"That man is the slickest fielder I have ever seen."
Ty Cobb
Early Years
Harold Joseph Traynor was born November 11, 1899, in Framingham, Massachusetts. Very early in his life, he received the nickname "Pie," referring to his preference for that particular pastry. His love of baseball developed early. When Traynor was 8, he used to retrieve foul balls for a team that played near his home. By age 10, he was a regular on the sandlots. He showed much promise in high school, and was scouted by many teams, including the Pittsburgh Pirates, who helped sign him to the Virginia League.
Major Leagues
Traynor was called up by the Pirates in 1920 to play shortstop. However, he was moved to third base in the 1921 season, and this is the position he is most remembered for. In fact, he is often regarded as the best defensive third baseman ever to play the game, recording over 2,000 putouts and 300 double plays at the position.
"He had the quickest hands and the quickest arms of any third baseman I ever saw."
Charley Grimm, teammate
At the ripe age of 23, Traynor had an incredible season in the big leagues by any standards: he batted .338, stole 27 bases, scored 108 runs, had 101 RBIs, and led the league in triples with 19. He even finished 8th in the National League in home runs - with the astounding total of 12!
Traynor twice helped lead the Pirates to the World Series, in 1925 and 1927, winning the championship in 1925 (where Pie batted .346.) Traynor had 100 RBIs or more 7 times, and like Joe Sewell, was a notoriously hard strikeout. In 1929, he only struck out 7 times in 540 at bats!
"He was a mechanically perfect third baseman, a man of intellectual worth on the field of play."
Branch Rickey
A two-time All-Star (both in 1933 and 1934), Traynor took over managing the team in 1934. He unexpectedly broke his arm in late 1934, and entered into a steady decline. He missed over 100 games in 1935, and elected to sit out the 1936 season to serve as manager full time. He served as a pinch hitter in 1937, but retired full time and resigned as manger at the end of the year.
After Baseball
Traynor stayed on as a scout for the Pirates, and in 1948 was inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall Of Fame. That same year, he was hired to do a radio show about the Pirates. Since Traynor had never learned to drive a car (fearing it would make him lazy), he walked the 10 miles from his house to the station every day. Traynor also coached at Duquesne for several years, and operated a sporting goods store with another local baseball legend, Honus Wagner.
Pie Traynor passed away March 16, 1972 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he had spent his entire illustrious baseball career.
"If I had to pick the greatest team player in baseball today - and I have some of the greats on my own club - I would have to pick Pie Traynor."
John McGraw
Lifetime Statistics:
YEAR TEAM G AB R H D T HR RBI SB CS BB K BA
1920 PIT NL 17 52 6 11 3 1 0 2 1 3 3 6 .212
1921 PIT NL 7 19 0 5 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 2 .263
1922 PIT NL 142 571 89 161 17 12 4 81 17 3 27 28 .282
1923 PIT NL 153 616 108 208 19 19 12 101 28 13 34 19 .338
1924 PIT NL 142 545 86 160 26 13 5 82 24 18 37 26 .294
1925 PIT NL 150 591 114 189 39 14 6 106 15 9 52 19 .320
1926 PIT NL 152 574 83 182 25 17 3 92 8 0 38 14 .317
1927 PIT NL 149 573 93 196 32 9 5 106 11 0 22 11 .342
1928 PIT NL 144 569 91 192 38 12 3 124 12 0 28 10 .337
1929 PIT NL 130 540 94 192 27 12 4 108 13 0 30 7 .356
1930 PIT NL 130 497 90 182 22 11 9 119 7 0 48 19 .366
1931 PIT NL 155 615 81 183 37 15 2 103 6 0 54 28 .298
1932 PIT NL 135 513 74 169 27 10 2 68 6 0 32 20 .329
1933 PIT NL 154 624 85 190 27 6 1 82 5 0 35 24 .304
1934 PIT NL 119 444 62 137 22 10 1 61 3 0 21 27 .309
1935 PIT NL 57 204 24 57 10 3 1 36 2 0 10 17 .279
1937 PIT NL 5 12 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 .167
CAREER 1941 7559 1183 2416 371 164 58 1273 158 46 472 278 .320
* Bold denotes led league.
Sources:
Hall Of Fame Index
Joe Tinker | Dazzy Vance