The Pittsburgh Gazette advertised this historic baseball tournament on Sept. 18, 1865. (Post-Gazette archive)

Location: In Allegheny Commons at the intersection of Ridge Avenue and Brighton Road.

Significance: Site of the first baseball game in the area that featured:

• Bleachers built for baseball spectators
• An out-of-town baseball club visiting the area
• An admission fee for spectators

Built: 1865

Details: The tournament took place Monday and Tuesday Sept. 18 and 19, 1865, and featured the Champion Athletic Club of Philadelphia against three local teams — the Enterprise, the Lincoln and the Allegheny — in a four-game series. Admission was 25 cents per game, 30 cents for the series. Seating was built “at considerable expense,” according to the newspaper ad.

Destroyed: After the tournament.

William Walter “Pudge” Heffelfinger, when he played football for Yale University (1888-1891).
(Wikipedia)

Location: Allegheny Avenue and Bouquet Street in Central North Side; now Allegheny Avenue and Behan Street.

Significance: Site of professional baseball games and major events such as the circus at the time.

The first significant local Black baseball team, the original Pittsburgh Keystones (1887), played here.

In 1892, it was the site of the world’s first American football game with a paid player. The Allegheny Athletic Association football team paid Pudge Heffelfinger $500 for one game against the rival Pittsburgh Athletic Club on Nov. 12, 1892. The 3A’s won the match 6-0, with Heffelfinger scoring the only touchdown.

Capacity: Roughly 17,000 by the end.

Built: 1865. At least one “base ball on the ice” game was played that year. Began being regularly used for baseball in 1867. Name changed to Recreation Park in 1885. Called “Three A’s Park” from 1892 to 1894.

Destroyed: Dismantled in 1895.

Advantages: Wooden grandstand, a section of more upscale “opera seats.”

Urban legend: At least one news story claims that Alleghenies catcher Fred Carroll buried his dead pet monkey at home plate in 1887. Heinz History Center researchers haven’t been able to confirm the tale.

Fred Carroll as he appeared on a cigarette baseball card.
(Goodwin & Company, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons)

Today:

Hall of Famers associated with the home team:

Location: North Shore, between what is now PNC Park and Acrisure Stadium.

Significance: Premier sports and exhibition venue in the area at the time.

Capacity: Listed as 16,000 on a 2007 Pirates webpage. The Pittsburgh Press gave a crowd estimate of 18,373 on Aug. 6, 1905, although some spectators were outside the seating area.

Built: Several baseball parks had the name Exposition Park or were on the Exposition grounds on the North Shore. One, built in 1882, burned down in 1883, along with Exposition Hall. The best known baseball field was built in 1890. After 1909, the park underwent renovations at least twice.

When in use: Baseball use started in 1890 with the short-lived Burghers team. From 1891 to 1909 the Pirates and their precursors used it. Non-sporting events took place there until at least 1918.

Decline: After the Pirates departed for the new Forbes Field in Oakland after 1909, the short-lived Pittsburgh Rebels baseball team called Exposition Park home. The club disbanded after the 1915 season. After that, Exposition Park hosted conventions, circuses, boxing matches, high school sports and other events. But problems plagued the spot.

A page 1 headline in the Pittsburgh Post, Sept. 6, 1916, blares the news of a body found at Exposition Park.
(Post-Gazette archive)

Every year when snow began to melt, the park flooded. As much as 16 feet of water inundated it in February 1916.

Also, crime grew in and around the park. In 1916, the body of a man beaten to death was found under the bleachers. The next year, the Post-Gazette described the park as having “vice” and “vicious resorts” that were enticing high school boys.

By 1917, the stands were mostly gone, according to Craig Britcher, assistant curator of the Western Pennsylvania Sports Museum, although some parts seem to have remained. In 1918, detectives dug up stolen dynamite and bullets buried at the park, either under the grandstand and bleachers or in a sewer.

By 1923, the park was gone and the property was part of a Baltimore & Ohio Railroad yard.

Advantages: A covered grandstand and its large size for the time.

Disadvantage: Flooding. On July 4, 1902, as floodwaters encroached on the field, officials decided that any ball that hit the water was a single. In that same game, center Ginger Beaumont caught a flyball and fell backward into the water, according to coverage on July 5, 1902, in the Pittsburgh Gazette.

