| 1946 Pittsburgh Pirates | ||
|---|---|---|
| League | National League | |
| Ballpark | Forbes Field | |
| City | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[1] | |
| Owners | Bill Benswanger; Frank E. McKinney, Bing Crosby, John W. Galbreath and Thomas P. Johnson | |
| General managers | Ray Kennedy | |
| Managers | Frankie Frisch, Spud Davis | |
| Radio | WWSW Rosey Rowswell, Jack Craddock | |
| ||
The 1946 Pittsburgh Pirates season was the 65th in the history of the Major League Baseball franchise and its jubilee of diamonds in the National League. The Pirates finished seventh in the league standings with a record of 63–91, and attracted 749,962 fans to Forbes Field.
It was a year of transition for the Pirates. Ralph Kiner made his debut, and he proceeded to lead the National League in home runs with 23. He was one of only two NL players to reach 20+ home runs that year (Johnny Mize was runner-up with 22), but 1946 would be the first of seven straight years in which Kiner would lead his league, or tie for the lead, in homers en route to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
On August 8, the Pirates changed hands for the first time since 1900 when the heirs of Hall of Fame owner Barney Dreyfuss sold the franchise to a syndicate led by Indianapolis banker Frank E. McKinney and including John W. Galbreath, Thomas P. Johnson and Bing Crosby. Galbreath became majority owner in 1950, and under his family's 35-year stewardship, the Pirates would win the 1960, 1971 and 1979 World Series championships.
The sale was accompanied by changes in the dugout and front office. Frankie Frisch, manager since 1940, resigned his post September 27 with three games to go in the season. After coach Spud Davis finished the campaign, the Pirates acquired 37-year-old Billy Herman, like Frisch a Hall of Fame second baseman, and named him playing manager for 1947. General manager Ray Kennedy, in only his first year in the position, was demoted by the new owners to farm system director and replaced by Roy Hamey.
In addition, the 1946 Pirates were the focus of an unsuccessful unionizing campaign by the recently formed American Baseball Guild. After the Guild successfully enrolled 34 of the club's 36 roster players when the season began, it was rebuffed by Pirates' then-president William Benswanger when it attempted to start collective bargaining talks. In response, the Guild called for a strike authorization vote on June 7 before a game at Forbes Field. Although 20 of the team's 36 players voted yes to a strike, the union fell short of the needed two-thirds supermajority, and the Guild movement collapsed. Players would form their own association in 1953, and the MLBPA would become their first official bargaining unit in 1966.