TRAYNOR, Harold Joseph ("Pie")

(b. 11 November1899 in Framingham, Massachusetts; d. 16 March 1972 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania), Hall of Fame third baseman who was manager for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Traynor, the son of James H. Traynor, a newspaper compositor and baseball enthusiast, and Lydia Matthews, grew up in the Boston suburb of Somerville. The story of the origin of his nickname "Pie" has several versions, but according to Traynor it went back to when he was a foul ball retriever for a local baseball team at the age of eight. As a reward for doing a good job, the team captain would take him home and treat him to a piece of pie. Soon team members started calling him "Pie Face," which later was shortened to "Pie."

After graduating from Bingham High School in 1918, Traynor became a messenger and office boy in Boston. However, baseball was his true love. A shortstop, he had played high school and sandlot ball, and in 1919 he played semiprofessional ball on Cape Cod. Impressed by a tryout in the spring of 1920, the Boston Red Sox arranged for Traynor to play with their Portsmouth, Virginia, affiliate in the Virginia League. He performed so well that the Pittsburgh Pirates bought his contract in August 1920 for $10,000, then a record price for a player in the Virginia League. At the end of Portsmouth's season, Traynor joined the Pirates for the remainder of the 1920 major league season. He appeared in seventeen games and gave a glimpse of his further abilities by winning a game with a ninth-inning single in his first big league at bat.

The Pirates farmed out Traynor to the Birmingham Barons of the Southern League for the 1921 season, although he did appear in seven games for the Pirates at the end of the major league season. Traynor hit .336 at Birmingham, but he committed sixty-four errors. Moreover the Pirates already had a quality shortstop in Walter "Rabbit" Maranville. As a result, when he joined the Pirates permanently in 1922, Traynor was shifted to third base. Learning the position quickly, the six-foot, 170-pound Traynor became an outstanding defensive third baseman. He possessed quick hands and feet and a strong throwing arm and was equally adept at charging toward home plate for a bunt, ranging to his left to snag a ground ball, or stopping a hot smash directly over the third base bag to prevent a near certain two-base hit. To make it easier to field balls, Traynor used a glove with a felt interior rather than leather in the belief that if he did not field a hard-hit ball cleanly, the felt would cause the ball to drop at his feet, enabling him to pick it up quickly and throw out the runner. While Traynor led National League third basemen in fielding average only once, he led in putouts seven times and in assists three times.

Traynor's fielding prowess was matched by his success with the bat. In his first full season in the major leagues he batted a solid .282, but in 1923 he batted .338 and drove in 101 runs. A right-handed line-drive hitter, Traynor sprayed the ball to all fields rather than swinging for home runs and, while not exceptionally fast, knew how to stretch singles into extra-base hits. He struck out only 278 times in 7,559 at bats in his major league career. Usually batting fifth in the Pirates' order, Traynor had a career batting average of .320 and amassed 2,416 base hits. His best years were 1929 and 1930, when he hit .356 and .366, respectively. Traynor had seven seasons in which he drove in more than 100 runs and a lifetime total of 1,273 runs batted in. His World Series record was mixed. He hit .346 in 1925, when the Pirates defeated the Washington Senators four games to three. However, he hit only .200 in 1927, when the New York Yankees swept the Pirates four games to none. Traynor married Eva Helmer on 3 January 1931; they had no children.

In June 1934, with the Pirates in fourth place, Traynor replaced George Gibson as manager of the Pirates. The team, however, did not improve under his leadership and finished the season in fifth place. During that season Traynor injured his shoulder in a collision with another player at home plate. Thereafter he could not throw well, and his playing career virtually came to an end. He played in fifty-seven games in 1935, none in 1936, and only five in 1937.

Traynor continued to manage the Pirates but with limited success, for while the Pirates had several outstanding hitters, the pitching was mediocre. The team finished fourth in 1935, fourth in 1936, and third in 1937. For much of the 1938 season the Pirates were in first place; however, they faded in late September and finished in second place, two games behind the Chicago Cubs. The next year the Pirates finished in sixth place, and Traynor was fired. Given the limited talent on the Pirates roster, Traynor's overall record as a manager, 457 wins and 406 losses, was commendable, although some suggested that Traynor's gentle, outgoing personality and easygoing relationship with his players kept him from being more successful.

Following his managerial tenure, Traynor worked for the Pirates as an assistant to the farm director for several years, and later he was a part-time scout and instructor for the team. In 1944 he became a sports broadcaster for a Pittsburgh radio station, a post he held into the 1960s. During the 1950s and the 1960s he was a familiar local television personality with his commercials for a heating company on a wrestling show and late-night movies. Affable, always smiling, and a good storyteller, Traynor was one of Pittsburgh's most beloved residents, and he regularly spoke at banquets and business meetings. He died of heart failure in 1972 and is buried in Pittsburgh.

Traynor was highly regarded during and after his playing career. The Sporting News named him to its Major League All-Star team seven times between 1925 and 1933, and in the same period he finished in the top ten in voting for the National League Most Valuable Player award six times. In 1948 he was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, and in 1969 the Baseball Writer's Association named him the greatest third baseman over baseball's first one hundred years. Several post–World War II third basemen exceeded many of Traynor's fielding and hitting marks, but his finesse fielding, clutch hitting, overall consistency, competitive drive, and kindly spirit secure his place as one of the best-ever third basemen.

Material relating to Traynor's career is in Traynor's biographical file in the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh and in Bob Smizik, The Pittsburgh Pirates (1990). Traynor's statistics are in Total Baseball (1999), edited by John Thorn, Pete Palmer, Michael Gershman, and David Pietrusza, with Matthew Silverman and Sean Lahman. Obituaries are in the New York Times (17 Mar. 1972), the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (17 Mar. 1972), the Pittsburgh Press (17 Mar. 1972), and the Sporting News (1 Apr. 1972).

John Kennedy Ohl