Franchise knowledge
Pittsburgh Pirates
Pittsburgh National League Central
The Pittsburgh Pirates are one of baseball’s oldest National League franchises — born as the Alleghenys in the 1880s, reborn as the Pirates after a roster raid, and forever tied to the smoke, steel, and bridge views of western Pennsylvania. Five World Series titles, a pair of immortal October moments, and a two-decade losing streak that tested even the most loyal fan base make Pittsburgh lore unlike any other club’s.
From Forbes Field’s ivy to Three Rivers’ concrete to PNC Park’s postcard skyline, Pirates baseball blends dead-ball royalty, Clemente’s conscience, and a small-market patience that keeps waiting for the next breakthrough. Below is a franchise overview: origins, eras, championships, legends, and the oddities that make black and gold feel like civic scripture.
When you are ready to test what you know, browse the full Pittsburgh Pirates quiz collection — including year-by-year looks at the 2023, 2024, and 2025 clubs.
Through the decades
Franchise Timeline
Scroll the milestones, then tap a year to read the story behind it.
1887
Pirates join the National League
The Alleghenys become a National League franchise and soon adopt the Pirates nickname — a river-city club entering the circuit that would define its next century.
Oct 16, 1909
1909 World Series champions
Honus Wagner and the Pirates beat Detroit in Forbes Field’s first season for the franchise’s inaugural World Series title — dead-ball baseball at its Pittsburgh peak.
Oct 13, 1960
Mazeroski ends the Series
Bill Mazeroski homers off Ralph Terry in Game 7 at Forbes Field — the first walk-off homer to end a World Series, beating the Yankees and giving Pittsburgh its most immortal October moment.
Oct 17, 1971
1971 World Series champions
Roberto Clemente wins World Series MVP as Pittsburgh beats Baltimore in seven games — the first night World Series game in history and Clemente’s crowning October.
Sep 30, 1972
Clemente’s 3,000th hit
Clemente doubles off Jon Matlack for his 3,000th career hit at Three Rivers Stadium — the final milestone of a career that ended tragically months later.
Dec 31, 1972
Clemente dies on relief flight
Clemente perishes when his plane crashes en route to deliver aid to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Pittsburgh mourns its hero; Major League Baseball later retires No. 21 league-wide.
Oct 17, 1979
We Are Family win it all
Willie Stargell and the 1979 Pirates beat Baltimore in seven games for the franchise’s most recent championship — Sister Sledge on the speakers, stars on the caps, a parade on the Point.
Oct 14, 1992
Sid Bream slide ends NLCS
Francisco Cabrera’s pinch single and Sid Bream’s slide beat Atlanta in Game 7 of the NLCS — the third straight Pittsburgh pennant race to end one round short of the World Series.
Apr 9, 2001
PNC Park opens
The Pirates move from Three Rivers to a ballpark built for the Allegheny skyline — widely hailed as one of baseball’s most beautiful venues, even through years of empty Octobers.
Oct 1, 2013
Wild-card win over Cincinnati
Andrew McCutchen’s MVP season peaks with a one-game playoff victory over the Reds at PNC Park — Pittsburgh’s loudest night since the 1990s and the end of a 20-year losing streak.
Oct 1, 2024
Skenes wins Rookie of the Year
Paul Skenes’s debut season electrifies the rotation and takes home NL Rookie of the Year honors. Revisit his stat line and the rest of the roster in the 2024 Pirates quiz.
Oct 1, 2025
2025 Skenes Cy Young season
Skenes follows his rookie campaign with a dominant Cy Young Award season while the club continues its rebuild. Test your memory of the staff, lineup, and standings in the 2025 Pirates quiz.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Origins
Pittsburgh’s professional story begins in 1882 with the Alleghenys, an American Association club named for the Allegheny River neighborhood that anchored early industrial baseball. The team joined the National League in 1887 and soon picked up the Pirates nickname — legend says it came after Pittsburgh “pirated” a player from Philadelphia in the early 1890s, though the label stuck because it fit a city built on river commerce and hard edges.
