The Pittsburgh Pirates is a team that plays in Major League Baseball (MLB). Based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the club won the World Series Championship five times. It is currently grouped in the Central Division of the National League, which they first joined in 1887. The team actually adopted the name Pirates when it took away second baseman Louis Bierbauer from the Philadelphia Athletics (now known as the Phillies), after the latter missed out of including him on the reserve list. The incident triggered a strong protest from the Athletics, which went on to call the move as “piratical”. That led Pittsburgh to call its ball club as Pirates on 1891.
The pinnacle of the Pittsburgh Pirates participation in Major League Baseball (MLB) culminated in five World Series Championships. The first trophy was won on 1909 World Series against the Detroit Tigers. The Pirates did it in seven games, behind the dazzling performance of Honus Wagner who had the league leading .339 batting average and 100 RBI, and Hall Of Fame (HOF) player Fred Clarke.
The second pennant came sixteen years later in 1925 against the defending champions Washington Senators. The Pirates overcame tremendous odds resulting from a 1-3 deficit before winning the next three games in another seven game series. The seventh game earned the distinction as possibly the worst condition ever for a World Series game, because it was played under a heavy downpour. The team was led by HOF players such as Kiki Cuyler, Max Carey, and Pie Traynor.
The Pirates again won the title in seven games during the 1960 World Series behind 1960 Most Valuable Player Dick Groat and HOF players Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski. The ball club was involved in yet another memorable seventh game of the World Series against the New York Yankees, when Bill Mazeroski hit a winning home run in the ninth inning that enabled Pittsburgh to capture their third trophy. Curiously, the Pirates were totally outplayed by the Yankees in almost all departments – score, hits, bats, home runs, and shutouts – in the entire series, but it still managed to emerge as the winner.
Their fourth trophy came in 1971 World Series when they were yet matched up against another defending champion in the Baltimore Orioles. As was always the case, the Pirates won in seven games with Game 4 at Pittsburgh becoming the first World Series game that was played during night time. The ball club was led by the pitching brilliance of Steve Blass, 1971 World Series MVP Roberto Clemente, and HOF players Bill Mazeroski and Willie Stargell.
The final and last pennant the Pirates had won happened eight years later in the 1979 World Series against the Baltimore Orioles once again. In yet another seven game series, Pittsburgh overcame a 1-3 won/lost deficit one more time. The team was led by 1979 World Series MVP Willie Stargell and HOF player Bert Blyleven. This time around, the Pirates earned the distinction of being the last team that win the seventh game of the World Series on the road. They were also became famous for adopting the hit song of Sister Sledge’s We Are Family as their theme song.
In its early years of existence, Pittsburgh adopted on a couple of nicknames before settling for the name of Pirates. As one of the founding members of the defunct American Association, the team was listed as Allegheny in the standings. Five years later, they changed it to Pittsburgh Alleghenys after they transferred to the National League in 1887. The incident with Philadelphia in 1891 inspired them to call the ball club as the Pirates. And the name stuck from that time on.
