Pittsburgh Pirates

** Played in the era prior to uniform numbers; wore 33 while serving as coach.
. * Manager. ISBN 0-7868-8352-9. Despite this, the Pirates' mediocre performance has translated to subpar attendance figures. In 1977, Aljean Harmetz wrote The Making of The Wizard of Oz, a detailed description of the creation of the film based on interviews and research; it was updated in 1989. Due to its simple, unpretentious concept and strategic usage of the remarkably beautiful Pittsburgh skyline, it is frequently regarded (as in a recent ESPN article) as currently the best park in baseball. It is also consistently in the top 100 on the IMDB Top 250 Films List.

The Pirates opened a new stadium, PNC Park, in 2001. The film is #6 on the American Film Institute's 100 years, 100 movies list, and two songs from the film are on the 100 years, 100 songs list ("Ding, Dong, the Witch is Dead" was #82 and "Over the Rainbow" was #1). Though this rash of trades has not been popular in Pittsburgh, it is generally accepted that it can mostly be attributed to the aforementioned "small market syndrome." It is felt that Littlefield is attempting, with perhaps mixed success, to follow the blueprint created by overachieving small market teams such as the Oakland Athletics and Minnesota Twins. The film has been deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. After the 2004 season, Kendall's salary was also dumped on the Oakland Athletics. For more detail about this, see Possible film and music synchronizations. Pirate fans found this trade much more palatable in the short run, as Pérez led the majors in strikeouts per inning and Bay won the Rookie of the Year Award award in 2004, while Giles put up a subpar season by his standards. There are also several coincidences between this movie and the Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon.

Brian Giles was one of the National League's best hitters for several years, but he and his $9 million salary were also traded in 2003 to the San Diego Padres for youngsters Oliver Pérez, Jason Bay, and Cory Stewart. There is also a similar theory that portrays the elements of the story together as a populist allegory. Enigmatic but talented third baseman Aramis Ramirez was traded to the Chicago Cubs in 2003 for a fairly minimal return under pressure to dump his $6 million salary for 2004, and he proceeded to become a star for the Cubs. and, of course, on the side of the Allies. Current General Manager Dave Littlefield was installed midway through the 2001 season and began overhauling the team to comply with owner Kevin McClatchy's dictum to drastically reduce the payroll. And the seemingly "muddled" good witch, Glinda, appears to represent God: all-knowing, all-powerful.. However, the failure of the Pirates to compete in recent years has been blamed on "small market syndrome"; teams located in small cities such as Pittsburgh and Kansas City cannot compete with New York and Boston without a salary cap or similar agreement, as the better players tend to gravitate towards cities where teams generate more revenue, meaning larger salaries. He is, in fact, the spirit of democracy.

(Interestingly, video footage of Kendall's leg breaking from under him has been circulated on shock sites.). He is both a supreme humanitarian and a misanthrope, in that he excels at detecting the weaknesses of others, because he knows his own so well. No such incident has occurred with Kendall, but he has lost almost all of his power and much of his speed following a broken leg in 1999. The Wizard who encourages and profits from the defeat of the Western Witch turns out to be another version of the same flimflam man she met at home, a cynical politician who realizes that none of Dorothy's allies truly require anything that they didn't already have. Despite poor play in 2001, Bell announced that he would begin "Operation Shutdown", a passive-aggressive ploy in which he would fail to play effectively in response to losing his role as a starter. To defeat Fascism, she receives the aid of Britain (Glinda), the naive peasantry (the Scarecrow), the dehumanized Proletariat (the heartless Tin Man), and the emasculated nobility (Cowardly Lion). Their overall lack of success in the last decade have been blamed partly on former General Manager Cam Bonifay, who gave large contracts to players such as Derek Bell and Jason Kendall while failing to identify, develop, and retain numerous young potential star players. She defeats Stalinism when her house falls upon the Eastern Witch early on, which suggests the overwhelming power of commercial capitalism and its precedence in Western Europe.

