As most regulars on this site know already, I love baseball history, specifically related to the Pittsburgh Pirates. You can find our daily “This Date in Pirates History” sections in our First Pitch articles now and they have been a regular part of our Morning Report since the start of that feature. Using the search option on the site, you can find something on nearly every player who has played for the Pirates.
One of my favorite books I own is the Pittsburgh Pirates Encyclopedia, which was written by David Finoli and Bill Ranier. I actually like the updated version of the book a little more because I was able to convince them that Dots Miller belonged among the top 100 players in Pirates history. I might be a little biased because I came from the same hometown as Miller and we have six of the same relatives, but I provided a valid argument and he was included in the updated book. There’s actually a nice mention of Pirates Prospects in the book under Miller’s bio.
I posted an article a few weeks ago in which we took a look at the outstanding artwork of Graig Kreindler. He specializes in older baseball players and he had some great pieces that captured Honus Wagner, Roberto Clemente, Arky Vaughan, Bill Mazeroski and Fred Clarke. If you happened to miss that article, I highly recommend clicking the link above.
That article was a popular feature, so I decided to do two more similar articles, with the second one coming out next Sunday. Today’s is about the aforementioned David Finoli, who has written 30 books that cover Pittsburgh sports history, with many of them focusing strictly on the Pittsburgh Pirates.
I reached out to David and he was kind enough to share his story about growing up watching Pittsburgh sports, early childhood memories of the Pirates, and how he got into writing. He also mentions some of his favorite books, with a heavy focus on the ones covering the Pirates, which I asked him to do specifically for this article. I’ll point out that he left out one of my favorites, which is Forbes Field, from the Images of America series.
The rest of this article was written by David Finoli and I thank him for his contribution. Enjoy.
By David Finoli
Growing up in Western Pennsylvania during the 1970s was a dream for a young sports fan. My father’s world when he was young was one where the Steelers were constantly the embarrassment of the NFL while the Pirates produced not only some of the worst teams in the franchise’s history but of Major League Baseball itself. I luckily did not have to suffer through such indignities.
The Steelers of course became the first team to win four Super Bowls, achieving that in only a six-year period, while the Pirates captured six division titles and two World Series championships in the same decade. Add a national championship for the University of Pittsburgh’s football program and one can easily see why Pittsburgh was the place to be in this special decade.
Through this collection of champions it was the Pirates that really caught my attention. When I’d play wiffle ball or little league I’d start out with twirling my bat in a windmill manner just as I was about to hit…just like most of my friends did to emulate one of our favorites, Willie Stargell. Nothing was more exciting that listening to Bob Prince announce the games and exclaim “Chicken on the Hill with Will”, which he did after Stargell would hit a homer, signaling those who were close enough to his restaurant in Pittsburgh for free chicken to celebrate the long ball.
There were so many players that were a pleasure to follow growing up, Bill Mazeroski, Al Oliver, Steve Blass, Dock Ellis, Bobby Robertson, Richie Hebner, Matty Alou and Dave Giusti just to name a few, but there was one we all revered, even to this day, that we all wanted to be like, Roberto Clemente.
Clemente was grace personified both on and off the field, the most honored athlete or citizen Pittsburgh has ever seen. To this day while I will always honor him on New Year’s Eve, the day he tragically was killed while trying to take much needed supplies to earthquake ravaged Nicaragua in 1972, I always try and take his generous spirit with me in how I live my life. It was this group of players who meant so much to me in my formative years, and who were the influences for my passion of both sports and baseball.
Now I wasn’t talented enough athletically to try to recreate my heroes exploits on the fields of play so I had to enjoy them through the writings of an array of talented newspaper men such as Phil Musick, Roy McHugh and the great Myron Cope, who was not just an entertaining talk show host and color man on Steeler broadcasts, but an exceptional writer. These men along with a host of others who reported on my favorite teams were my influence, a sportswriter was without a doubt what I wanted to do with my life.
After a stint as the Sports Editor for my high school newspaper at Greensburg Central Catholic, I enrolled at Duquesne University in 1979 where I received my Bachelor of Arts in Journalism and I enjoyed my time as the Assistant Sports Editor for our esteemed college paper the Duquesne Duke. I was well on my way to fulfilling my dream when a funny thing happened.
I was never the most confident person at that time of my life when it came to my writing and I ended up taking a job in retail management where, while I have enjoyed a long career there, never gave me the fulfillment that I knew writing would. Fast forward 17 years as I was about to celebrate my 40th birthday and still had the dream to write, but the passion was now in producing books focusing on the great tales of my favorite sport, baseball. I still had confidence issues until my wife Vivian, who I’m certain was sick of hearing me whine how I wanted to write a book, looked me in the face and told me to either send in a proposal or just let it go.
The idea I had then was to tell the story of baseball during World War II. I took her advice and sent a proposal to McFarland Publishers. I was stunned when I received positive news and a contract from them. It was at that point my first book, For the Good of the Country was born and the career I had longed for was set in motion.
With my confidence growing and my favorite team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, in the middle of their historic streak of 20 successive sub .500 seasons, I decided to get with my college roommate Bill Ranier and draw up a proposal for the book that we had been discussing since 1975 when I first met Bill at GCC. The idea was to write an all encompassing book about the history of the franchise, one that would remind those who experienced them of the great moments that took place and tell the generation of fans who had only seen substandard results of their local team just what a rich history the Pirates have had.
We submitted the proposal to Sports Publishing Inc. and a year later The Pittsburgh Pirates Encyclopedia hit the shelves. When the Bucs finally ended their string of futility in 2013 and qualified for the playoffs for the first time in 21 years we were lucky enough to be able write the second edition of the encyclopedia, adding a section on minor league affiliates of the Bucs.
I’ve been lucky enough to publish 30 books since I began writing them in 2001. While they include just about every western Pennsylvania major team and college programs within their pages, the biggest percentage of them is about the team I have the most passion for; the Bucs.
In Pirates By The Numbers I write about the uniform numbers worn by every member of the team, who was the best by number, the worst and the most interesting. When the Bucs Won It All focuses on the last world championship captured by the franchise in 1979, while When Cobb Met Wagner tells the tale of the first World Series they won in 1909.
Lately in my career I’ve written books that rank the best in various categories such as Pittsburgh’s Greatest Teams and Pittsburgh’s Greatest Athletes, both of which have a significant baseball influence. As far as the Bucs go there is The 50 Greatest Players in Pittsburgh Pirates History, Classic Bucs; The 50 Greatest Games in Pittsburgh Pirates History and my newest, which will be released in March, 2020, The Pittsburgh Pirates All-Time All Stars: The Best Players at Each Position for the Bucs, which is being published by the Lyons Press. The book was a joy to research and includes the top three at each position except starting pitching, there we have the all-time four-man rotation. I’ve also included an all-time 25-man roster and what the all-time Pirate batting order should look like.
I look back over the last 19 years with the satisfaction that I am doing what I’ve always dreamt about. The hope is for another incredible era of Pittsburgh Pirate baseball; one that I can not only enjoy, but my children, who basically have only known what it is to suffer as a baseball fan, can too. And with it a new series of subjects on my favorite team that I can continue to write about in the future.
