'Burgh's Best to Wear it, No. 11: Pirates' Paul Waner collected 3,152 hits, turned down 3,000th

Paul Waner could hit a baseball better than most men who came before or after him.

The Pittsburgh Pirates right fielder also possessed something else in a large quantity that many could not match: pride.

Waner, who grew up in Harrah, Okla., and played for the Pirates from 1926-1940, led the National League in hitting three times, compiled a lifetime .333 batting average with 3,152 hits and shares (with Chipper Jones) a record streak of 14 consecutive games with an extra-base hit.

He is the Tribune-Review sports staff’s choice for the best athlete in Pittsburgh to wear jersey No. 11.

With his brother Lloyd Waner, who played center field for the Pirates at the same time, they hold the MLB record for most hits recorded by brothers (5,611). Paul was nicknamed “Big Poison” and Lloyd “Little Poison,” even though Paul was an inch shorter at 5-foot-8.

New York Herald Tribune columnist Red Smith once wrote that Paul Waner holds another record: most hits rejected by a batter (1).

That story explains the deep pride Waner had in his hitting skills.

In 1942, he was playing for the Boston Braves when he came to bat with 2,999 hits. Waner’s ground ball skipped off the glove of Cincinnati Reds shortstop Eddie Joost, but the official scorer ruled it a hit.

While teammates and fans cheered and umpires collected the baseball as Waner’s trophy, he shouted, “No, no!” He didn’t want his 3,000th hit to be tainted.

The scorer relented and ruled it an error. In his next game, the 39-year-old Waner ripped a clean single, and no one else reached the 3,000-hit mark until Stan Musial did it in 1958.

Waner played into the 1945 season, getting 152 more hits and ending his career with one unsuccessful at-bat for the New York Yankees at the age of 42.

Waner was National League MVP only once, in 1927, when he helped the Pirates reach the World Series, his only appearance in the Fall Classic. The Pirates were swept in four games by the Yankees’ Murderers’ Row of Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig, but the Waners combined to hit .366.

“I may have got Waner out, but I never fooled him,” Pirates Hall of Fame pitcher Burleigh Grimes said.

Some other notable Pittsburgh athletes who wore No. 11:

• Jordan Staal helped the Penguins win the Stanley Cup in 2009, scoring a dramatic short-handed goal in Game 4 with Detroit Red Wings defenseman Brian Rafalski hanging on him. The goal tied the score 2-2 in the second period, starting a blitz of three in less than six minutes, and the Penguins went on to win 4-2 and even the series at two games each. Staal played six seasons with the Penguins, scoring 120 goals with 128 assists.

• After Sihugo Green helped lead Duquesne to the 1955 NIT championship, he was selected first overall in the 1956 NBA Draft by the Rochester Royals, who bypassed Bill Russell. Green scored 1,603 points for the Dukes (an average of 19.8 per game) and 4,636 in 11 NBA seasons.

• Carl Krauser is Pitt’s 13th all-time leading scorer with 1,642 points. He played on the first Pitt team to call Petersen Events Center home (2002-03) and helped the Panthers win the Big East regular-season championship and go to the NCAA Sweet Sixteen in 2004.

Check out the entire ’Burgh’s Best to Wear It series here.