Forbes Field
Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania
Marker Inscription
The first all steel and concrete ballpark in the nation, Forbes Field was home to the Pirates, site of four World Series in 1909, 1925, 1927, & 1960 and two All-Star games. Hosted the Homestead Grays, Steelers, and Pitt Panthers, as well as political rallies and boxing matches. Site of Bill Mazeroski's game seven, ninth inning, World Series winning home run on October 13, 1960 and Babe Ruth's last 3 home runs. Damaged by fire; razed 1972.
Erected by Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission
The Story
When Forbes Field opened in 1909, it was the first ballpark in the nation built entirely of steel and concrete, a durable temple that would host the Pittsburgh Pirates for six decades. Its outfield saw four World Series, the Negro League's Homestead Grays, the Steelers, Pitt football, and boxing bouts—and on October 13, 1960, Bill Mazeroski's ninth-inning home run in Game 7 gave the Pirates the championship in one of baseball's most famous walk-off moments. Babe Ruth hit the last three home runs of his career here before the park was razed in 1972.
Why it matters
Forbes Field pioneered the modern permanent ballpark and served as a shared stage for the major leagues, Negro League baseball, and Pittsburgh's civic life across the first half of the 20th century.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When Forbes Field opened in 1909, Pittsburgh was one of the beating hearts of industrial America, a city of steel mills, immigrant labor, and smoke-darkened skies where the mills ran around the clock. A city like that worked hard, and it wanted a place to play hard too. A great ballpark was a statement that Pittsburgh had arrived among the first rank of American cities.
The ballpark's very construction told that story. It was built of steel and concrete at a time when most ballparks were rickety firetraps of wood, and Pittsburgh, of all places, was exactly where such a thing should first appear. The city that forged the nation's beams built a stadium to match.
For the next six decades, through two world wars, the Depression, and the long postwar boom, Forbes Field stood in the Oakland neighborhood as a fixed point in the city's life. Fashions changed, the skyline changed, but on a summer afternoon the crowd still streamed through the gates to the same green field.
People & events
The field saw more baseball history than most cities see in a century. It hosted four World Series, in 1909, 1925, 1927, and 1960, and welcomed two All-Star Games, gathering the greatest players of their eras onto a single Pittsburgh diamond.
Two moments tower over the rest. The first belongs to Babe Ruth, who hit the final three home runs of his legendary career here, a fitting close for a slugger who had rewritten what the game could be. The second belongs to a local hero, Bill Mazeroski. On October 13, 1960, in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 7 of the World Series, Mazeroski swung and sent the ball over the wall, ending the Series on the spot and touching off one of the most joyous celebrations the city has ever known.
But Forbes Field was never only a Pirates ballpark. It hosted the Homestead Grays, one of the crown jewels of Negro League baseball, whose brilliance unfolded on this same grass during the long decades when the color line barred Black players from the majors. The Steelers played football here, the Pitt Panthers competed here, and the stands filled for boxing matches and political rallies. It was, in the fullest sense, the city's common ground.
Its place in the American story
Forbes Field's first claim on the national story is architectural. As the first ballpark built entirely of steel and concrete, it pointed the way toward the permanent, fireproof stadiums that would soon replace the wooden parks across the country. In a real sense, the modern American ballpark begins here.
Its second claim is human. The presence of the Homestead Grays makes this ground part of the larger history of Negro League baseball, a world of extraordinary talent forced to build its own stage in the shadow of segregation. To honor Forbes Field honestly is to honor both the major-league glory and the Black baseball greatness that shared this field.
And then there is Mazeroski's home run, still the only walk-off home run to end a Game 7 in World Series history. It is one of those rare sporting moments that escapes the sports pages entirely and becomes a piece of national folklore, replayed and retold long after most box scores are forgotten.
If you visit
Forbes Field itself is gone, damaged by fire and razed in 1972, so don't come expecting turnstiles and grandstands. Come instead as a kind of detective, reading the ghost of a ballpark in the modern landscape that grew up over it. Sites like this reward slow, attentive walking.
Soak in the neighborhood. This is Oakland, the university and cultural district, so the setting is lively and easy to fold into a day of museums and campus wandering. Picture the crowds that once poured through these streets on game day, and the roar that must have risen on that October afternoon in 1960.
The best way to feel the place is to carry the stories with you and let them play against the present. Stand quietly and imagine the crack of Ruth's bat, the Grays taking the field, the impossible ninth inning. A great ballpark's real foundation is memory, and here the memory is deep enough to stand on.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · Bill Mazeroski
- · Babe Ruth
Related events
- · 1960 World Series
- · Homestead Grays baseball
Themes & tags
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