Exposition Park (Pittsburgh) - History

History

While the Pittsburgh Pirates were playing home games at Recreation Park, owners John Beemer and M. B. Lennon of the Pittsburgh Burghers constructed a baseball park near the former site of Exposition Park I and II—approximately two blocks west of the current PNC Park. The stadium included a roofed wooden grandstand around the infield, and open bleacher sections extending to the right and left field corners. Total capacity was about 10,000 spectators. The seats faced the Allegheny River and the Point.

The Burghers played at the stadium during the 1890 Players' League season—the team and league's only season in existence. The Pirates moved to Exposition Park the following season. In 1906, the Pirates were the first baseball team to cover their field with a tarp during inclement weather, and though the field was kept dry from the rain, the Allegheny River still caused problems. Flooding sometimes covered the entire outfield with inches of standing water, causing ground rules that gave any ground ball hit into the outfield an automatic single. During a July 4, 1902 doubleheader against Brooklyn, an Allegheny flood caused water to rise to thigh level in center and right fields, and about head level in deep center. Players occasionally caught a ball and dove under the water. The Pirates won both games of the doubleheader. Exposition Park was 450 feet (137 m) to the center field fence and 400 feet (122 m) in left and right field. Ham Hyatt is believed to be the only person to hit a ball over the right field fence. Monument Hill, which overlooked the field, allowed spectators a free view of the game. In 1908, due to the large amounts of people that attended Pirates games, team owner Barney Dreyfuss began looking for a location to construct a new Pirates stadium. The Pirates' final game at the stadium was played in 1909, the Pirates defeated the Cubs who they played the following day to open up Forbes Field. The Pittsburgh Filipinos called Exposition Park their home in 1912. The Filipinos lasted just over a month after folding with the United States Baseball League. In 1914, the Pittsburgh Rebels began play at Exposition Park. In 1915, the Rebels—despite improving from the previous season—disbanded due to financial loss (as did the entire Federal League). Exposition Park continued to host Semi-professional baseball games, as well as other events, but "was eventually razed".

After parts of 62 seasons in the Oakland district, baseball and football returned to the north side of the Allegheny River when Three Rivers Stadium opened. The site of the final incarnation of Exposition Park, relative to Three Rivers and the later PNC Park, was in between the two venues. Exposition Park had been on the southwest corner of South Avenue (later Robinson) to the north (first base) and School Street (later Scotland) to the east (third base). To the south (left field) was some open space and railroad tracks and the Allegheny. To the west (right field) was some open space and then Grant Street (later Galveston). That open space would eventually be the site of Three Rivers. To put it another way, the site of Exposition Park was the northeast corner of the parking lot east of Three Rivers.

In 1995, members of the Society for American Baseball Research placed a plaque where home plate is believed to have been located, in honor of one of the two sites of the first World Series (the other being in Boston). In 1998, a Pennsylvania Historical marker was placed at the site of the park. Interstate 279 currently runs over portions of the site of Exposition Park just before crossing the Allegheny River along the Fort Duquesne Bridge.