An admirer of Pirate president Barney Dreyfuss, prolific baseball writer Frederick G. Lieb consorted with the club s biggest stars, christened the legendary Dreyfuss the first-division man, and produced "The Pittsburgh Pirates, "one of the fifteen celebrated histories of major league teams commissioned by G. P. Putnam s Sons in the 1940s and 1950s. Originally published in 1948, Lieb s history ranges from the ball club s earliest professional days in the late nineteenth century as the Pittsburgh Alleghenies to its spring training session in preparation for the 1948 season, a span that included...