However, they did miraculously contend for the 1997 division title, finishing second and only being eliminated in the season's final week, despite having a payroll of only 9 million dollars. She enters a more colourful Europe (Munchkinland), threatened by the Wicked Witches of the East (Stalinism) and West (Fascism). Since then, the Pirates have not had a winning season. Roosevelt's New Deal (the flimflam magician) for hope. Both players complained about the preferential treatment given to Van Slyke, leading some to believe that racism was well-ingrained in Pittsburgh sports. Such obscure and esoteric interpretations usually posit Dorothy as representing a depressed, monochrome America, turning to Franklin D. Before the 1993 season, Bonilla and Bonds would leave for more lucrative contracts elsewhere. Several film scholars have written interesting interpretations of the film, including several attempts by structuralist semiologists suggesting that the film was intended to prepare America for entry into war, although this ignores the fact that the Second World War had not yet started.

The Pirates would win the first three division titles of the 1990s, but failed to advance to the World Series each time, the second two losing closely contested seven-game series to the Atlanta Braves on questionable calls at the end of the final game. On May 24, 2000, a pair of ruby slippers worn by Judy Garland in the film (with red sequins; seven pairs are believed to exist) sold at auction for $666,000. Jim Leyland took over as manager, and the Pirates gradually climbed out of the cellar behind young and exciting players such as Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, Jay Bell, and Andy Van Slyke. Wizard of Oz collectibles, such as autographs and props from the film, are among the most sought-after of all movie memorabilia. Following was a period of decline until the Pirates were regarded as the worst team in baseball during the mid-1980s. Director John Boorman utilized aspects of the film in his 1974 science fiction classic Zardoz. Adopting the then-popular disco anthem "We Are Family" as their theme song, the Pirates won a fifth World Series, again in seven games, in 1979. The movie continues to generate a cult following, despite its age and original creative intent as a musical cinematic fable for children.

Stargell, speedy Omar Moreno and power-hitting but ostentatious and unpopular Dave Parker became the cornerstones of the Pirates as Murtaugh left and Chuck Tanner took over as manager in 1977. After completion of the film, the coat was presented to Baum's widow who confirmed it was indeed his. Clemente died tragically in a plane crash in 1972 while attempting to ship supplies to the victims of an earthquake in Nicaragua, and is today regarded as the most prominent figure in Pirates history, with a riverfront park and suspension bridge named for him. The inside pocket had his name on it. He retired soon afterwards. Frank Baum (the author of the Oz series of books). However, in 1973, Blass suffered a mysterious breakdown in his pitching abilities and posted an outrageous 9.85 ERA. According to another story, which appears to be true, the coat Frank Morgan wore as Professor Marvel, which was handpicked from a second-hand clothing rack, once belonged to L.

They also thought they had a genuine superstar pitcher (historically rare for the Pirates) in Steve Blass, who pitched two excellent games in the World Series and put together excellent seasons in 1968 and 1972. On a late-night talk show in the 1960s, seemingly a little "medicated" herself, the host started to ask about the little people, and she blurted out, "They were drunks!" The audience roared, and that episode fed fuel to the story. The Pirates won their first of five division titles over the next six years, and won their fourth World Series the next year behind a .414 batting average by Clemente. This rumor was enhanced significantly by Judy Garland herself. Slugger Willie Stargell became a fixture in the Pittsburgh lineup, and the Pirates would return to prominence in 1970 when Murtaugh returned as manager and the Pirates' home field, Forbes Field, was demolished in favor of the multi-purpose Three Rivers Stadium. Additionally, the large group of "little people" cast to play the Munchkins were rumored to have held wild drunken orgies, but these stories are likely to have been exaggerated. However, the Pirates struggled for the remainder of the decade, and Murtaugh was replaced by Harry Walker in 1965. The re-release of the movie to theaters for a time in the late 1990s settled this issue, as the picture was large enough to reveal the truth that the small TV screen had made to seem ambiguous.

The 1960s would continue with extremely solid defensive play by Mazeroski and the first Puerto Rican superstar, Roberto Clemente. Clemente was regarded as both one of the game's best all-time hitters and right fielders. It is in fact an animal handler recapturing an escaped bird. In arguably the most memorable World Series in history, the Pirates were defeated by more than ten runs in three games, won three close games, then recovering from a 7-4 deficit late in Game 7 to eventually win on a walk-off home run by Bill Mazeroski. This is not true. The 1960 team featured eight All-Stars, but was widely predicted to lose the World Series to a powerful New York Yankees team. The most common of these, which refuses to die, claims that one of the cast or crew hanged himself on the set, and can be seen in the Enchanted Forest scene. Murtaugh is widely credited for inventing the concept of the closer by frequently playing pitcher Roy Face late in close games. The Wizard of Oz has generated many rumors and stories, some of which have reached the level of urban legends.

