PITTSBURGH PIRATES

The Official History of the Pittsburgh Pirates | Baseball Almanac

Somewhere in the bowels of Forbes Field and Three Rivers Stadium, the Pittsburgh Pirates built an assembly line that created great hitters as efficiently as the nearby mills produced the sheets of steel that built the city. Since 1900, the Pirates have produced 25 batting champions and a parade of Hall of Famers — 36 in all that have worn the Pirate uniform at one time in their career.

The Pittsburgh Alleghenys joined the National League in 1887, playing and winning their first game 6-2 against the Chicago White Stockings. The nickname Pirates was hung on the club in 1891 after they were accused of hijacking a player under contract to the Philadelphia Athletics.

The Pirates stocked their roster with talent from surrounding Midwestern teams, most notably a somewhat bowl-legged shortstop named John Peter Wagner. Better known as Honus, he would spend the next 17 years in Pittsburgh and would be called by both teammates and opponents the best shortstop, and perhaps the best player, in the history of the National League. He would win eight batting titles; retire with 3,420 hits and a .328 lifetime average. Wagner would be one of the original five inductees into baseball's Hall of Fame.

At the turn of the 20th century, the new American League liberally raided National League teams for talent, but somehow never got around to luring away the better Pirate players. By keeping their roster intact, the Pirates became a preeminent franchise in the National League.

They opened the century by winning three consecutive pennants (1901-03). The 1902 team won 103 games and finished a mind-boggling 27 games ahead of second place Brooklyn. During these three seasons, Wagner hit .353, .330 and .355, while workhorse hurler Deacon Phillippe won 64 games and Hall of Famer Jack Chesbro won 22 and 28 games before leaving for New York in 1903.

The Pirates represented the National League in the first World Series (1903), a best of nine event against Boston. Phillippe defeated Cy Young in the first ever Fall Classic game, 7-3. Phillippe pitched five complete games in the Series and won three, but Boston won the championship in eight games.

In 1909, the Pirates moved into Forbes Field and fielded their first championship team. That unit won 110 games, with Wagner hitting .339 and the pitching staff recording a stellar team ERA of 2.07. They bested the Tigers four games to three in a World Series billed as a showdown between each league's best player - Pittsburgh's Wagner against Detroit's Ty Cobb. Wagner hit .333, Cobb only .231.

The Pirates began a slow decline in 1910, bottoming out in 1917 with a 51-103 record, a sad swan song to Wagner's career. The Pirates put their assembly line into overdrive in the early 1920's and produced an impressive litany of Hall of Fame hitters: Harold "Pie" Traynor (lifetime .320 during 16 years and voted the National League's greatest third baseman in baseball's 1969 Centennial poll); Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler (.321 in 18 seasons); Paul Waner (3,152 hits, .333 average and three batting titles during 20 years), his brother, Lloyd Waner (.316 during 19 years); Arky Vaughn (.318 in 16 seasons and one batting title) and Max Carey (2,665 hits and a .285 average in 17 seasons).

The Pirates played in two World Series in that decade, winning the 1925 pennant and their second world championship by defeating Washington in seven games. They pounded the great Walter Johnson for a 9-7 win in the decisive game. They finished on top two years later, but ran into the buzz saw that was the 1927 Yankees and lost four straight.

From 1928-1945 the franchise was middle of the pack, and a lot worse from 1946-57 when it managed only one winning season (1948) despite Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner slugging home runs at an unmatched pace. He won seven consecutive home run titles (1946-52).

The assembly line geared up again in the mid-1950's, churning out the first Latin superstar, Roberto Clemente (.317 in 18 years, 3,000 hits and four batting titles), shortstop Dick Groat (.286 during 12 years and one batting title) second baseman Bill Mazeroski (.260 during 17 years) and, in 1962, Willie Stargell (.282 and 475 homers and two home run titles during 22 seasons).

The Pirates smashed their way to the 1960 pennant and exacted revenge against the Yankees in one of the strangest Fall Classics ever. The Yanks won three games by a composite score of 38-3, but the Pirates won the other four close games, with Mazeroski's walk-off homer in the bottom of the ninth of Game Seven giving the Pirates their third World Championship.

The Pirates abandoned Forbes Field for Three Rivers Stadium in 1970 and two years later the team was dealt a tragic blow when Clemente was killed in a New Year's Eve 1972 plane crash attempting to deliver supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Undeterred, the assembly line was at it again in the early 1970's, surrounding Stargell with a great generation of hitters including Dave Parker (.290 during 19 seasons and two batting titles), Al Oliver (.303 in 18 years), Richie Zisk (.299 in his six years with the Pirates) and Richie Hebner (.277 and 121 home runs in his seven years with Pittsburgh). The Pirates also traded for Bill Madlock, already a two-time batting champion. He won two more titles while a Pirate and hit .297 during his seven year stint with them.

The Pirates dominated the newly formed National League Eastern Division, winning it five of six years (1970-71-72-74-75) and again in 1979. The 1971 and 1979 teams won world titles by defeating Baltimore both times in seven games.