Exposition Park and later Forbes Field in Oakland gave the franchise its first golden age. Honus Wagner, the Flying Dutchman, turned shortstop into art in the dead-ball era — all bat control, soft hands, and legs that made triples feel routine. Wagner’s 1909 World Series title in Forbes Field’s inaugural season remains the franchise’s first October crown and the benchmark every Pittsburgh star is measured against.
For half a century, Pirates baseball meant Wagner, Pie Traynor, the Waner brothers, and a smoky-city following that treated Oakland ballgames like neighborhood appointments. The club moved to Three Rivers Stadium in 1970, sharing the multipurpose bowl with the Steelers, before PNC Park returned the game to the river in 2001. The nickname survived every move — still Pirates, still black and gold, still convinced that the best view in baseball belongs to the Allegheny.
From Alleghenys to aces, the full arc is in the Pittsburgh Pirates quiz collection — or jump straight to a recent season with the 2023 Pirates quiz.
Pittsburgh Pirates
History
After Wagner’s 1909 title, Pittsburgh won again in 1925 behind Pie Traynor and a comeback World Series against Washington — then ran into Murderers’ Row in 1927. Decades of contention and drought followed until the 1960 club shocked the Yankees. Bill Mazeroski’s Game 7 walk-off homer at Forbes Field — the first to end a World Series — remains the most replayed moment in franchise history, a swing that still stops Pittsburgh in its tracks.
Roberto Clemente arrived in 1955 and became the moral and athletic center of modern Pirates baseball. His arm redefined right field, his pride carried Puerto Rico and Pittsburgh together, and his 1971 World Series MVP performance crowned a generation. Clemente collected his 3,000th hit in 1972 and died on New Year’s Eve that year on a relief flight to earthquake-stricken Nicaragua — a loss that turned No. 21 into something closer to sainthood than jersey retirement.
The 1979 “We Are Family” club, with Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, and a raucous dugout that sang Sister Sledge, beat Baltimore in seven games for the franchise’s most recent championship. Stargell shared NL MVP honors with Keith Hernandez and carried the room with stars on his cap and homers when it mattered. Pittsburgh reached three straight NLCS from 1990 through 1992 — losing the last on Francisco Cabrera’s pinch single for Atlanta, a play still called the Sid Bream slide in both cities.
What followed was baseball’s longest modern losing streak: 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 through 2012, a stretch that made PNC Park’s beauty feel cruel. Andrew McCutchen’s 2013 MVP and a wild-card win over Cincinnati snapped the drought and brought back-to-back playoff trips in 2014–15 before another rebuild. The 2020s turned toward pitching — Paul Skenes’s arrival, Mitch Keller’s development, and a farm system that finally gave Pittsburgh something to dream on again.
Recent rosters and results are covered in the 2023 Pirates quiz — Derek Shelton’s third-place surprise — the 2024 Pirates quiz, when Skenes won Rookie of the Year, and the 2025 Pirates quiz, which captures Skenes’s Cy Young season and the latest rebuild chapter.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Championships
The Pirates have won five World Series championships and nine National League pennants. In Pittsburgh, greatness is still measured against Clemente’s grace, Mazeroski’s swing, and the 1979 family photo — but the full ledger spans more than a century of National League survival.
- 1909 — Pirates 4, Detroit Tigers 3 (Wagner’s prime; Forbes Field’s first season)
- 1925 — Pirates 4, Washington Senators 3 (Traynor and Kiki Cuyler; comeback from 3–1 deficit)
- 1960 — Pirates 4, New York Yankees 3 (Mazeroski’s Game 7 walk-off; Hal Smith’s earlier homer)
- 1971 — Pirates 4, Baltimore Orioles 3 (Clemente World Series MVP; Steve Blass dominant in October)
- 1979 — Pirates 4, Baltimore Orioles 3 (We Are Family; Stargell and Parker; Game 7 in Baltimore)
Near-miss pennants include 1927 against the Yankees, three straight NLCS losses in 1990–92, and the 2013–15 wild-card era that ended too soon. The last title was 1979 — long enough that every modern contender is compared to Stargell’s stars. For who managed, who led in homers, and whether the club reached October, work through the 2024 and 2025 quizzes in the full collection.
