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On May 9, 2015, the Pirates became the first MLB team to turn a 4–5–4 triple play. The play occurred when the Cardinals' Yadier Molina lined out to Pittsburgh second baseman Neil Walker. Walker then threw to third baseman Jung Ho Kang to double off the Cardinals' Jhonny Peralta for the second out. Kang then threw the ball back to Walker, who was standing on second base for the final out after St. Louis's Jason Heyward froze between second and third.
Pinch-hitter Mark Smith's three-run walk-off home run in the bottom of the 10th inning sealed the victory and the no-hitter for the Pirates. After the Pirates moved to the National League Central in 1994, the teams face each other only in two series each year and the rivalry has diminished. However, many fans, especially older ones, retain their dislike for the other team, with regional differences between Eastern and Western Pennsylvania still fueling the rivalry. The Phillies and the Pirates remained together after the National League split into two divisions in 1969. During the period of two-division play (1969–1993), the two National League East division rivals won the two highest numbers of division championships, reigning almost exclusively as NL East champions in the 1970s and again in the early 1990s. The Pirates nine, the Phillies six; together, the two teams' 15 championships accounted for more than half of the 25 NL East championships during that span.
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During the 1953 season, the Pirates became the first team to permanently adopt batting helmets on both offense and defense. This was the mandate of general manager Branch Rickey, who also owned stock in the company producing the helmets. Under Rickey's orders, all Pirate players had to wear the helmets both at bat and in the field. The helmets became a permanent feature for all Pirate hitters, but within a few weeks the team began to abandon their use of helmets in the field, partly because of their awkward and heavy feel. Once the Pirates discarded the helmets on defense, the trend disappeared from the game. In 2014, Major League Baseball allowed pitchers to choose to wear a padded hat that aims to combine the added safety of a helmet with the comfort of a baseball cap.
Despite struggling in the 1880s and 1890s, the Pirates were among the best teams in baseball shortly after the turn of the 20th century. They won three consecutive NL titles from 1901 to 1903, played in the inaugural World Series in 1903 and won their first World Series in 1909 behind Honus Wagner. The Pirates took part in arguably the most famous World Series ending, winning the 1960 World Series against the New York Yankees on a walk-off home run by Bill Mazeroski, the only time that Game 7 of the World Series has ever ended with a home run. They also won the 1971 World Series, led by the talent of Roberto Clemente, and the 1979 World Series under the slogan "We Are Family", led by "Pops" Willie Stargell. After a run of regular-season success in the early 1990s, the Pirates struggled mightily over the following decades with 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 to 2012—the longest such streak in American professional sports history. From 1882 to 2021, the Pirates have an overall record of 10,625–10,547 (.502 winning 'percentage').
Pittsburgh Pirates 2017 Spring Training Schedule Unveiled
By the 1990s, the Pirates were threatening to leave Pittsburgh unless a new, baseball-only stadium was constructed. The Pirates played their final game at Three Rivers on October 1, 2000, and the stadium was demolished the following winter. The site is currently occupied by parking lots and Stage AE, although one of the stadium's entrance markers remains standing near Heinz Field. In 2012, members of the Society for American Baseball Research marked and painted the home plate and first base of the former stadium on the 40th Anniversary of Roberto Clemente's 3,000th hit. Since 2001, the Pirates have played their home games at PNC Park, located on the banks of the Allegheny River in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood.
While David Freese is still a plus defender at the position, his offense is nowhere near potent enough for him to warrant everyday playing time. Also, all other internal options are not good enough to platoon with Freese or play every day. Be it on the ice at PPG Paints Arena, on the gridiron at Heinz Field or within the picture-perfect confines of PNC Park, Pittsburgh is bathed in black and gold. And because even the most garish styles tend to go and come around again, the bumblebee yellow jerseys, striped black pants and pillbox-style hats of the 1970s made a recent return as the go-to Sunday throwbacks.