After lean years in the 1980's, the Pirates' assembly line produced one of its most special talents in Barry Bonds, who went on to break Henry Aaron's career home run record as a member of the San Francisco Giants. In seven seasons with the Pirates, Bonds hit .276 and whacked 176 home runs. Also emerging was Bobby Bonilla (.284 during six years with Pittsburgh) and Andy Van Slyke (.284 and 117 home runs), via a trade with the Cardinals.

This edition of the Pirates won three consecutive division titles (1990-92) with Bonds hitting 92 home runs and driving in 333 runs during that span. They failed to advance to the World Series in any of those seasons, and when Bonilla and Bonds left for lucrative free agent contracts the Pirates took a severe nose dive and have yet to recover. In fact, they did not record a winning season from 1992 through 2010.

The Pirates moved into PNC Park in 2001, but somebody forgot to bring the assembly line. Maybe it was disassembled in the same cost-cutting maneuvers that drove away talent (Aramis Ramirez, Jason Kendall, Brian Giles), populated the roster with young and inexperienced players, alienated fans and turned the Pirates into one of the game's most forlorn franchises.

As ownership worked to restore the team's competitiveness and win back fans, it is left to the ghosts of Wagner, Traynor, Waner, Kiner, Clemente and Stargell to remind fans of the proud legacy that was the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Baseball Almanac Top Quote

"In the wettest, weirdest, and wildest game that fifty years of baseball have ever seen, the Pirates today proved their right to the mud-horse, twilight, and all other championships of the national game." - Sportswriter James Harrison on the 1925 World Series in the New York Times

Pittsburgh Pirates History

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Pittsburgh Pirates Franchise Facts

