{"id":2207,"date":"2012-12-14T13:01:00","date_gmt":"2012-12-14T13:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/?p=2207"},"modified":"2015-01-08T17:27:02","modified_gmt":"2015-01-08T22:27:02","slug":"mayor-barr-and-gov-david-lawrence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/12\/14\/mayor-barr-and-gov-david-lawrence\/","title":{"rendered":"Mayor Barr and Gov. David Lawrence"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"(Credit: <\/a>
(Credit: Unknown) <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Apr. 14, 1960:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>It was the 51st National League Opener. A warm day: 83 degrees in the sun. And 32,000 Pirates fans yelling at the big Oakland Park.\u00a0Mayor Barr tossed the first ball to Smoky Burgess, catcher for the Pirates.<\/p>\n

“Special righthander makes season\u2019s first pitch” read the cutline under this photograph that ran in The Pittsburgh Press on the day of the season opener at Forbes Field. The Pirates were playing against the Reds. Bill Mazerowski blasted a two-run homer and the Bucs won, 13-0. Those were the glory days.<\/p>\n

This photograph captured our eyes for several reasons, one of which, of course, is that both \u2014 Mayor Barr and Gov. David Lawrence \u2014 appear side-by-side in this image. Mayor Barr is posing for the shot, while Governor Lawrence looks up, squinting his eyes at the bright sun.<\/p>\n

This shot was taken four months after Joseph Barr had assumed the position of Pittsburgh mayor after David Lawrence won the election for the governor.<\/p>\n

Mr. Barr played a crucial role in accomplishing\u00a0projects that his predecessor\u00a0David Lawrence started. Barr oversaw the construction of the Civic Arena and the Three Rivers Stadium, worked on renovating infrastructure, water systems, street lights modernization. He promoted an image of Pittsburgh as a commercial center and led multiple progressive reforms, including \u2018The Pittsburgh Package,\u2019 the legislation that catalyzed city\u2019s Great Renaissance.<\/p>\n

Joseph Barr died in 1982.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A warm day: 83 degrees in the sun.<\/p>\n

Look at the picturesMayor Barr and Gov. David Lawrence<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[944],"tags":[969,977,1027,1037],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/tumblr_mezs55bNg11rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1280%2C1003&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2303,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/11\/09\/barr-kennedy-and-lawrence\/","url_meta":{"origin":2207,"position":0},"title":"Barr, Kennedy and Lawrence","date":"November 9, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Perhaps this photograph is not the best photo of Bobby Kennedy and David Lawrence together. Yet it was an important discovery for us at \u201cThe Digs.\u201d","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/tumblr_md6y1qjuNg1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=936%2C634&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":542,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/06\/20\/boyhood-memories-at-forbes-field\/","url_meta":{"origin":2207,"position":1},"title":"Boyhood memories at Forbes Field","date":"June 20, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Two boys, two hot dogs and a magical season at Forbes Field.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/tumblr_n7dmswA6VE1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C882&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1276,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/10\/23\/david-lawrence-pittsburgh-visionary-political-genius-and-leader\/","url_meta":{"origin":2207,"position":2},"title":"David Lawrence, Pittsburgh visionary, political genius and leader","date":"October 23, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Lawrence was born in 1889, in Pittsburgh, only 75 feet from where the old Block house stood.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/tumblr_mv3i2vw7W51rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C970&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2644,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2012\/08\/13\/oct-14-1925-world-series-at-forbes-field\/","url_meta":{"origin":2207,"position":3},"title":"The 1925 World Series at Forbes Field","date":"August 13, 2012","format":"gallery","excerpt":"We found this crumbling print in an oversized folder labeled \u201cB\u201d (for baseball). A sea, an ocean of HATS.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/tumblr_m8hvmrZ1fe1rr5swxo1_1280.jpg?fit=864%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1320,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2013\/10\/09\/dreaming-of-the-world-series-too-soon-you-say\/","url_meta":{"origin":2207,"position":4},"title":"Dreaming of the World Series\u2026 Too soon, you say?","date":"October 9, 2013","format":"gallery","excerpt":"It\u2019s not done yet. The story hasn\u2019t played out.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/tumblr_mudg87B6mh1rr5swxo5_r1_1280.jpg?fit=1200%2C818&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":980,"url":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/2014\/02\/07\/ralph-kiner-pirates-legendary-slugger-and-voice-of-the-mets\/","url_meta":{"origin":2207,"position":5},"title":"\u201cRalph Kiner, Pirates\u2019 legendary slugger and Voice of the Mets\u201d","date":"February 7, 2014","format":"gallery","excerpt":"Ralph Kiner had a rare talent. He knew how to hold his crowds captive.","rel":"","context":"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/tumblr_n0lo84enoc1rr5swxo2_1280-e1418794099818.jpg?fit=997%2C527&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2207"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4486,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2207\/revisions\/4486"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsinteractive.post-gazette.com\/thedigs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}