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| The first game ever for the Pirates was on April
22, 1891, when they played the Chicago White Sox. The Pirates lost
that game 7-6. The game lasted 10 innings but the Pirates couldn't
hold.
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Retired Uniforms #1: Billy Meyer, Manager #4: Ralph Kiner, 1B #8: Willie Stargell, 1B #9: Bill Mazeroski, 2B #20: Pie Traynor, 3B #21: Reberto Clemente, OF #33: Honus Wagner, SS #40: Danny Murtaugh, Manager |
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History Of the Pirates The Pirates were a very successful team in the past. Professional Baseball began in 1876 in Pittsburgh. Pittsburgh became a big league city in 1882, when the Allegheny Baseball Club joined with 5 other teams to form the American Association. |
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| In 1891,
Pittsburgh signed one of the Players League stars, Loues Bierbauer, just
before the 1891 season and refused to surrender him to his former club,
the Philadelphia Athletics. The owner of the Philadelphia athletics
said " You've stolen one of our best players. You're no better than
the Pirates." The Pittsburgh Manager decided to not only keep
Louis, but keep the name as well. From that moment on, the team has
been known as the Pittsburgh
In 1900, four teams dropped out of the National League. The owner of one of those clubs, Barney Dreyfuss, bought interest in the Pirates and brought with him to Pittsburgh 14 players of his old team, including Hall- of- Famers Honus Wagner, Fred Clark, and Rude Waddell. After that was over, the Pirates captured three straight National League Titles in 1901, 1902, and 1903. Six years later. the Pirates won another National League Title and got a chance to play the Detroit Tigers in the World Series. The fans were excited about the match up between Ty Cobb and Honus Wagner. The real hero for the Pirates was a pitcher by the name of Babe Adams. Adams beat the tigers 3 times in the series with his curveball and won Pittsburgh's first world championship. In the early 1920's two fine infielders joined hitting stars Kiki Cuyler and Max Carey to give Pittsburgh one of the best offensive attacks in the National League. Together, they brought a league pennant and a world championship banner back to Pittsburgh, in 1925. In 1950, a man by the name of Branch Rickey took over the Pirates and started a rebuilding plan. He started to trade veterans for young ball players, like shortstop, Dick Groat, first baseman, Dick Stuart, out fielder, Bob Skinner, and relief pitcher, Elroy Face. Right before the 1955 season, Rickey "stole" a Puerto Rican star named Roberto Clemente from the Brooklyn Dodgers, It looked more than 5 year, but in 1960 all the pieces were put together. Then a fine fielding second baseman cam named Bill Mazeroski; who was also a clutch hitter. IN 1960, the Pirates faced- off against the Yankees in the World Series. The fans were excited because the last time the Pirates faced the Yankees in the World Series was 33 years ago where the Yankees swept the Pirates in 4 games. The series was a very strange series. The Pirates inched their way on beating the Yankees 3 out of 6 games. When the Yankees beat the Pirates though, they beat them bad. |
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The Yankees beat the Pirates 16-3, 10-0, and 12-0 for their three victories. Everything was riding on the 7th game. The Yankees has the lead 7-4 in the eighth inning. Then a bad hop grounder helped the Pirates score 5 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning to make the score 9-7. The Yankees soon wiped that out in the 9th, tying the score at 9 all. Mazeroski was the first Pittsburgh batter in the bottom of the ninth. He also became the last, smashing a Ralph Terry fastball over the left field wall for the series winning run. |
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| Pittsburgh's time at the top was
short. The next year the team fell to a disappointing 6th place and
remained in the middle of the league in standings for most of the
60's. But during the 1960's Roberto Clemente really shined. He
led the league in batting average four times during the1096's and missed
hitting more than .300 only once during the decade. He won 12 golden
gloves as a right fielder. Clemente finally got the respect he
deserved in the 1971 World Series, when the Pirates took on the Baltimore
Orioles. Clemente at least got one hit in each of the 7 games,
batted more than .400, and led the Pirates to another World
Championship. He also received the MVP for the series.
Clemente had one more great year in 1972 where he got his 3,000 hit.
After the season ended, and earthquake occurred in Nicaragua. In his
home of Puerto Rice, Clemente helped collect supplies and medicine to
deliever to the earthquake victims. He decided to go there
personally to make sure that the people who needed the medicine the most,
got it. While Roberto was flying to Nicarague, the plane crashed
into the sea and Clement was killed.
With Roberto gone the Pirates Manager asked Willie Stargell to be the team captain. Willie was a natural leader and a father figure and he got the nickname "Pops." Later in the year, Stargell gave the team a theme song, a disco tune called "We are Family." Stargell asked for the song to be played at all the home games. The beat inspired the Pirates to sweep Cincinnati Reds to reach a spot in the World Series. The series went for a 7 games again. In the last game, Pops Stargell had 4 hits including a homer and a double to win the series for Pittsburgh The team slowly dropped, but Pirates general manager Syd Thrift promoted two young outfielders named Barry Bonds and Bobby Bonilla. Thrift asked for fans patience until these young players developed. After an injury killed the 1989 season, the Pirates were back in 1990 and better than ever. Unfortunately the Pirates faced the unstoppable Reds in the playoffs. The Reds swept the pirates in 4 games. On the positive side, Bonds got the MVP for the National League, when he batted . 301, smacked 33 homers, stole 52 bases and drove in 114 runs. |
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In 1991, the Pirates blew a 3-2 lead to the Braves and lost the series because of a poor batting performance from Barry Bonds. In 1992, they were back. They were facing the Braves again and in the 7th game, Braves pinch hitter Francisco Cabrera hit a single, scoring two runs, and helped the Braves win the game. |  |
| By
the Pirates hiring new coaches and new player to rebuild for the future,
the manager was high on financial problems. But he continued hiring
players, and hopefully the team will be more competitive in the
future.
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