There has only been one single-admission tripleheader in Major League Baseball history.
As the 1920 season drew to a close, the Pirates were chasing Cincinnati for third place in the National League. This was important to the players, since the top three teams received shares of the world's series revenue.
The Bucs' final home series was three games with the Reds, ending Saturday, October 2. They would then finish the season in Chicago on the 3rd, since Pennsylvania blue laws barred Sunday home games. After sweeping three games from the Pirates in Cincinnati, the Redlegs were 3 1/2 games ahead with four to go.
On the morning of Sept. 30, the grounds at Forbes Field were declared unfit for play due to rain, and that afternoon's game was rescheduled as part of a Saturday doubleheader.
The next day, according to that evening's Pittsburg Press, "The grounds were in fair shape just before noon but shortly after 12 o'clock rain began to fall, making the field a veritable quagmire. A double-header is carded for tomorrow but the Pirates cannot finish higher than fourth place, today's postponement killing their chances for passing the Reds in the league standing. The first game of the Saturday twin bill will begin at 1:30 and the final contest of the season here is scheduled to start directly after the opening session is concluded."
The Press added that, "Tomorrow night, (manager George) Gibson's men leave for Chicago where the club meets the Cubs in the final contest of the National League. A number of players will form a barnstorming club under the leadership of George Cutshaw to play teams within a radius of 100 miles of Chicago."
The Press' Oct. 2 sports headline was "TRIPLE-HEADER CARDED TODAY." L.H. Wollen wrote that, "Pittsburg fandom should certainly get its fill of baseball today, the last day of the aNtional [sic] league season in the Smoky City, for the Pirates and Redlegs are billed to hook up in three games, the first one of which begins at 12 o'clock, and the others forming the balance of the afternoon's entertainment which, it is expected, will be completed before darkness falls."
Pirates president Barney Dreyfuss wanted to give his players a chance to earn the money they would get for finishing third. He contacted the league office, and NL President John A. Heydler officially sanctioned the tripleheader. There was no rule prohibiting it.
According to The Press of Oct. 3, "It was the first time in the history of the National league that three games were put on in one afternoon although upon two occasions three games were played in a day, one of them being disposed of in the morning." (The Society for American Baseball Research shows those as Pittsburgh at Brooklyn on Labor Day, 1890, and Louisville at Baltimore on Labor Day, 1896. In both cases, the home team swept all three games.)
Unfortunately, no attendance is listed, but it was "a crowd which was augmented as the contests proceeded."
The Pirates' chance at third place ended early, when "the Redlegs, wielding their willows with telling effect, clouted out a 13 to 4 victory" in the first game. Wilbur Cooper started for the Bucs, and Ray Fisher pitched a complete game for the Reds.
The Reds scored in the top of the first when Jake Daubert led off with a triple, then scored on Edd Roush's double. They added another in the second when Larry Kopf tripled and future Philadelphia Eagles coach Greasy Neale singled. The Pirates scored three in the bottom of the second on two errors by shortstop Kopf, two walks and a Charlie Grimm single to take a 3-2 lead.
The lead was short-lived, though, as the Reds scored six in the third to put the game away. Daubert led off with a triple. Heinie Groh's double drove him in. Roush fouled out to catcher Walter Schmidt. Shortstop Pie Traynor bobbled Pat Duncan's roller, leaving runners at first and third. After Duncan stole second, Kopf singled in both runners. Neale was hit by pitch, then Bill Rariden singled in Kopf, with Neale taking third. Fisher's single to right knocked in two more runs, and that was it for Cooper. Whitey Glazner, "a recruit," got Morrie Rath and Daubert to fly out.
The Redlegs added one run in the sixth, and the Pirates got one back in the bottom of the inning. Jack Wisner came in to pitch the seventh, and held Cincinnati until they put together three hits, a base on balls and a hit batsman to score four in the ninth.
Fisher's win improved his record to 10-11, and he added three hits in four at-bats as well as a stolen base. Kopf was 3 for 5, with two triples. The Reds stole seven bases, including three by left fielder Duncan. Cooper's eight runs allowed in 2 1/3 innings dropped his record to 24-15.
"The last two contests of the afternoon were farces as far as the use of the regular lineups were concerned." Reds manager Pat Moran used players out of position in both games, and Gibson did the same in the last game. Three players played all three games: Duncan of the Reds, and youngsters Clyde Barnhart and Cotton Tierney for the Pirates.
"(Lynn) Brenton, a Red recruit, served the slants in the second game." He was opposed by Jimmy Zinn.
The Bucs scored single runs in the first and fourth innings. In the Cincinnati seventh, Hod Eller led off with a single. After Brenton struck out, Ivey Wingo singled and Rube Bressler walked to load the bases. Rath's single and a wild throw by second baseman Cutshaw brought home two runs. Duncan walked, filling the bases again. Ed Sicking singled up the middle, scoring Bressler and Rath. "A muff of a thrown ball, a single by (Fritz) Coumbe and a double by Eller sent over the rest of the runs."
Fred Nicholson singled in the bottom of the ninth, and Possum Whitted's triple down the right field line drove in the final run.
Brenton's win made him 2-1, while Zinn fell to 1-1. Both pitchers hurled complete games.
Eller, Coumbe and Dutch Ruether were pitchers who got to play the field, Eller at second and first, Coumbe in middle field, and Ruether at first. Eller even went 3 for 4 with a double and 2 runs batted in. Right fielder Nicholson went 3 for 4 for the Bucs, with two runs scored.
"In (t)he last game, (Buddy) Napier, latest Cincinnati sensation, essayed to set the Pirates down for the third time in an afternoon." Rookie Jimmy Morrison got the start for the Corsairs. (The Press called him "Jimmy," but modern listings have him as "Johnny.")
In the bottom of the first, Tierney led off with a single. Traynor was hit by a pitch. Barnhart popped to third baseman Sam Crane while trying to sacrifice. Nicholson doubled to left, driving in Tierney. "(Cliff) Lee's sacrifice fly to middle sent Traynor over." Then, Grimm's single scored Nicholson. The Pirates scored three more in the bottom of the sixth, and then the game was called on account of darkness.
Morrison won his first major league decision, scattering four hits. Napier fell to 4-2, despite striking out eight. Second baseman Tierney was 2 for 4, scoring one and driving in two. First baseman Grimm was 2 for 2 with a walk, a run scored and an RBI.
Eller played first and Coumbe was in right field for the Reds. Zinn played right for the Pirates and went 1 for 3 with a run scored.
The three games took 2:03, 1:56 and 1:01 to play.
The Bucs beat the Cubs on Oct. 3, 4-3, while the Cardinals won in Cincinnati, 6-3, in 12 innings. By Tuesday, Oct. 5, the barnstorming version of the Pirates shut out the Samson Tractors of Janesville, Wisc., 5-0, in a game at Madison, even as Brooklyn and Cleveland were playing the world's series.
During this time, baseball was on the front page of The Pittsburg Press, but not the series between the Pirates and Reds. Investigations of the White Sox in the 1919 world's series and an alleged plot for Brooklyn to throw the 1920 series to Cleveland were both ongoing. There were charges that the Giants threw a couple of games to the eventual champion Reds in 1919, as well. (Another front page story mentioned Babe Ruth being cut slightly in a Connecticut automobile accident.)
Baseball survived all that, and is still going strong 98 years later. The collective bargaining agreement now bans playing three games in one day, so we're coming up on a century since the last tripleheader in major-league history.
All quotes are from the original coverage in The Pittsburg Press.