On the banks of the Allegheny River across from the expansive and scenic Pittsburgh skyline stands Heinz Field, one of the most iconic stadiums in the NFL. From 1970 until 2000, the Steelers played at Three Rivers Stadium, a multipurpose facility that was shared with baseball's Pittsburgh Pirates. Like many other teams in the 1990s, the Steelers began to look towards the future and desired a bigger and better stadium. Steelers owner Dan Rooney wanted to renovate Three Rivers Stadium, but studies of the project showed that renovating the stadium would be just as costly as building a new one. As a result, the Steelers shifted focus to having a new stadium constructed. In 1997 financing was approved to construct new stadiums for both the Steelers and Pirates. Construction began on June 18, 1999, on a site near Three Rivers Stadium. As part of a 20-year partnership with the Heinz Company, the Steelers new stadium was named Heinz Field.
Three Rivers Stadium was home of the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Pittsburgh Steelers for 30 years. Three Rivers Stadium opened its door on July 16, 1970. Three Rivers Stadium is the Place where Barry Bonds made his MLB debut on May 30th, 1986. He went 0-5 in the game in which the Pirates fell to the Dodgers 4-6. Bonds would spend all of his career years with the Pirates playing at Three Rivers. Bonds spent the first seven seasons of his career in Pittsburgh and helped the Pirates win the National League East in 1990, ’91 and ’92. The team lost in the National League Championship Series each of those years. After the 1992 season, which was the last winning season Pittsburgh had before 2013, Bonds joined the San Francisco Giants for the last 15 years of his career. Bonds ranks ninth on the club’s all-time list with 50.3 wins above replacement, according to Baseball-Reference. That puts him above Ralph Kiner (44.7), Bill Mazeroski (36.5) and Pie Traynor (36.3), all of whom have had their numbers retired. It also brings him within shouting distance of Willie Stargell, who posted just 57.5 WAR despite playing 14 more seasons here than Bonds did.
This statue commemorates Pirates Hall-of-Famer Honus Wagner (1874-1955). Born just outside of Pittsburgh, he is considered the greatest shortstop to ever play the game and one of the best all-around players in the history of the National League. Wagner played eighteen of his twenty-one major league seasons with the Pirates. During his time with the club, the right-handed slugger won eight National League batting titles and led the league in RBIs four times. Nicknamed “The Flying Dutchman” because of his German ancestry and speed on the diamond, he bested all National League players in stolen bases five times. Wagner powered the Pirates to three consecutive National League pennants in 1901, 1902, and 1903, and a World Series title in 1909. He retired after the 1917 season, finishing with 3,420 hits, 723 stolen bases, and a career batting average of .328. In 1936, he was part of the first class elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Prior to Wagner’s death, the Pittsburgh Professional Baseball Association commissioned a statue of him. Designed by artist Frank Vittor, the bronze sculpture depicts the Pirate great at the plate. As he follows through on his swing, he watches the flight of the ball he just hit. Dedicated on April 30, 1955, it originally stood in Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park, beyond Forbes Field’s left field fence. Following the demolition of the Forbes Field and the Pirates move to the North Shore in the early 1970s, the statue was moved to Three River Stadium, where it stood outside Gate C. Today, the sculpture stands proudly outside of PNC Park’s home plate entrance at the intersection of General Robinson Street and Mazeroski Way.
PNC Park is the baseball park that is home to the Major League Baseball team, The Pittsburgh Pirates of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The park is located on the North Shore of Pittsburgh, and is seated right on the Allegheny River, which provides beautiful scenery of both the river and of the City's skyline. Play began at PNC in 2001, after The Pirates and The Steelers (NFL) moved out of Three Rivers Stadium. The capacity for PNC is 38,362 people, but has a record attendance of 40,889 in 2015.
This statue commemorates Pittsburgh Pirates Hall-of-Fame second baseman Bill Mazeroski (1936-) and one of the most memorable moments in baseball history. A native of Wheeling, West Virginia, he spent his entire seventeen-year major league career with the Pirates, over the course of which he built a solid case for being one of the greatest defensive players of all time. Mazeroski won eight Gold Glove Awards and made ten All-Star Game appearances. He led all National League second basemen in assists nine times, double plays eight times, putouts five times, and fielding percentage three times. Ironically, one of the greatest fielders in baseball history is best remembered for one shining moment at the plate, his walk-off, series-clinching homerun against the New York Yankees in the 1960 World Series. To mark the fiftieth anniversary of Mazeroski’s ninth-inning World Series heroics, the Pirates unveiled a statue of him outside PNC’s Park’s Right Field Gate on September 5, 2010, Mazeroski’s seventy-fourth birthday. Designed by artist Susan Wagner, who also completed the statues of Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell that surround PNC Park, the twelve-foot-tall bronze sculpture depicts Mazeroski rounding second base, jumping for joy with his batting helmet in his right hand, after hitting the game-winning homerun. Wagner modeled it after a photograph taken by James Klingensmith of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Behind the sculpture is a small section of the original Forbes Field wall, over which Mazeroski homered that day.