Pittsburgh Pirates
Oddities
Pirates lore mixes dead-ball royalty, October miracles, and a ballpark so pretty it almost forgives the losing.
- The pirated player: The nickname may have started with a roster raid in the 1890s — whether apocryphal or not, Pittsburgh embraced the Pirates label and never looked back.
- Mazeroski’s walk-off: Game 7, 1960, Forbes Field — the first World Series-ending homer, a swing that still defines Pittsburgh October and trivia nights everywhere.
- Clemente at 3,000: His final hit came in 1972 at Three Rivers; weeks later he died on a mercy mission — No. 21 retired league-wide, not just in Pittsburgh.
- We Are Family: The 1979 club sang Sister Sledge, wore stars on Stargell’s cap, and beat Baltimore in seven — the last parade the city has seen.
- The Sid Bream slide: Francisco Cabrera’s pinch single and Bream’s slide beat Atlanta in the 1992 NLCS — three straight pennant races ended one play short.
- 20 years of losing: From 1993 through 2012, Pittsburgh posted the longest losing streak in modern MLB history — PNC Park opened in 2001 in the middle of it, gorgeous and empty in October.
- 2013 wild-card night: McCutchen’s MVP season peaked with a one-game playoff win over Cincinnati at PNC Park — the city’s loudest night in a generation.
- Skenes velocity: Paul Skenes’s fastball and slider combo made the 2024 Rookie of the Year race feel inevitable — see the 2024 Pirates quiz and 2025 Pirates quiz for his latest numbers.
The roster of memory
Notable Players
Legends, franchise faces, and the names every Pittsburgh Pirates fan should know.
Honus Wagner
Flying Dutchman
The dead-ball era’s greatest shortstop and the face on the most famous baseball card ever printed. Wagner’s bat control, defense, and base running powered Pittsburgh’s 1909 World Series title — and set a standard of excellence the franchise still cites a century later.
Roberto Clemente
1971 WS MVP
Right fielder of unmatched arm strength, humanitarian conscience, and Hall of Fame pride. Clemente’s 3,000th hit and 1971 World Series MVP season crown his legacy; his death on a relief flight in 1972 made No. 21 sacred across baseball.
Willie Stargell
1979 co-MVP
Pops — the heartbeat of the We Are Family club and the franchise’s last championship captain. Stargell’s stars, leadership, and October power made 1979 feel like a city-wide reunion, and his Hall of Fame plaque still anchors Pittsburgh lore.
Bill Mazeroski
1960 walk-off
Gold Glove second baseman whose defense rewrote the position — and whose Game 7 homer against the Yankees in 1960 remains the most famous swing in Pirates history. Mazeroski’s walk-off was the first to end a World Series.
Pie Traynor
1925 champion
Franchise anchor of the 1920s and the Hall of Fame third baseman who helped Pittsburgh win the 1925 World Series. Traynor bridged the Wagner era to the Waner years and remains the standard for Pittsburgh corner infield excellence.
Dave Parker
The Cobra
Two-time batting champion and the swaggering outfield star of the 1979 champions. Parker’s arm, bat, and personality made the We Are Family clubhouse feel as dangerous as it was fun — a Hall of Fame career launched in black and gold.
Andrew McCutchen
2013 NL MVP
Homegrown face of the post-drought Pirates and 2013 MVP who led a wild-card win over Cincinnati at PNC Park. McCutchen’s speed, leadership, and smile made losing streaks feel temporary — revisit his return season in the 2023 Pirates quiz.
Paul Skenes
2024 NL ROY
Flamethrowing right-hander who arrived as the face of Pittsburgh’s rebuilt farm system. Skenes won Rookie of the Year in 2024 and followed with a Cy Young season in the 2025 Pirates quiz — the ace the city has waited for since McCutchen’s prime.