Southwestern Pennsylvania is heralded by many as the birthplace of professional football. Here lived the athletes who were first paid to play. In Pittsburgh, the Allegheny Athletic Association paid Pudge Heffelfinger $500 in 1892 to help them beat their rivals, the Pittsburgh Athletic Club. In Latrobe, the first all-professional club was fielded in 1897. The Birthplace of Professional Football celebrates the contributions that the towns in southwestern Pennsylvania made to the sport, a national obsession in this country. These stories also come from towns such as Jeannette and Greensburg and...

For 46 days in the spring of 1884, Altoona had the honor of having a major-league baseball team, the Mountain City. For the next 115 years, despite the fact that baseball flourished here in the form of the game that the men of the Pennsylvania Railroad played, professional baseball floundered as six teams came and six teams left. Finally, in 1999, Altoona proved it could support a professional team when the Curve came to town. Since then, an impressive 10 percent of the town's population has shown up at every game, showing the love the community has for the national pastime.

The Pittsburgh Pirates have thrilled their fans for more than 120 years. Beginning as the Allegheny's, the Pirates boast 35 hall of famers, five world champions, nine National League pennants, and nine division titles. Treasured memories, from Honus Wagner's all-around excellence and Mazeroski's remarkable 1960 World Series blast to Roberto Clemente's grace on and off the field, are captured in this book.