In the beginning: Allegheny

References to the Pittsburgh Pirates usually have the franchise dating back to 1887, and if you recall, the team officially marked its centennial in 1987.

Technically, the history starts in 1882, making Pittsburgh tied with Cincinnati and St. Louis for the third-oldest continuous franchise in Major League Baseball.

Those first five seasons generally aren't recognized because the team played in the American Association, which operated as an acknowledged major league from 1882 through 1891, in competition with the National League. When the Association went out of business, its memory was submerged in the depths of baseball history, to be unearthed by researchers generations later.

Pittsburgh's first major-league team actually played in the city of Allegheny, now the North Side; hence its nickname, the Alleghenys. In fact, the American Association was founded during a meeting held in Pittsburgh.

For a squad that came together for the first time, the Alleghenys did well in 1882, winning 39 and losing the same number, good for fourth place in the six-team league.

The star of the team was outfielder Ed Swartwood, who, at 23, was the youngest regular. He led the Alleghenys in most offensive categories, including a .329 batting average, 107 hits and four home runs.

Pitcher Denny Driscoll, one of baseball's first successful lefthanders, had a 13-9 record with a stellar 1.21 earned-run average, the lowest ever in the Association. But that figure is purely retroactive; the concept of the earned run didn't develop until the early 20th century. Research has shown that a whopping 46 out of the 73 runs Driscoll gave up that year were unearned! Even in an era where teams averaged three or four errors per game, that's an unusally high percentage of unearned runs.

Whatever the case, Driscoll wasn't nearly as effective in 1883, slipping to 18-21 on a team that finished 31-67. Swartwood again led the way at the plate, with his .357 average nearly a hundred points higher than the next-best batter on the team.

The Alleghenys did even worse in 1884, with a 30-78 record in a league that had doubled in the number of teams from its inaugural year. Swartwood slipped to .288, but the next best mark among Allegheny hitters was just .231; as a whole, the team batted only .211. The top pitcher was Florence – yes, he was a man – Sullivan at 16-35.

In 1885, the Alleghenys righted the ship to finish 56-55, primarily through the efforts of pitcher Ed Morris. The 22-year-old lefty won 39 times in 63 starts, all complete games. Back then, management considered pitchers a disposable commodity, good for only a couple of years.

But a late arrival to Pittsburgh that season broke the mold: James "Pud" Galvin's career lasted 15 season, and he was the first pitcher in history to win 300 games. He also was the first future Hall of Famer to play in Pittsburgh.

Galvin and Morris led the way to the Alleghenys' most successful season: an 80-57 record, good for second place behind the St. Louis Browns, today's Cardinals. The tandem combined for 70 victories, while the team batting average of .241 wasn't that far off the league mark of .243. (On the other end of the spectrum, the Baltimore AA batters combined to hit .204, the lowest team average in history.)

Meanwhile, Allegheny management had developed a contentious relationship with the American Association hierarchy, and Pittsburgh jumped ship to the National League for the 1887 season. And that's where team history starts.

But there was a prehistoric version of what became the Pirates, even if the team didn't have all that much success in the American Association.


Trivia #13: Who was the second future Hall of Famer to play in Pittsburgh? For the answer, scroll down and look to the right.