share-square-1168303 PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates have played in the National League since 1887. They took part in the first World Series, as well as the first baseball game broadcast on the radio. They can claim five World Series championships, and some of Major League Baseball’s greatest players proudly wore a Pirates uniform. The full history of professional baseball in Pittsburgh, however, includes far more than just the Pirates’ past. This city was once the center of Negro Leagues baseball. One hundred years after the founding of the Negro National League, Major League Baseball officially acknowledged that the Negro Leagues’ segregation-era circuits were comparable in talent with its contemporary American and National Leagues. Calling it “long overdue recognition,” Commissioner Rob Manfred declared that seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 -- and approximately 3,400 players along with them -- have received Major League status.