Louis W. Bierbauer (September 28, 1865 – January 31, 1926) was an American professional baseball player. He was a second baseman in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

during the late 1880s and 1890s. Over that period of time, he played for the

Philadelphia Athletics The Philadelphia Athletics were a Major League Baseball team that played in Philadelphia from 1901 to 1954, when they moved to Kansas City, Missouri, and became the Kansas City Athletics. Following another move in 1967, the team became the Oakl ...

of the American Association before joining many other major leaguers in jumping to the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders in the newly formed

Players' League The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (PL), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball league of the 19th century. The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Prof ...

for the 1890 season, a league which folded after just one year of play.

A "piratical" act

When the Players' League folded in 1891, pretty much every player that left the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

or the American Association for the league in 1890 was allowed to return to their original team. However Lou Bierbauer never signed a contract to return to Philadelphia Athletics. The National League's Pittsburgh Alleghenys realizing Bierbauer's absence in the Athletics line-up soon became determined to sign him at all cost.

Alfred Spink Alfred Henry Spink (August 24, 1854 – May 27, 1928) was a Canadian-born American baseball writer and club organizer based mainly in St. Louis, Missouri. In 1886, he established a weekly newspaper, ''The Sporting News'' (TSN), that emerged from ...

, the founder of the ''

Sporting News The ''Sporting News'' is a website and former magazine publication owned by Sporting News Holdings, which is a U.S.-based sports media company formed in December 2020 by a private investor consortium. It was originally established in 1886 as a pr ...

'', wrote about the incident in his 1910 book "The National Game". According to Spink, the Alleghenys' manager, Ned Hanlon, traveled to Erie in the dead of winter to sign him with Alleghenys. The Athletics, upon learning of this deal, objected to Bierbauer's signing and stated that he should return to the A's, since that was the team that employed him before his defection to the failed Players' League. An official for the American Association also objected to Bierbauer signing with the Alleghenys and called the act "piratical." However the Alleghenys contended that since "the

merican Association ''Merican'' is an EP by the American punk rock band the Descendents, released February 10, 2004. It was the band's first release for Fat Wreck Chords and served as a pre-release to their sixth studio album '' Cool to Be You'', released the fol ...

did not reserve Bierbauer, he was a free agent". An arbitrator agreed, and soon players and fans alike were calling the team the "

Pirates Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence by ship or boat-borne attackers upon another ship or a coastal area, typically with the goal of stealing cargo and other valuable goods. Those who conduct acts of piracy are called pirates, v ...

."Why is our baseball team called the Pirates?
''Pittsburgh City Paper'', August 14, 2003.

Legacy

Bierbauer played for the Pirates for six seasons before moving on to the St. Louis Browns from 1897 to 1898. He later finished his professional baseball career in the minor leagues. Alfred Spink would go on to call Bierbauer the "one-time king of second basemen", a great "all-around player" who dominated both the National League and the American Association. In a 1955 story also reprinted in ''The Pirates Reader'', a friend of Bierbauer told the ''

Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph The ''Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph'' was an evening daily newspaper published in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania from 1927 to 1960. Part of the Hearst newspaper chain, it competed with ''The Pittsburgh Press'' and the ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'' until bein ...

'' that "Louie loved the Pirates and rooted for them until the day of his death in 1926." Bierbauer died in his hometown of Erie, Pennsylvania at the age of 60, and is interred at

Erie Cemetery Erie Cemetery is a historic rural cemetery located in Erie, Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; (Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great ...

References

;General * ;Specific

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bierbauer, Lou 1865 births 1926 deaths American people of German descent Baseball players from Pennsylvania Major League Baseball second basemen Philadelphia Athletics (AA) players Brooklyn Ward's Wonders players Pittsburgh Pirates players St. Louis Browns (NL) players Sportspeople from Erie, Pennsylvania 19th-century baseball players Minor league baseball managers Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Hartford Indians players Erie Sailors players East Liverpool Potters (baseball) players

A "piratical" act

Legacy

See also

References

External links