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 twenty-four batting champions and a parade of Hall of Famers — thirty-six 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 over 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 seventeen 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 three-thousand four-hundred twenty 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 straight pennants (1901-03). The 1902 team won one-hundred three games and finished a mind-boggling twenty-seven games ahead of second place Brooklyn. Over these three seasons, Wagner hit .353, .330 and .355, while workhorse hurler Deacon Phillippe won sixty-four games and Hall of Famer Jack Chesbro won twenty-two and twenty-eight games before leaving for New York in 1903.
The Pirates represented the National League in the very first World Series (1903), a best of nine affair 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 1907, the Pirates moved into Forbes Field, and two years later, they fielded their first World Championship team. The 1909 team won one-hundred ten games, with Wagner hitting .339 and the pitching staff recording a stellar team ERA of 2.07. They bested the Tigers five games to two in the World Series which was billed as a showdown between each league's best player - Pittsburgh's Wagner against Detroit's Ty Cobb. Wagner hit .333, Cobb only .231.
Pittsburgh Pirates History