Price: 25 cents for a bleacher seat, according to an Aug. 22, 1970, Post-Gazette article.

Concessions: None described, although they existed.

Outside the park, spectators could watch games from Monument Hill — the steep area below what is now Community College of Allegheny County — and buy refreshments nearby. A local cake factory sold a bag of broken saltine crackers for a nickel or a bag of broken cookies or broken sugar cakes for a dime. Dietz and Artz’s taverns sold nickel beer.

Notable event(s): Hosted Games 4-7 of the first World Series in 1903. The Boston Americans beat the Pirates 5-3 in a 9-game series.

Today:

Hall of Famers associated with the home team:

Location: On Chauncey Street between Humber Way and Hallett Street, Middle Hill District, now a vacant lot

Significance: First Black-owned and designed ballpark. See “Us: Your old family photo could be '20s ballpark's best shot at the record books,” by Kevin Kirkland, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 15, 2021.

A 1923 map gives the best contemporary representation of Central Amusement Park.
(Historic Pittsburgh, University of Pittsburgh)

Capacity: Roughly 1,500

Built: 1920

Destroyed: 1925

Advantages: Grandstand. Proximity to Black fans.

Also known as: Central Park

Background: Barbados-born Alexander McDonald Williams, a pool hall owner, assembled the Pittsburgh Keystones and built the park using the same Black architect – Louis Bellinger – who later designed Greenlee Field.

With the Keystones’ record poor, Williams lost his team, his home and his park.

Today:

Josh Gibson, wearing a Crawfords uniform, and his future wife, Helen Mason, stand at Ammon Field, 1929. (Josh Gibson Foundation Collection, Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area)

Location: Originally between Ridgeway Street and Bedford Avenue bordered by Wesley and Marohn streets in the Hill District. When Bedford Dwellings was built, the park was moved two blocks southwest to 2217 Bedford Ave., on the other side of Macedonia Baptist Church.

Significance: Josh Gibson played there early in his career in 1929.

Capacity: Not known

Built: 1928

Moved: Circa 1938

Refurbished: 2009

Advantages: Proximity to likely spectators.

Also known as: Ammons Field, Josh Gibson Field.

Hall of Famer associated with the home team: Josh Gibson: catcher, outfield. Played with Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords and briefly, early in his career, the Memphis Red Sox. Also known as the “Black Babe Ruth,” though some observers said Ruth was “the white Josh Gibson.”

Today:

Location: Bedford Avenue between Junilla and Watt streets in the Hill District

Significance: Black-designed and partly Black-owned. Often cited as the first Black-owned baseball park in Pittsburgh, but Central Amusement Park predates it.

Capacity: Initially 5,000, later expanded to at least 7,000

Built: 1931-1932

Destroyed: Beginning in 1938

Self-made Hill District businessman and philanthropist Gus Greenlee owned the Pittsburgh Crawfords and played a major role building Greenlee Field.
(Rob Ruck)

Advantages: Grandstand, showers, dressing rooms and dugouts for both teams; public restrooms; clubhouses; and offices; proximity to likely spectators.

Background: Hill District numbers businessman and racketeer Gus Greenlee owned the popular Crawford Grill club and bought the Pittsburgh Crawfords. He had Greenlee Field built for the team.

The team’s 1935 lineup had so much power it was compared to the 1927 New York Yankees “Murderers Row.”

But the city earmarked the site and surrounding area for the federally subsidized Bedford Dwellings housing project. With the threat of condemnation hanging over them, the stockholders of the property, who included Greenlee, accepted the city’s offer for the land. After the deal closed, the city dropped the offer from $50,000 to $38,000, which the owners had to accept. Dismantling of the field started in 1938, and Greenlee sold the Crawfords.

Today:

Hall of Famers associated with the home team:

* In the Negro leagues

Source: National Baseball Hall of Fame

Location: Roughly where the University of Pittsburgh’s Wesley W. Posvar Hall stands at what is now Roberto & Vera Clemente Drive between Bigelow Boulevard and South Bouquet Street, Central Oakland.

Significance: Home of the Pirates, 1909-1970.

Capacity:
1909: Seating for 20,000, according to The Pittsburgh Press on opening day; more than 30,000 when standing spectators were included.
1970: 35,000