To write about the Pirates honoring Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner tonight is to write about majestic home runs, about unceasing largesse toward his teammates, about "Kiner's Korner" at Forbes Field and about his trade to the Chicago Cubs.
And maybe, too, that it's about time.
"It's good to see them honor some of the older players," former Pirates pitcher Vernon Law said. "I think a lot of times, people forget about the older players and what they did. We get kind of forgotten."
Kiner, who hit home run after home run for the Pirates from 1946 into 1953, can relate.
"Honus Wagner was a coach when I played," Kiner said. "I told him once, 'Honus, you must have had a lot of girlfriends.' He said, 'I did -- but they've all died.'"
Kiner, 80, paused, laughing softly. "You know," he said a moment later, "I think a lot of my fans are gone, too."
No doubt. But there should be a lot of people at PNC Park tonight who remember much about Kiner and his impact on the Pirates and their fans during those seven-plus seasons when he was the top home run hitter in baseball.
As a rookie in 1946, he led the National League with 23 home runs, becoming the first Pirates home run champion since Tommy Leach led the league with six in 1902. The next year, Kiner tied Johnny Mize for the home run crown with 51. In '48, he again tied Mize for the prize with 40.
In '49, Kiner bashed 16 home runs in September and finished with a league-high 54. That made him the first National Leaguer to have two 50-plus home run seasons.
In '50, Kiner hit 47, leading the league a fifth time and setting a league record for most home runs in two consecutive seasons.
Kiner also led the league in home runs in '51 (43) and tied for the lead with Chicago's Hank Sauer in '52 (37).
Kiner is the only player to lead a league in home runs over seven consecutive seasons -- and those were his first seven seasons in the major leagues.
"He was the premier home run hitter of his time," former Pirates pitcher Bob Friend said.
"He was a superstar when we didn't even have that term. He had the kind of natural power that comes along once in a lifetime. As soon as the ball was hit, you knew it was gone. Ralph had tremendous height on his home runs."
"His home runs were high," former Cincinnati pitcher Joe Nuxhall said. "They were 'fan-friendly' -- because you watched them go for a l-o-n-g time."
Kiner, whose uniform No. 4 was retired by the Pirates 16 years ago, tonight will be honored for his home run prowess. He still ranks second behind Willie Stargell on the team's all-time list with 301.
The Pirates will present Kiner with a bronze sculpture of Kiner's hands holding a bat. That sculpture will be placed near the left-field rotunda at PNC Park. Kiner, a former left fielder, will throw out the ceremonial first pitch.
"It's always an honor to be honored," Kiner said. "It's a great feeling after all these years to still be remembered. Pittsburgh was a great place for me. I loved it."
The Pirates could just as easily honor Kiner for being a great person and teammate.
"A special, special person," said former shortstop Dick Groat, who was a rookie in 1952 when he roomed with Kiner. "He was a class gentleman in every possible way. He was just absolutely outstanding. To this day, I'm proud to have roomed with Ralph Kiner -- and proud to know him."
"He's the best guy I've ever met," said former first baseman Tony Bartirome, part of the Pirates' all-minimum salary infield in 1952. "He was an established star, and we had a whole team of rookies, and he couldn't do enough for you. Just a peach of a guy."
"I'm glad they're honoring him. He was a great hitter -- and a great guy besides. If you talk to 100 guys and find one who thinks Ralph was less than a great guy, I'd be surprised."
Kiner became a Pirates player in 1946 after spending three years in the military.
"I hit the scene at the right time," he said. "It was just after the war. People were eager to get back to the American way of life. And baseball was the sport in 1946."
And Kiner was baseball in Pittsburgh that year and over the next several years. One reason? The Pirates didn't have much else.
During Kiner's Pirates career, the team finished over .500 in only one season. That was 1948, when the overachieving Pirates were 83-71 and finished fourth.
In the other six full seasons Kiner spent in Pittsburgh, the Pirates finished a combined 205 games under .500.
"We didn't have a whole lot to cheer about," he said.
But the fans had Kiner -- and for a brief time Hank Greenberg -- to cheer about.
The Pirates acquired Greenberg in 1947, a year after he led the American League in home runs with 44. To capitalize on that addition, the Pirates altered Forbes Field, shortening the left-field wall from 365 feet to 335 feet in the corner and from 406 feet to 355 feet in the left-center-field gap.
"Greenberg Gardens" -- which became "Kiner's Korner" a year later -- didn't benefit Greenberg that much. He hit 25 home runs in his only season with the Pirates, but Greenberg's presence helped Kiner.
"He really helped me," Kiner said. "Really helped me with his advice more than anything."
After 1948, the Pirates hit the skids. They were 71-83 in '49, then dropped to 57-96 in '50. They finished in last place -- and finished last in four of the next five seasons, too.
But there still was Kiner's annual pursuit of the home run lead. The fans flocked to Forbes Field. From 1947-51, the Pirates posted -- to that point -- their top five single-season attendance marks.
Thing was, not all the fans stayed until the end of the games. It got to the point where they would stay until they were sure Kiner had his final at-bat, then they would leave -- in droves.
"In 1951 and '52, we really got bad," Friend said. "The race was over for us in the first two months of the season, but Ralph was always in the home run race."
The Pirates hit bottom in '52 when they set a club record -- post-1900 -- with 112 losses. Branch Rickey, a cost-conscious general manager, wanted to cut Kiner's salary of $90,000 by 25 percent, the maximum allowed at that time.
Rickey argued that Kiner's home run total had dropped. Kiner countered, "The only reason people come out to see the club is the home runs."
It was then that Rickey offered his famous "We finished last with you. We can finish last without you" line.
Kiner, whose $90,000 salary was the highest in baseball, signed for the 25 percent cut, but he felt his days with the Pirates were numbered.
On June 4, 1953 -- with the Pirates in Chicago -- Rickey traded Kiner to the Cubs in a 10-player deal that netted the Pirates six players and $150,000 in cash.
Kiner's former teammates that night looked for somebody else to buy dinner. Their meal ticket was no longer with them.
"If we'd all go out to dinner and you wanted to buy Ralph a drink, that was OK with him," Groat said. "But when the big tab came, he always picked it up."
Kiner, who was beginning to battle a bad back, stayed with the Cubs through the 1954 season, during which he batted .285 with 22 home runs and 73 RBIs.
That winter, the Cubs traded Kiner to Cleveland, where Greenberg was the general manager. Kiner, always one to play almost every game in a season, appeared in only 113 games for the Indians in 1955. He batted .243 with 18 home runs and 54 RBIs.
It was his final season.
"I missed a lot of games that season," Kiner said. "I had to sit around and watch the games. I didn't like that at all. That's when I decided to get out of baseball. Of course, if I'd made the money then that the players do now, I'd have hung around."
Kiner did hang around baseball. He's been part of the New York Mets' broadcast crew since the team's inception in 1962 and still does about 45 games a season on television and radio.
He finished his playing career with a .279 career batting average, a .548 slugging percentage, 369 home runs and 1,015 RBIs. He ranks only behind Babe Ruth and Mark McGwire in home runs per 100 at-bats.
Paul Meyer can be reached at 412-263-1144.
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