The Pirates would have only one winning season until 1958, when Danny Murtaugh took over as manager. The movie is just vague enough on that point to leave the door open to such an explanation. The post-World War II years were not kind to the Pirates, despite the presence of a genuine superstar in Ralph Kiner. A counterargument to that complaint is that this was not necessarily an ordinary dream -- her uncle comments that "for awhile there we thought you were going to leave us" -- and that her experience might have been "real", but in another dimension. The 1927 season was the first for the sharp-hitting combination of brothers Lloyd Waner and Paul Waner, who along with shortstop Arky Vaughan ensured that the Pirates had plenty of Hall of Fame-caliber position players through 1941. The main point of contention with Baum's fans is the ending, which they feel strongly goes against the nature of the original. In Baum's novel, there is no hint that Oz is anything but a real place, to which Dorothy returns repeatedly (she eventually moved to Oz permanently and was joined by her aunt and uncle) in the numerous sequels. The Pirates recovered from a 3-1 deficit to win the 1925 World Series over the Washington Senators, and reached the 1927 World Series before losing in a sweep to the New York Yankees, who at that time had built the most dominant team in baseball. The fans who have this opinion generally tend to agree that Return to Oz, the 1985 semisequel to The Wizard of Oz, is much closer to the feel of the original books and blame The Wizard of Oz for spreading misconceptions of the book, and the unpopularity of the image of Oz Return to Oz portrays.

However, veteran outfielder Max Carey and young players Pie Traynor and Kiki Cuyler, along with a steady if unspectacular pitching staff, brought the Pirates back into the spotlight. The trees then shake in pain and terror. The decline of Honus Wagner, considered by some to be the greatest shortstop ever, led to a number of losing seasons, culminating in a disastrous 51-103 record in 1917, Wagner's last season. He also uses his axe to chop off all the limbs of anthropomorphized trees, which are not capable of speaking as in the movie. With largely the same star players, the Pirates would continue to be a strong team over the next few years and got their first World Series title in 1909, defeating the Detroit Tigers in seven games. Some fans believe that the book tends to be a lot darker and in some places even gruesome, greatly diverging from the movie. For instance, in the book there is a scene in which the Tin Woodsmen chops the head off a tiger. Deacon Phillippe pitched five complete games, winning three of them; but it was not enough. Also the Tin Woodsman's name is changed to simply the Tin Man.

However, owing to injuries to their starting pitchers, they lost the first World Series ever played, in 1903 to Boston. In the book, however, the Witch of the North's name is not given; and Dorothy must journey to visit Glinda, the Good Witch of the South, to learn how to use the silver shoes. The 1901-1903 Pirates completely dominated the National League, in part because they lost few star players to the rival American League. In the movie, Glinda is the name of the Good Witch of the North who returns to show Dorothy how to use the Ruby Slippers to go home. In 1900, the Pirates picked up star players from the defunct Louisville, Kentucky club, including greats like Honus Wagner and Fred Clarke (who also served as the team's manager from 1900 to 1915), triggering a long string of pennants. This was changed to show off the film's sophisticated color technology. In 1890, they merged with the Pittsburgh team from the Players League after that league folded. It is also worth noting that in the original book the enchanted slippers were silver, not ruby.

The AA club picked up a number of players from a defunct Columbus, Ohio team in 1885. Numerous other abridgments occur: for example, the mice have no involvement with the band's escape from the poppies in the movie; a blizzard is used instead. In its early days, the club benefitted three times from mergers with defunct clubs. The book featured several sub-plots (including a confrontation with the belligerent Hammer-Heads and a visit to a town with inhabitants and structures constructed of china) that, though relevant, weren't integral to the main plot. They are in the Central Division of the National League. Baum originally provided complex back stories for all the characters and locations, which are largely omitted in the film. The Pittsburgh Pirates are a Major League Baseball team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The film's basic plot is not very different from the original novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, but quite a bit less detailed.

