Barney Dreyfuss: Pittsburgh’s Baseball Titan

Dreyfuss plaque in National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown, NY.

During my many visits, I’ve been struck by how much Pittsburghers enjoy all their sports teams, the Pirates, the football Steelers and hockey’s Penguins. But mostly the Pirates.

I wanted to know more about the origin of the love affair with the Pirates and all roads led to Barney Dreyfuss. He took an also-ran baseball operation and built it into a successful ball club that became among the top contenders in all of baseball from 1900 to his death in 1932. He erected Forbes Field in 1909 and helped establish the World Series, winning two of the four in which his Pirates appeared.

Not bad for a little fellow from Germany who came to America in 1882 with little more than dreams and a work ethic and whose long-lasting affair with baseball was born in the Ohio Valley of Kentucky.

  • Barney Dreyfuss made significant contributions to the game that were recognized in 2008 with his induction into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Other powerful figures in baseball have been similarly honored and many have had biographies penned about them. Barney’s time has come.

    Herewith the first effort to tell the full story of baseball’s little titan.

Finalist, Larry Ritter Book Award—SABR

Award-winning journalist Brian Martin lives in London, Ontario. He is a member of the selection committee of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and the Society for American Baseball Research.

REVIEWS

“In recent years there has been a welcome interest in the history of the business of baseball and those who have made significant contributions to the growth and development of the game…. These studies have tended to focus on the post-World War II period and generally neglect earlier eras. Brian Martin has made a major contribution to narrowing this gap with the first full length biography of Barney Dreyfuss, the Pittsburgh owner who helped transform the Pirates…. The reviewer recommends it highly.”
—SABR Deadball Era Committee Newsletter

“What an absolute pleasure. It was delightful the way Brian Martin presented the life of Barney Dreyfuss, his Pittsburgh Pirates at the beginning of the 20th century, and his early organized baseball exploits so exactly and meticulously.”
—Len Martin, creator,
Forbes Field: Build-It-Yourself

“A much-needed biography of the Hall of Fame pioneer, Pittsburgh Pirates owner and National League official and baseball magnate.”
—The Inside Game

“A needed contribution to baseball history….[T]he author makes a strong case for Dreyfuss as a powerful owner and a worthy Hall of Famer.”
—Gabriel Schechter, author, Spanking the Yankees: 365 Days of Bronx Bummers