Forbes Field, Pittsburgh's First Palace of Baseball
Near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
A section of the old left-field wall still stands on the University of Pittsburgh campus, the last physical remnant of Forbes Field. When it opened in nineteen oh nine, Forbes Field was among the first all-steel and concrete baseball stadiums in the nation, part of a wave that set the standard for ballparks built after it.
The Pirates played here through decades of baseball history. The stadium hosted four World Series, in nineteen oh nine, nineteen twenty-five, nineteen twenty-seven, and nineteen sixty, and two All-Star Games. The Homestead Grays of the Negro Leagues shared the field, and the Pittsburgh Steelers played football here as well.
The most famous moment came on October thirteenth, nineteen sixty, when second baseman Bill Mazeroski hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game Seven to beat the New York Yankees, the only Game Seven walk-off homer in World Series history. Babe Ruth also hit the last three home runs of his career here in nineteen thirty-five. Forbes Field was damaged by fire and demolished in nineteen seventy-two. The wall remains.
