Background

Traynor was bornon November 11, 1898 in Framingham, Massachusetts, to parents who had emigrated from Canada.

He was the son of James H. Traynor, a printer, and Lydia Matthews. When Traynor was five the family moved to the Boston suburb of Somerville, where he acquired the nickname "Pie, " reputedly either because of his fondness for pie or because of his propensity for getting dirty (his father once said he looked like "pied" type).

Education

He completed his elementary education at Somerville's Bingham School.

Career

Traynor went to work as a messenger and office boy in Boston. Neither happy nor successful in the business world, he attempted to enlist during World War I but was rejected.

Baseball was Traynor's first love, and, after spending the summer of 1919 playing semiprofessional ball on Cape Cod, he was recommended to manager Ed Barrow of the Boston Red Sox following an impressive Fenway Park workout in the spring of 1920. Barrow arranged for Traynor to play with the Red Sox affiliate at Portsmouth, Va. , during the 1920 season. At season's end Portsmouth sold shortstop Traynor to the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Sent to Birmingham in 1921 for further seasoning, Traynor batted . 336, although his sixty-four errors in 131 games left much to be desired. Recalled by Pittsburgh, he opened the 1922 season as the Pirates' shortstop, but when Bill McKechnie became the Pirates' manager midseason, he promptly moved Traynor to third base. Although Traynor conceded that the "hardest thing in going from shortstop to third base was learning to play that much closer to the hitter, " he quickly adjusted to his new position.

Playing a relatively shallow position, he pounced on enemy bunts, roamed gracefully to his left, and was "positively devastating on the toughest play of them all, the hot ground smash over the bag. " In fact, telegraphers routinely reported that Hornsby or Hafey or whoever it might be "doubled down the left field line, but Traynor threw them out. " Possessing what the Pirates' first baseman Charlie Grimm described as the "quickest hands" and the "quickest arm of any third baseman" of his day, Traynor, according to one sportswriter, "played third base as though he wore a magnet instead of a glove. " His glove did, in fact, contain a felt interior rather than leather, for he found that "with the felt lining, a hard-hit ball, if not caught cleanly, will drop at your feet, " where it remains playable.

Traynor's career total of 2, 291 putouts remains to this day the record for National League third basemen. Traynor was not a one-dimensional player, though. During his 1, 941-game, seventeen-season major league career (1920-1937, all with Pittsburgh) he amassed 2, 416 base hits, drove in 1, 273 runs, and attained a lifetime batting average of . 320.

Primarily a line-drive hitter, the right-handed-batting Traynor used a bat weighing forty-two ounces and drove many of his hits into right and right center field. He had a keen eye and struck out only 278 times in his entire 7, 559 at bats in the major league.

Traynor played in the 1925 and 1927 World Series. In June of 1934 Traynor was named player-manager of the Pirates. That same year he injured his right arm in a collision with another player at home plate, leading to the premature termination of his playing career. He just couldn't throw well anymore, he lamented.

Traynor continued to manage the Pirates. They had virtually clinched the 1938 pennant when Gabby Hartnett's famous game-winning "homer in the gloaming" at Chicago's Wrigley Field sent Pittsburgh into a late-season tailspin and a second-place finish.

When the Pirates dropped to fifth place in 1939, Traynor was fired at the end of the season; his career record as a manager was 457-406. Retained by the Pirates as a scout, Traynor moved to Cincinnati in 1941.

In 1944, Traynor returned to Pittsburgh as a sports commentator for radio station WKQV. Traynor continued his radio work into the late 1960's. He also appeared in television commercials accompanying live studio wrestling. This ongoing media exposure made Traynor a local celebrity.

During his later years Traynor continued to scout for the Pirates, conducted tryout camps, and paid an annual ten-day visit to the Florida spring training center, where he suited up, offered instructional advice, and regaled the players with anecdotes of his fabled career.

He died in 1972 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not long after the Pirates moved into Three Rivers Stadium and retired his uniform number 20. Traynor was buried in Homewood Cemetery in Pittsburgh.

Achievements

• Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor played his entire Major League Baseball (MLB) career (1920–37) as a third baseman with the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 1948, Traynor was selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, being the first third baseman to be chosen by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. In 1969, as part of the observance of the centennial of professional baseball, Traynor was named the third baseman on MLB's all-time team. In 1971, he threw out the first pitch of Game 3 of the 1971 World Series at Three Rivers Stadium. In 1999, he ranked number 70 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Baseball historian Bill James ranked Traynor 15th all-time among third baseman in his Historical Baseball Abstract.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Pie Traynor Letter re Waners

    (Autograph letter signed "Pie" to his wife Eve, 2 separate...)

  • Autographed Pie Traynor Ball - The Finest Harold Joseph Single On Earth Mint 9 - PSA/DNA Certified - Autographed Baseballs

    (The Finest Harold Joseph Pie Traynor Single Signed Baseba...)

  • The Finest Harold Joseph Pie Traynor Single Signed Baseball On Earth PSA Mint 9

    (Magnificent Pie Traynor full name, single signed baseball...)

  • Pie Traynor Signed Letter 1934 Re: Pirates Baseball

    (4pp. autograph letter signed by Pittsburgh Pirate Pie Tra...)

  • Pie Traynor Letter Signed 1935 Pirates Baseball

Personality

Six feet, one inch tall and weighing 175 pounds, Traynor, as Bill Terry described him, was "like a cat at third base. " He had a keen eye.

Quotes from others about the person

• In an early tribute, Branch Rickey, Sr. , general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, had said of Traynor: "They can substitute for him, but they can never replace him. "
  
  “If I had to pick the greatest team player in baseball today-and I have some of the greats on my own club-I would have to pick Pie Traynor. ” John McGraw

Connections

He and his wife, Eva Helmer, whom he had married on Jan. 3, 1931, resided in Cincinnati until 1944. They had no children.

Father:

James H. Traynor

He was a printer.

Mother:

Lydia Matthews

Spouse:

Eva Helmer

References

• The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract by Bill James (2001-10-30)
• Pie Traynor: A Baseball Biography
• The Baseball: Stunts, Scandals, and Secrets Beneath the Stitches