Bradenton Pirates. The movie ends with Dorothy hugging Toto and exclaiming to her Aunt Em that there really is no place like home. Lynchburg Hillcats
Hickory Crawdads
Williamsport Crosscutters. She tells them about her journey, and they tell her it was all a bad dream. Altoona Curve. Dorothy and Toto say goodbye to their friends, and Glinda instructs her to click her heels together and repeat the words, "There's no place like home." She awakens in her Kansas house surrounded by her family and friends. Indianapolis Indians. When asked what she has learned, a tearful Dorothy replies that, if she can't find what she's looking for in her own backyard, then she never really lost it to begin with.

National League
. both herself and "Toto too!" She didn't tell her at first, though, because Dorothy had to learn a lesson. Pitching strikeouts: Bob Veale (276, 1965). She tells Dorothy that she can use the ruby slippers to return home.. Pitching wins: 28 Jack Chesbro (28, 1902). Just as Dorothy is resigning herself to spending the rest of her life in Oz, Glinda appears. Hitting streak: Danny O'Connell (26 games, 1953). ("I can't come back! I don't know how it works!").

Walks: Ralph Kiner (137, 1951). Dorothy goes after him, and the Wizard accidentally takes off, unable to get back to the ground. Stolen bases: Omar Moreno (96, 1980). Just before takeoff, though, Toto jumps out of the balloon's basket to chase a cat. Owen Wilson (36, 1912) [MLB record]. He announces to his people that he will leave the Scarecrow, the Tinman and the Lion in charge of the Emerald City. Triples: J. He promises to take Dorothy home in the same balloon that got him there in the first place.

Doubles: Paul Waner (62, 1932). He explains to them that his presence in Oz was an accident, that he was lost in a hot air balloon, and that he is, in fact, from Kansas as well (which seems strange since the text on his balloon reads "Omaha", a town in Nebraska). Hits: Paul Waner (237, 1927). He gives the Scarecrow a diploma, the Tinman a heart-shaped clock (he calls it a "testimonial"), and the Lion a badge of courage. Runs: Kiki Cuyler (144, 1925). The four friends are horrified, but the Wizard solves their problems. Runs batted in: Paul Waner (131, 1927). Dorothy scolds the Wizard for lying, and they soon discover, thanks to Toto's exploring, that the Wizard is just a man behind a curtain (also played by Frank Morgan), and not really a wizard at all.

Home runs: Ralph Kiner (54, 1949). He tells them to come back later. Batting average: Arky Vaughan (.385, 1935). Once they are in the wizard's room they present the broom to a shocked Wizard. Branch Rickey. Footage of this scene no longer exists, except for a few frames seen in a later re-issue trailer. Bob Prince (legendary announcer nicknamed The Gunner). Originally, the crew returned to the Emerald City to a "hero's welcome", with everyone singing "The Wicked Witch is Dead". This too was cut after early previews.

Bill McKechnie. They give Dorothy the broomstick and allow them to leave. John Galbreath. To the travelers' surprise, her soldiers are delighted. Barney Dreyfuss (former owner and creator of the World Series). Dorothy grabs a nearby bucket of water and, in throwing the water on her friend, she also hits the Witch and causes her to melt. 42 Jackie Robinson (retired throughout baseball). The Witch stops them, and once she and her soldiers have them cornered, sets the Scarecrow on fire.

40 Danny Murtaugh *. When they finally get inside the castle, they find Dorothy and try to escape (to the tune of Moussorgsky's A Night on Bald Mountain). 33 Honus Wagner **. It too was cut after an early preview of the film.). 21 Roberto Clemente. (Originally, during these scenes there was a reprise of Dorothy, in terror, singing "Over the Rainbow" with slightly altered lyrics. 20 Pie Traynor. Dorothy cries out to her aunt, but the image of Aunt Em soon turns into the Wicked Witch, cackling and mocking Dorothy, terrifying her; then turning and facing the camera, continuing her devilish laughter before fading out.

  9 Bill Mazeroski. As she waits and cries, she sees her Aunt Em in the crystal ball, wondering where her niece is.   8 Willie Stargell. When the hourglass runs out, Dorothy will die.   4 Ralph Kiner. Dorothy, meanwhile, is locked inside a chamber with an hourglass and a crystal ball.   1 Billy Meyer *. He finds their friends and leads them to the castle to save Dorothy.

Jim Leyland (1990, 1992). The latter, however, escapes. Manager of the Year