American baseball player, broadcaster, and manager
Baseball player
Pie Traynor
Traynor in 1925
Third baseman
Born:(1898-11-11)November 11, 1898 Framingham, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died: March 16, 1972(1972-03-16) (aged 73) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
September 15, 1920, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Last MLB appearance
August 14, 1937, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
MLB statistics
Batting average
.320
Hits
2,416
Home runs
58
Runs batted in
1,273
Teams
As player
Pittsburgh Pirates (1920–1935, 1937)
As manager
Pittsburgh Pirates (1934–1939)
Career highlights and awards
2× All-Star (1933, 1934)
World Series champion (1925)
Pittsburgh Pirates No. 20 retired
Pirates Hall of Fame
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction
1948
Vote
76.9% (eighth ballot)
Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor (November 11, 1898 – March 16, 1972) was an American third baseman, manager, scout and radio broadcaster in Major League Baseball (MLB)[1] who played his entire career between 1920 and 1937 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.[1] Traynor batted over .300 ten times, posting a career average of .320, and had seven seasons with over 100 runs batted in (RBI). With home runs limited by playing in Forbes Field, the most difficult park for power hitting in the National League (NL), he compensated by reaching double digits in triples eleven times, leading the league in 1923. He batted .346 in the 1925 World Series to help the Pirates take their first championship in 16 years.
Traynor led NL third basemen in putouts seven times, in double plays four times, and in assists three times; his 41 double plays in 1925 were an NL record until 1950, and his 226 putouts that year remain the highest NL total since 1905. He set major league records for career double plays (303) and games (1,863) at third base which were broken in 1945 and 1960 respectively, and which remained NL records until Eddie Mathews broke them in 1964 and 1965; his 2,289 putouts remain the NL record, and his 3,521 assists were the league record until Mathews passed him in 1964. Traynor was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1948, becoming the initial third baseman elected by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.[2]
Following World War II, Traynor was often cited as the greatest third baseman in major league history. In recent years his renown has diminished, with the modern-era careers of third basemen including Mathews, Brooks Robinson, Mike Schmidt and George Brett moving to the forefront in the memories of baseball fans;[3][4][5] however, he is still widely regarded as the top third baseman in the National League prior to 1950.
^ ab"Pie Traynor". Baseball Reference. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
^"Pie Traynor at The Baseball Hall of Fame". Baseballhall.org. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
^Kaese, Harold (June 1972). "Pie Traynor Greatest of the Third Basemen". Baseball Digest. Archived from the original on January 13, 2017. Retrieved October 27, 2010.
^James, Bill (2001). The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. New York: Free Press. p. 554. ISBN 0-684-80697-5.
^Birtwell, Roger (September 1969). "Pie Traynor Best of All Third Basemen". Baseball Digest. Retrieved October 30, 2010.[dead link]
Harold Joseph "Pie" Traynor (November 11, 1898 – March 16, 1972) was an American third baseman, manager, scout and radio broadcaster in Major League Baseball...
record in 1917; however, veteran outfielder Max Carey and young players PieTraynor and Kiki Cuyler, along with a remarkably deep pitching staff, brought...
playing Liz Traynor on the Fox television series The Good Guys, Nina in The CW television series Reaper, and the character of Honey Pie in the Feast...
slugging percentage by a third baseman (.462); he was the third after PieTraynor and Eddie Mathews to drive in 90 runs eight-times, and remains the only...
of both 1948 and 1949. Of the five total inductees, Kid Nichols and PieTraynor attended, while Charlie Gehringer was unable to attend. Mordecai Brown...
just 25 extra-base hits in over 650 plate appearances). Third baseman PieTraynor hit .342 and drove in over 100 runs, joining shortstop Glenn Wright who...
Lamoriello; Joe "Skip" Lewis; Joe Magrane; Art Quirk; Bill Schroeder; PieTraynor; Greg Vaughn 2010 – David Aardsma; Casey Close; Jack Cressend; Peter...
Robinson was the greatest third baseman they ever witnessed. Harold 'Pie' Traynor, the Pittsburgh Pirates' hall of fame third baseman to whom Robinson...
Hall of Famers in their starting lineup: Max Carey, Kiki Cuyler, and PieTraynor. Pittsburgh defeated the Brooklyn Robins, 21–5, on June 20 and two days...
(manager) Bill Stafford Wally Taylor Gene Tenace Bobby Thigpen Frank Thomas PieTraynor Robin Ventura Omar Vizquel (manager) Phil Weintraub Bob Wickman Birmingham...
The team included five future Hall of Famers: Paul Waner, Lloyd Waner, PieTraynor, Kiki Cuyler, and 20-year-old rookie Joe Cronin (who played just 12 games)...
(1939-2023), baseball player Jock Sutherland (1889–1948), football coach PieTraynor (1899–1972), baseball Hall of Famer Edward Manning Bigelow (1850–1916)...
April 5, 2011. "PieTraynor One Of Best Third Basemen". Youngstown Vindicator. October 9, 1925. p. 17. Retrieved April 5, 2011. "PieTraynor Considered Best...
nickname, at least among his teammates, of Pie, after Pittsburgh Pirates Hall of Fame third baseman, PieTraynor Rollins was also compared to former longtime...
base on the field) Brooks Robinson Scott Rolen Ron Santo Mike Schmidt PieTraynor (First third baseman to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame) Jud...
1962 through 1967 and again in 1969, tying the league record shared by PieTraynor and Willie Jones in leading the league seven times; Tim Wallach later...
the season with the Pirates mired in fourth place. His replacement, PieTraynor, moved Lindstrom to left field and then to the bench after breaking his...
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