Pittsburgh Alleghenys Rosters (AA) | 1882 - 1886
  1882 1883 1884 1885 1886      
Pittsburgh Alleghenys Rosters (NL) | 1887 - 1890
            1887 1888 1889
1890                  
Pittsburgh Pirates Rosters | 1891 - Current
1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020 2021 2022 2023
Bold Seasons : Uniform Numbers Worn
Pittsburgh Alleghenys Schedules (AA) 1882 - 1886
  1882 1883 1884 1885 1886      
Pittsburgh Alleghenys Schedules (NL) | 1887 - 1890
            1887 1888 1889
1890                  
Pittsburgh Pirates Schedules | 1891 - Current
1891 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 1897 1898 1899
1900 1901 1902 1903 1904 1905 1906 1907 1908 1909
1910 1911 1912 1913 1914 1915 1916 1917 1918 1919
1920 1921 1922 1923 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929
1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939
1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949
1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959
1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969
1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979
1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989
1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999
2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
2020 2021 2022 2023
Bold Seasons : Box Scores Online
Pittsburgh Pirates 100 Win Seasons
Year Record Manager
1902 103-36 Fred Clarke
1909 110-42 Fred Clarke
Pittsburgh Pirates 100 Loss Seasons
Year Record Manager
1890 23-113 Guy Hecker
1917 51-103 Jim Callahan
" " Honus Wagner
" " Hugo Bezdek
1952 42-112 Billy Meyer
1953 50-104 Fred Haney
1954 53-101 Fred Haney
1985 57-104 Chuck Tanner
2001 62-100 Lloyd McClendon
2010 57-105 John Russell
2022 62-100 Derek Shelton
Pittsburgh Pirates No-Hitters
Name IP Date
Nick Maddox 9.0 09-20-1907
Cliff Chambers 9.0 05-06-1951
Bob Moose 9.0 09-20-1969
Dock Ellis 9.0 06-12-1970
John Candelaria 9.0 08-09-1976
Francisco Cordova 9.0 07-12-1997
Ricardo Rincon 1.0 ""
Bold = Perfect Game
Pittsburgh Pirates Cycle Hitters
Name Inn. Date
Fred Carroll 9.0 05-02-1887
Fred Clarke 9.0 07-23-1901
Fred Clarke 9.0 05-07-1903
Chief Wilson 9.0 07-03-1910
Honus Wagner 9.0 08-22-1912
Dave Robertson 9.0 08-30-1921
Pie Traynor 9.0 07-07-1923
Kiki Cuyler 9.0 06-04-1925
Max Carey 9.0 06-20-1925
Arky Vaughan 9.0 06-24-1933
Arky Vaughan 9.0 07-19-1939
Bob Elliott 9.0 07-15-1945
Bill Salkeld 9.0 08-04-1945
Wally Westlake 9.0 07-30-1948
Wally Westlake 9.0 06-14-1949
Ralph Kiner 9.0 06-25-1950
Gus Bell 9.0 06-04-1951
Willie Stargell 9.0 07-22-1964
Richie Zisk 9.0 06-09-1974
Mike Easler 9.0 06-12-1980
Gary Redus 9.0 08-25-1989
Jason Kendall 9.0 05-19-2000
Daryle Ward 9.0 05-26-2004
John Jaso 9.0 09-28-2016
Bold = Natural Cycle
Pittsburgh Pirates Cy Young Winners
Year Name Position
1960 Vern Law RHP
1990 Doug Drabek RHP
Pittsburgh Pirates MVP Winners
Year Name Position
1960 Dick Groat SS
1966 Roberto Clemente OF
1978 Dave Parker OF
1979 Willie Stargell 1B
1990 Barry Bonds OF
1992 Barry Bonds OF
2013 Andrew McCutchen OF
Pittsburgh Pirates Rookies of the Year
Year Name Position
2004 Jason Bay OF
Pittsburgh Pirates Retired Numbers
# Name Position
1 Billy Meyer M
4 Ralph Kiner OF
8 Willie Stargell 1B
9 Bill Mazeroski 2B
11 Paul Waner OF
20 Pie Traynor 3B
21 Roberto Clemente OF
33 Honus Wagner SS
40 Danny Murtaugh M
42 Jackie Robinson 2B
Pittsburgh Pirates Batting Champions
Year Name #
1900 Honus Wagner .381
1902 Ginger Beaumont .357
1903 Honus Wagner .355
1904 Honus Wagner .349
1906 Honus Wagner .339
1907 Honus Wagner .350
1908 Honus Wagner .354
1909 Honus Wagner .339
1911 Honus Wagner .334
1927 Paul Waner .380
1934 Paul Waner .362
1935 Arky Vaughan .385
1936 Paul Waner .373
1940 Debs Garms .355
1960 Dick Groat .325
1961 Roberto Clemente .351
1964 Roberto Clemente .339
1965 Roberto Clemente .329
1966 Matty Alou .342
1967 Roberto Clemente .357
1977 Dave Parker .338
1978 Dave Parker .334
1981 Bill Madlock .341
1983 Bill Madlock .323
2006 Freddy Sanchez .344
Pittsburgh Pirates ERA Champions
Year Name #
1900 Rube Waddell 2.37
1901 Jesse Tannehill 2.18
1903 Sam Leever 2.06
1926 Ray Kremer 2.61
1927 Ray Kremer 2.47
1935 Cy Blanton 2.59
1955 Bob Friend 2.84
1977 John Candelaria 2.34
Pittsburgh Pirates Home Run Champions
Year Name #
1902 Tommy Leach 6
1946 Ralph Kiner 23
1947 Ralph Kiner 51
1948 Ralph Kiner 40
1949 Ralph Kiner 54
1950 Ralph Kiner 47
1951 Ralph Kiner 42
1952 Ralph Kiner 37
1971 Willie Stargell 48
1973 Willie Stargell 44
2013 Pedro Alvarez 36
Pittsburgh Pirates Strikeout Champions
Year Name #
1900 Rube Waddell 130
1945 Preacher Roe 148
1964 Bob Veale 250
Pittsburgh Pirates Wild Cards
Year Record Manager
2013 94-68 Clint Hurdle
Pittsburgh Pirates East Division Titles
Year Record Manager
1970 89-73 Danny Murtaugh
1971 97-65 Danny Murtaugh
1972 96-59 Bill Virdon
1974 88-74 Danny Murtaugh
1975 92-69 Danny Murtaugh
1979 98-63 Chuck Tanner
1990 95-67 Jim Leyland
1991 98-64 Jim Leyland
1992 96-66 Jim Leyland
Pittsburgh Pirates N.L. Pennants
Year Record Manager
1901 90-49 Fred Clarke
1902 103-36 Fred Clarke
1903 91-49 Fred Clarke
1909 110-42 Fred Clarke
1925 95-58 Bill McKechnie
1927 94-60 Donie Bush
1960 95-59 Danny Murtaugh
1971 97-65 Danny Murtaugh
1979 98-64 Chuck Tanner
Pittsburgh Pirates World Championships
Year Opponent M.V.P.
1909 Detroit n/a
1925 Washington n/a
1960 New York Bobby Richardson
1971 Baltimore Roberto Clemente
1979 Baltimore Willie Stargell
Pittsburgh Alleghenys (AA) Statmaster
Includes Hitting, Pitching & Fielding Stats
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Pittsburgh Pirates Team Statistics Tool
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Pittsburgh Alleghenys Standings & Managers
Pittsburgh Pirates Attendance Analysis
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Pittsburgh Pirates Standings & Managers
Team-vs-Team Wins & Losses
Pittsburgh Pirates Franchise Facts At-A-Glance
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baseball almanac fast facts

When the franchise officially changed their name to the Pirates they played their first game on April 22, 1891, and lost to the Chicago Colts 7-6 at Exposition Park.

Pittsburgh Pirates World Series
1903WorldSeries
1909 World Series
1925 World Series
1927 World Series
1960 World Series
1971 World Series
1979 World Series

How did they become known as the "Pirates"? Harold Peterson in The Man Who Invented Baseball (1969) explained, "Its club retained the name for more than twenty years until - as a result of a freebooting career that saw them buy up most of the Columbus team in 1884, jump the American Association to take over the National League's Kansas City franchise in 1889, and raid the Philadelphia Athletics in 1891 - they began being called 'the Pirates' around the league."

Who do you believe was the greatest Pirate in history? Barry Bonds, Fred Clarke, Roberto Clemente, Roy Face, Deacon Phillippe, Pie Traynor, Willie Stargell, Honus Wagner, Lloyd Waner, or Paul Waner? Share your opinion on our baseball message boards today.