Forbes Field
Forbes Field was a
Major League Baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It served as the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates of the
National League from mid-1909 to mid-1970. It was also the home field of the Homestead Grays of the
Negro Leagues from 1939 to 1948. The
Pittsburgh Steelers of the
NFL used the stadium from 1933 to 1963 when they moved to nearby Pitt Stadium.
Encyclopedia
Forbes Field was a
Major League Baseball park in the Oakland neighborhood of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It served as the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates of the
National League from mid-1909 to mid-1970. It was also the home field of the Homestead Grays of the
Negro Leagues from 1939 to 1948. The
Pittsburgh Steelers of the
NFL used the stadium from 1933 to 1963 when they moved to nearby Pitt Stadium.
The park was built under the direction of Pirates owner
Barney Dreyfuss. It was named for General John Forbes, and is perhaps the only major league baseball park named for an officer in the
French and Indian War. Forbes' contribution to the area was having captured
Fort Duquesne and renaming it Fort Pitt after British statesman
William Pitt the Elder. Pittsburgh derives its name from this fact.
Forbes Field replaced Exposition Park. It is the only home the Pirates have ever had that was not on the west bank of the
Allegheny River. It was in an attractive setting, with
Schenley Park and a large ravine beyond the outfield area. In its later years, the tall
Cathedral of Learning on the nearby
University of Pittsburgh campus afforded a breathtaking view of the ballpark, and it is from that tower that many "aerial" photos of the ballpark were taken.
On May 25 1935, the first
home run was hit over the double-deck grandstand in right field, which, coincidentally, was
Babe Ruth's final career home run. That was a target that
Willie Stargell would breach a number of times early in his career with the Bucs. However, the most famous homer hit in Forbes Field was undoubtedly
Bill Mazeroski's
walkoff home run to win the
1960 World Series for the Pirates.
The flagpole and a portion of the left and center field walls still exist near
Posvar Hall on the campus of the
University of Pittsburgh. A bronze plaque indicates the portion over which Mazeroski's 1960 blast traveled. Home plate is preserved under plexiglas in a hallway in Posvar Hall, which occupies much of the site; however, it is a few feet away from its original location, currently occupied by a women's restroom. The portions of the wall that still stand are also still covered in the same ivy that decorated its left and center field walls for decades, not as famously but in the same way as
Wrigley Field.
One artifact no longer there is the statue of
John Peter "Honus" Wagner, the first great Pirates star and one of the five original inductees to the
Baseball Hall of Fame. That statue, which shows Wagner at bat, completing his swing, was moved to the entrance to
Three Rivers Stadium and later to the entrance to
PNC Park.
Forbes Field had an exceptionally large outfield, and during its 61-year history it never witnessed a no-hitter. After the extension of the right field stands into the outfield during the mid-1920s, the dimensions were pretty well set for most of the next 50 years, except during 1947-1953 when an inner fence reduced the left field area by 30 feet, to assist Pirates sluggers like
Hank Greenberg and
Ralph Kiner.
Forbes Field hosted the
Major League Baseball All-Star Game in 1944 and its second Summer Classic in 1959.
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