Q 01/05

The Pirates nickname arose after the club signed which second baseman in a 'piratical' move?

A) Fred Dunlap

B) Lou Bierbauer

C) Bid McPhee

D) Nap Lajoie

Answer · why

B) Lou Bierbauer

The Philadelphia Athletics had forgotten to put him on their reserve list; newspapers ran with 'Pirates' from 1891.

Q 02/05

Before becoming the Pirates, the club was known by what name from its 1882 founding?

A) Stogies

B) Burghers

C) Alleghenys

D) Rebels

Answer · why

C) Alleghenys

It was chartered as the Allegheny Base Ball Club of Pittsburgh and played across the river in a then-separate city.

Q 03/05

Pittsburgh acquired Honus Wagner from which club being eliminated when the NL contracted?

A) Washington Senators

B) Cleveland Spiders

C) Baltimore Orioles

D) Louisville Colonels

Answer · why

D) Louisville Colonels

The player deals were separate transactions rather than a merger, but they made the Pirates the class of the league by 1901.

Q 04/05

The Pirates lost the first modern World Series in 1903 to which team?

A) New York Giants

B) Boston Americans

C) Chicago White Sox

D) Philadelphia Athletics

Answer · why

B) Boston Americans

It was played at wooden Exposition Park, a site now marked by a sunken steel home plate in a parking lot.

Q 05/05

The Pirates' first World Series title, in 1909, came against which team led by Ty Cobb?

A) Chicago Cubs

B) Philadelphia Athletics

C) Detroit Tigers

D) Cleveland Naps

Answer · why

C) Detroit Tigers

The two clubs are now interleague 'natural rivals' partly because of that Series.