Pie Traynor

If you are of a certain age, say over 50 year old, and a baseball fan, you most likely grew up with the knowledge that Pie Traynor was the greatest third baseman of all time. If you are of that same age range and grew up in Pittsburgh, you also knew Pie Traynor as the guy who gave sports reports on KQV radio and as the ubiquitous pitchman for the American Heating Company ("Who can? Amer-i-can!"). You also knew Traynor to be one of the most recognizable figures in the city of Pittsburgh, thanks to his habit of walking everywhere and talking to anyone who took the time to say hi to him.

That is about all you knew of Pie Traynor because, until now, he was probably the most prominent member of Baseball's Hall of Fame to never be the subject of a full length biography. That void has been fill by James Forr and David Proctor who have recently published "Pie Traynor, A Baseball Biography" (McFarland Publishing). Both authors spoke at the SABR Forbes Field Chapter's meeting in April, and I have just finished reading the book. I found it to be a very enjoyable read.

Much time is spent, of course, covering Pie's career as both a player and manager of the Pirates. I especially enjoyed reading about the Pirates' Championship seasons of 1925 and 1927, and could really feel the pain that must have been experienced when the Cubs overtook the Traynor-managed Bucs for the NL pennant in 1938.

All the stuff about Traynor between the lines is in the book, but what I really enjoyed was the final quarter of the book that covered Traynor's life after he was relieved as manager in 1939. When he left baseball, he was leaving something that had been his life for over 20 years, he was uneducated (he never went to high school), and he and his wife were not persons of means. After a few years, he did hook up with the Pirates again as a scout, spring training coach, and general goodwill ambassador, roles he served until his death in 1972. He also went into broadcasting at KQV, one of the very early ex-jocks to go behind a microphone. He was not smooth, his stiff delivery, penchant for mispronunciation and malapropisms, and association with Studio Wrestling, became the subject of jokes among listeners and fellow broadcasters, but he held that position for over 25 years. He was a pioneer in Pittsburgh broadcasting circles.

Also interesting were how other players viewed him. Roberto Clemente and Brooks Robinson admired him, Richie Hebner revered him, but Dick Groat didn't care for him, or perhaps more to the point Traynor didn't care for Groat. Pie also had high regard for Lloyd Waner, but had no use for Paul Waner. Whatever the reasons, Pie never went public with them; that was the kind of guy he was.

The authors concluded the book with an examination of Traynor's place in history. Sometime in the late 70's and early 80's, Traynor's position as the "greatest third baseman of all-time" began to fade, and with the emergence of guys like Mike Schmidt, George Brett, and Wade Boggs, Pie's name is never mentioned when the talk turns to great third basemen. In "The New Bill James Historical Abstract" (2001), James ranks Traynor as the 15th best third basemen of all time. Interestingly enough, only one of the 14 third sackers listed ahead of Pie predates him in the historical timeline, Frank "Home Run" Baker. The guy who was conceded to be the greatest prior to Traynor, Jimmy Collins, sits at #17 on James' rankings.

What is the conclusion? Well, I suppose that you could say that Traynor was certainly the best third baseman of his era, and perhaps the best of all time up until, say, 1975 or so. At that time, the idea of what a third baseman is changed. Today thirdbase is considered a power position (Alex Rodriguez, Evan Longoria) and not necessarily a guy who hits for high average, and while defense is important, it isn't paramount if the guy is a big bopper who will give you 30+ round trippers a season. Traynor was not a homerun hitter (12 in 1923 was his high water mark and only 58 for his sixteen year career) so he gets lost when his numbers are compared to guys like Schmidt or Eddie Matthews.

By the way, if you are curious, Bill James' top 15 thirdbasemen are as follows:

Mike Schmidt

George Brett

Eddie Matthews

Wade Boggs

Home Run Baker

Ron Santo

Brooks Robinson

Paul Molitor

Stan Hack

Darrell Evans

Sal Bando

Ken Boyer

Graig Nettles

Al Rosen

Pie Traynor