It is hard to believe given the current state of affairs, but the Pittsburgh Pirates were once a very proud franchise. This franchise has 13 players inducted in the National Hall of Fame. It’s the third-oldest franchise in Major League Baseball. It played in the first World Series in 1903. It’s won five World Championships (1909, 1925, 1960, 1971, & 1979). In fact, the Pirates’ .714 winning percentage in the World Series (5 wins, 2 losses) is the best of any franchise that has made the World Series at least twice.
Since the Pirates have been atrocious for the better part of the past 45 years, we are left to write about glory days of the very distant past. The current-day Pirates are well on their way to a second-straight last place finish, but 100 years ago it was a very different story.
This season marks the 100th anniversary of the Pirates’ 1925 World Championship. For whatever reason, this championship gets very little attention in the lore of Pittsburgh championships, so let’s take a look back at what was an epic, historic series.
During the 1920s the Pirates were very good, finishing no lower than third place 1921 to 1927, including two division titles in 1925 and 1927, with both of those seasons culminating in the World Series. The Pirates lost the 1927 World Series, but the opponent was what many consider to be best team ever assembled, the 1927 Yankees.
The opponent in the 1925 World Series was the 1924 defending World Series champion Washington Nationals. A quick history lesson, the Washington Nationals the Pirates faced in 1925 is not the same Washington Nationals franchise as current day. The current day Washington Nationals are the former Montreal Expos that relocated to Washington in 2005. The Washington Nationals franchise the Pirates played in 1925 began as an MLB franchise in 1901 as the Washington Senators and kept the nickname “Senators” until 1904. Starting in 1905 they changed their nickname to the “Nationals,” which stuck until 1955 when the franchise changed its name back to “Senators” until the team located to Minnesota in 1961 to become the Twins. Now that we have that out of the way, back to the series.
The series would need all seven games with the Pirates prevailing at Forbes Field in Game 7. Ironically, all five World Series the Pirates have won have gone seven games with the Pirates prevailing in Game 7.
The Pirates lost Games 1 and 4 to the vaunted Walter Johnson, who allowed just one total run in those two games, pitching a complete game in both contests. Not to be outdone, the Pirates’ Vic Aldridge pitched Pittsburgh to wins in Games 2 and 5 with two complete games of his own.
After two-consecutive wins in Games 3 and 4, the Nationals had the Pirates on the ropes, down three games to one, forcing the Pirates to have to win three-consecutive games, which is exactly what they did. As mentioned, Aldridge threw a three-hit, complete game in Game 5 propelling the Pirates to a 6-3 road win. The Pirates then returned home to Forbes Field for Games 6 and 7. The Pirates found themselves down 2-0 after two innings in Game 6 before scoring two in the bottom of the third and one in the bottom of the fifth to secure a 3-2 win.
Game 7 was met with rainy conditions. MLB was desperate to play the game, so they resorted to a rather extreme measure and doused the infield with gasoline and set it ablaze in an effort to dry the mud. Shockingly, the tactic worked and the game went on as scheduled.
In Game 7 the Pirates sent Aldridge to the mound for a third time in the series, but the success of his two complete games did not translate in Game 7. He gave up four earned runs and only recorded one out before being pulled from the game in the first inning. In the blink of an eye, the Pirates were down 4-0. The score remained that way until the bottom of the third when the Pirates scored three runs to pull within one. The Nationals immediately countered in the top of the fourth with two runs of their own to go up 6-3, but the Pirates continued to chip away, scoring one run in the bottom of the fifth and two runs in the bottom of the seventh to tie the score at six. However, the Nationals simply wouldn’t go away and scored another run in the top of the eighth to take a 7-6 lead. Undaunted, the Pirates went into the bottom of the eighth and rallied for three more runs, including the go-ahead, two-run double off the bat of future Hall of Famer Kiki Cuyler. Red Oldham came in for the top of the ninth and saved the game for the Pirates to secure the 9-7 victory. With the win, the Pirates became the first team in MLB-history, at the time, to come back from a postseason 3-1 series deficit. Equally as impressive, in Game 7 the Pirates tagged Johnson for all nine runs, five of which were earned; the same Johnson who had only allowed one earned run in two complete games earlier in the series.
The series featured a combined nine future Hall of Famers. For the Nationals it was the aforementioned Johnson, Stan Coveleski, Goose Goslin, Bucky Harris, and Sam Rice. For the Pirates it was Manager Bill McKechnie, Max Carey, Pie Traynor and the aforementioned Cuyler. Speaking of Cuyler, he will be posthumously inducted into the Pirates’ Hall of Fame, along with Vernon Law and Al Oliver prior to the Pirates game on Friday, August 22nd.
While it seems like it will be another 100 years before the Pirates appear in a World Series, it is important to remember the moments that made the Pirates a once proud franchise; moments like the remarkable 1925 World Series championship.
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