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Located in front of PNC Park’s Left Field Gate, this statue commemorates Pittsburgh Pirates Hall-of-Fame slugger Willie Stargell (1940-2001). A native of Oklahoma who grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, he spent his entire twenty-one-year major league career with the team, during which he earned a reputation as a feared power hitter. The seven-time All-Star hit at least twenty homeruns in thirteen consecutive seasons (1964-1976) and helped power the Pirates to two World Series titles (1971 & 1979). For his performance throughout the 1979 regular and postseason, Stargell became the first player in major league history to win the National League Most Valuable Player Award, the National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award, and the World Series Most Valuable Player Award in the same year. In September 2000, the Pirates announced plans to unveil a statue outside PNC Park prior to the stadium’s inaugural game and the home opener of the 2001 season. Designed by artist Susan Wagner in cooperation with the Pittsburgh-based architectural firm of L.D. Astorino & Associates Ltd., the twelve-foot-tall bronze sculpture depicts Stargell in his batting stance, ready to receive a pitch. Dedicated on April 7, 2001, it rests on a circular granite base decorated with stars, and features a quote from Stargell describing his first impression of Pittsburgh when he arrived in 1962: “Last night, coming in from the airport, we came through the tunnel and the city opened up its arms and I felt at home.” Unable to attend the ceremony due to declining health, Stargell died two days later at the age of sixty-one.
This statue outside PNC Park’s Center Field Gate commemorates Pittsburgh Pirate great Roberto Clemente (1934-1972). A native of Puerto Rico, he spent his entire eighteen-year major league career with the Pirates. In that time, the right-fielder won four National League batting titles, captured twelve straight Gold Glove Awards, amassed a career batting average of .317, and led the team to two World Series championships. Tragically, Clemente died in a plane crash on December 31, 1972 while attempting to deliver earthquake relief to Nicaragua. The following year, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America elected him to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Additionally, Major League Baseball renamed the annual award given to a major league player for exemplary sportsmanship and community service in Clemente’s honor. On July 8, 1994, to kick off the festivities leading up to the Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Pittsburgh, the Pittsburgh Pirates unveiled a statue of Clemente outside Gate A of Three River Stadium. Designed by artist Susan Wagner in cooperation with the Pittsburgh-based architectural firm of L.D. Astorino & Associates Ltd., the twelve-foot-tall bronze sculpture depicts the right fielder running out of the batter’s box. As he drops his bat, he watches the flight of the ball he just hit. The statue rests on a circular Black granite and steel base inset with a rudimentary outline of a baseball diamond. Installed in the pedestal, representing the diamond’s first, second, and third base, are three glass boxes filled with dirt from Puerto Rico, Forbes Field, and Three River Stadium.
Located along Smallman Street in the Strip District of Pittsburgh, the Heinz History Center includes 275,000 square feet of exhibits and archives devoted to the study of western Pennsylvania’s history. The center opened for visitors in 1996 in the former Chautauqua Lake Ice Company building after ten years of fundraising and renovations and added a Smithsonian wing eight years later after becoming a Smithsonian Institution affiliate in 2000. Operated by the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania, the center is named for the noted politician and philanthropist Senator John Heinz. Since its inception, the Heinz History Center has become Pennsylvania’s largest history museum, with over 40,000 artifacts throughout six floors of exhibition space and satellite museums at the Fort Pitt site and the Meadowcroft Rockshelter and Historic Village. The Heinz History Center is open from 10 AM to 5 PM daily.
Mellon Arena was located in Pittsburgh from 1968 until 2012. This arena once boasted the largest moving dome in the world and was home to the Pittsburgh Penguins of the National Hockey League. Civic Area opened September 17, 1961 and hosted many events beyond hockey, including concerts and national political conventions. The building began to show its age in the early 2000s. As the Penguins began negotiations for a new facility, many in the city hoped to restore the historic structure. Despite efforts to save the old arena in 2011, demolition plans were made in that year and the area is now vacant.
The Mario Lemieux Statue was unveiled by the Pittsburgh Penguins in March of 2012. Lemieux was a professional ice hockey player that was well known for playing with the Pittsburgh Penguins between 1984 through 2006. Lemieux led Pittsburgh to two consecutive Stanley Cups in 1991 and 1992. The bronze statue of Lemieux sits broadly on the intersection of Centre Avenue and Washington Place. The statue was placed to honor the career of Mario Lemieux and all of his accomplishments. A celebration of all of his professional victories can be seen through the complexity of this statue, which is of Lemieux breaking through two defensive players as he drives for a goal.
Forbes Field was the home of the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1909 to 1970. Thanks to the efforts of baseball fans and advocates of historical preservation, part of the former outfield wall remains and can be seen next to this building on Roberto Clemente Drive. Although the stadium was also home to the Pittsburgh Steelers and the University of Pittsburgh, Forbes Field is best known as the home of the Pirates.
This is the former location of Pitt Stadium, home to the University of Pittsburgh football stadium from 1925 until the end of the 1999 season. In addition to housing the Pittsburgh Panther's, this stadium was a second home for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1958 to 1963, and the full-time home from 1964 until 1970 when the team moved to Three Rivers Stadium. The Carnegie Tech Titans shares the field with the Panthers from 1929 until 1943.
Ammon Field, currently known as Josh Gibson Field, dates back to the early 1920s and was home to teams such as the Pittsburgh Keystones, Homestead Grays, and, the Pittsburgh Crawfords. In the 1940s, the ballpark was divided into two youth ballparks. In 2008, Ammon Field was renamed after Baseball Hall of Fame member, Josh Gibson. The Josh Gibson Foundation was also created to care for the ball fields and ensure that area youth will always have a proper field.
The Clemente Museum is located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania honoring Roberto Clemente. Roberto Clemente was the right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates and is a hall of famer. The main highlights of the museum focus on his baseball career and his work off the field as a humanitarian. The museum is directed and operated by Duane Rieder. For now the museum remains private and viewable by appointment only.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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This tour includes the current and former homes of the Steelers, Pirates, Penguins, and Negro League teams like the Homestead Grays. The tour also includes two museums and statues to some of the greatest players who have called Pittsburgh home.
