because they lost few star players to the rival American League. A .500 team in 1899, the Pirates immediately saw improvement in the new century, finishing with a 79–60 record in 1900 and just games behind the Brooklyn Superbas. The following season, the Pirates won their first National League title, and followed that up with pennants in 1902 and 1903.
Dreyfuss had taken a leading role amongst baseball owners and helped the National League broker peace with the upstart American League, recognizing both leagues as major leagues and instituting one set of rules. With Dreyfuss' 1903 squad well on its way to another NL pennant, he asked Henry Killilea, owner of the American League-leading Boston Americans, if he would be interested in scheduling a postseason series between the champions of each league. That series, recognized as the first modern World Series ever played, saw the Americans defeat the favored Pirates in eight games. Deacon Phillippe pitched five complete games, winning three of them, but Pittsburgh was plagued by injuries and a bad performance from Wagner, who batted only 6-for-27 (.222) in the Series and committed six errors.
The Pirates remained one of the premier teams in the National League through the first decade of the 1900s, never finishing lower than fourth (and then, only once), but could not get past the stronger Chicago Cubs or New York Giants. In 1908, the Pirates played in Pittsburgh for the first time, as the team's several parks had all been located in Allegheny City, which was a separate city until annexed by Pittsburgh in December 1907.DeValeria, Dennis and Jeanne Burke, Honus Wagner: A Biography. Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh Press, 1995, p.177
Partway through the 1909 season, the Bucs moved out of their longtime home at Exposition Park to the new Forbes Field in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood. The increasingly large crowds coming to see games overwhelmed the cramped, wooden Exposition Park, which was prone to flooding from the nearby Allegheny River. The new stadium could seat an additional 7,000 spectators compared to Exposition Park, and was constructed out of concrete and steel, a novel concept at the time. The site was initially labeled "Dreyfuss's Folly" due to its long distance—a 10-minute trolley ride—from downtown Pittsburgh, but the land around the park developed and criticisms were dropped.Gershman, Michael (1993). Diamonds: The Evolution of the Ballpark. Houghton Mifflin. p. 93. . In Forbes Field's inaugural year, the Pirates finished first in the National League with 110 wins (still a franchise record) and 42 losses. Pittsburgh faced off against the Detroit Tigers, who were making their third consecutive appearance in the World Series. The series was billed as a matchup between the major leagues' two superstars, Wagner and Ty Cobb. Both men would be among the five elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame's inaugural class, but Wagner was the better player in 1909. Atoning for his bum performance in 1903, he hit .333 to Cobb's .231 as the Pirates took the series in seven games, winning their first world title.
Return to relevance in the 1920s
The Pirates remained a competitive team in the early part of the 1910s but began to slip down the standings as their stars aged and declined. This downward trend led to a number of losing seasons and culminated in a disastrous 1917 campaign, in which the Bucs went 51–103 and Wagner retired. However, the seeds of the next competitive Pirates team had already been planted. Veteran outfielder Max Carey and young players Pie Traynor and Kiki Cuyler, along with a remarkably deep pitching staff, brought the Pirates back into the spotlight in the early 1920s. The Pirates recovered from a 3–1 deficit to win the 1925 World Series over the Washington Senators, and reached the 1927 World Series before being swept by the New York Yankees, who at that time had built the most dominant team in baseball. The 1927 season was the first for the sharp-hitting combination of brothers Lloyd Waner and Paul Waner, who along with shortstop Arky Vaughan ensured that the Pirates had plenty of Hall of Fame-caliber position players through the 1930s.
Benswanger takes over and the end of Dreyfuss family ownership Dreyfuss had groomed his son, Samuel, to take over the Pirates upon his death, but Samuel died of pneumonia at age 35 in 1931. When the elder Dreyfuss died the following year, ownership of the Pirates passed on to his widow, Florence. She prevailed upon her son-in-law, William Benswanger, to take over operations as team president. Benswanger inherited a team with a strong foundation that included the future hall of famer Waner brothers, Vaughan, and player/manager Traynor. Between 1932 and 1938 the Pirates consistently finished in the National League's first division, posting only one losing season during that span. But the club never returned to the World Series in that stretch, finishing in second place three times. In 1938, the Pirates entered September with a seven-game lead for the NL pennant, but were passed by the Cubs in the final week of the season, thanks to the infamous Homer in the Gloamin'.