AL Central
Former Pirate players who have recently filled in as analysts include Matt Capps, Kevin Young, and Neil Walker. The Pirates broadcast the first ever baseball game over the radio on August 5, 1921. Harold Arlin, a foreman at Westinghouse, announced the game over KDKA from a box seat next to the first base dugout at Forbes Field. KDKA had received its broadcasting license only nine months before, becoming the first commercially licensed radio station in the world. Pirate games would be sporadically broadcast over the radio for the next decade; regular broadcasts began in the mid-1930s, with Rosey Rowswell becoming the voice of the Pirates in 1936. Except for a few years on WWSW in the late 1940s and early 1950s, the Pirates were on KDKA for 61 years.
Professional baseball in the Pittsburgh area began in 1876 with the organization of the Allegheny Base Ball Club, an independent (non-league) club based in a then-separate city called Allegheny City, across the Allegheny River from Pittsburgh. The team joined the minor league International Association in 1877, only to fold the following season. 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. At the time, William A. Nimick was club president and Horace Phillips manager. With salaries rising across baseball, the small-market Pirates struggled to keep pace with the sport and they posted a losing record for 20 consecutive seasons, a record among North American professional sports teams. Even the opening of a new stadium in 2001, PNC Park, did little to change the team's fortunes.
The Pirates drew a total of 103,762 fans to 15 spring training home dates at McKechnie Field in 2016, the second-highest season attendance figure behind the club-record 106,038 posted in 2015. Looking around the Pirate clubhouse, Adam Frazier, Max Moroff, and Sean Rodriguez are all capable of manning the hot corner as well. However, like Freese, none of these players are big enough offensive threats to play every day. This also contributed to the offensive woes the Pirates had at third base in 2017. Prior to the start of the 2017 season it appeared that third base would be a position of strength for the Pittsburgh Pirates. This was due to the Bucs having one of the National League’s best emerging power hitters in Jung Ho Kang as the team’s everyday third base, with longtime starter and former World Series MVP David Freese as his primary backup.
His .326 wOBA was the third lowest of his career, and his 1.6 fWAR was his lowest since 2013 and his third worst overall. First ever Major League Baseball game broadcast on the radio, a game between the Pirates and the host Philadelphia Phillies aired August 5, 1921, on KDKA Pittsburgh. The Pirates have had many uniforms and logo changes over the years, with the only consistency being the "P" on the team's cap.
Before the 1890 season, almost all of the Alleghenys' best players bolted to the Players' League's Pittsburgh Burghers. The Players' League collapsed after the season, and the players were allowed to go back to their old clubs. However, the Alleghenys also scooped up highly regarded second baseman Lou Bierbauer, who had previously played with the AA's Philadelphia Athletics. Although the Athletics had failed to include Bierbauer on their reserve list, they loudly protested the Alleghenys' move.
The 1909 American Tobacco Company card is one of the rarest and most expensive baseball cards in the world. The longest losing streak that the Pittsburgh Pirates had during the 2017 regular season was 7 games, which happened once during the season. The Pittsburgh Pirates finished the regular season with a run differential of -63. Based on their run differential and their pythagorean expectation, the Pirates could have been expected to have about 74.3 wins, or a record in the regular season.
The Pirates finished the month with a win–loss record of 11–13, fourth in the NL Central at 2.0 games out of first. April 7 – In their home opener against the Atlanta Braves, the Pirates defeated the Braves 5–4. The Pirates would go on to win all three games of the series to sweep the Braves. Please note that players may not be in the uniform of the correct team in these images. During the 2017 season Pirate third basemen ranked eighth in the National League in wOBA (.329), wRC+ , and strikeout rate (19.7 percent). There was also a lack of power at the position as the team ranked tenth in slugging percentage (.404) and thirteenth in ISO (.136).
The Pirates were among the best teams in baseball in the early 1900s, winning three consecutive National League pennants from 1901 to 1903 and participating in the first modern World Series ever played, which they lost to Boston. The Pirates returned to the World Series in 1909, defeating the Detroit Tigers for their first-ever world title. That year, the Pirates moved from Exposition Park to one of the first steel and concrete ballparks, Forbes Field.
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