The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-04-30
PITTSBURGH PIRATES CELEBRATE 2Sth
 BIRTHDAY TODAY

The Pittsburgh Pirates will cele- brate today the twenty eighth birth day of their club, as it was on April 30, 1887, that the Smoky City aggre- gation of beIlicose buceaneers climbed aboard the National league ship. The Western PennsylyaRlia metropolis was a live baseball town. and hberally infested with fans, from the very be- ginning of the national pastinie. but it was com parativeIy late in getting most venerable of major leagues. The National league infringement had eE- perfmented with clubs in Hartford. Syracuse. Troy. Worcester and other minor league cities before they be- thought themselves of fhe posslbili- ties latent in the smoke cloud which is Pittsburgh. Since then other clubs have come and gone, but the skull and-crossbones crew have stuck by the ship, and more than once have spike, or the helm, or whatever it is that flags are attached 70 on a vss- sel.
 Pittsburgh had it's first league ball in 1877, when the international As sociation was organized with clubs in. a number of American and Canadian towns. Pittsburgh's pioneer profes- siona1 club was called the Alleghenys, Pittsburgh first got on the Ina.3or 1ea-1 que map in 1884, when the American Association was launched with clubs in Pittsburghs Philadelphia, BaIti- Louisville. Pittsburgh didn't succeed in landing the pennant in either the International or American associa- tions,s and it remained for the Ma tional leaguers to bring home the flag.
 During their first six annums the Pirates were a humble crew ana sat isfied with second division berths In 1898 they made noise like pennant contenders. and finished second to of six weary years, when the Buc- cancers were also rans. In 1900- which was the year Barney Dreyfuss took charge Of the club ana Fred erick c. Clarke and ssHonus'' Wagner appeared in Pirate uniformsZPttts burgh finished second, and in 1901 the Pirates breezed out in front. Fred CIarke's great machine captured three straight pennants. and repeat ed the trick in 1909. Until last year. when the Clarke machine creaked 1 loudly and was sadly in need of Iubrf- cant. the Pirates were always in the running, and for fourteen straight an nuns finished always in the first di- vision. The 1913 deal with St. Louis. while ia. made the Cardinals, put the Pirates in bad, as Konetchy, Harmon and Mowrey all failed to live up, to  Barney Dreyfuss has had six pre- i decessors as president of the Pitts bNrgh club. ". A. RTimick was the ] first chief Of the Pirate crew and held the job four years, when he was succeeded in turn by J, F. O'Heiu w. c. Temple, A c. Buckenberger w. W. Kerr and w. H. watkins,
 The Ka,wfeas are not the first ma jor league aggregation Kansas City sha ever had. The Western Missouri metropolis had one year of National league ball back in 1886, the Cow boys playing their first game on tho home grounds just vventy-ntne years ago today, when they were defeated by Chicago. Kansas City was also represented in the old American As sociation. and in 1884 Kansas City replaced Altoona in the Union Asso- citation, a short-Iived ''oitlaw' cir cult of major league calibre- Joseph Helm was the president Of the Ma tiona1 league club in the town which has always been the western outpoHt of major leaguedom.