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Lot # 226: Circa 1957 Fort Pitt Beer Scoreboard

Starting Bid: $200.00

Bids: 5 (Bid History)

Time Left: Auction closed
Lot / Auction Closed




This lot is closed. Bidding is not allowed.

Item was in Auction "2024 Winter Pop-Up",
which ran from 1/14/2024 7:00 PM to
1/28/2024 10:00 PM



Displayed is a Fort Pitt Beer circa 1957 scoreboard. Fort Pitt Beer was produced in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania by the Fort Pitt Brewery Company from 1906-1957. During Prohibition, in 1920 the company switched to making nonalcoholic drinks from cereal grains and returned to beer manufacturing after Prohibition. In 1952, unions went on strike against the big three Pittsburgh area breweries: Pitt Beer, Duquesne, and Iron City. All three companies had beer stock in barrels in warehouses during Prohibition. After beer sales were again legal, the Duquesne and Iron City beer companies dumped their "skunked" or spoiled, old beer, but Pitt Beer sold the spoiled product and ruined the firm's reputation, and sales dropped forty percent. That decline led to the company's dissolution in 1957. A revived Fort Pitt Brewery began in the Pittsburgh area in 2014. The cardboard stock scoreboard measures 12x32.4". It was designed to hang in a tavern or restaurant. The scoreboard is designed as if it were a blackboard, with a black background and white lines, letters, and numerals. There are three advertisements on the board: Two of the ads read, "Something Special/Fort Pitt Beer" and the other advertisement reads, "Fort Pitt/Special." The scoreboard has spots for the inning-by-inning score, runs, hits, and errors, the batteries, and home runs. It appears unused. The scoreboard has some paper loss in the upper right corner and along parts of the edges. There is staining on the bottom and in several other spots. In the slot for the bottom of the 8th inning, there is an indentation, almost a cut that nearly goes through the cardboard. The scoreboard also has a small circular hole, possibly for hanging, in the top right. There are also some small folds and some uneven areas. Despite the aforementioned minor imperfections, the scoreboard has a visual old-time charm that makes it a nice display item, hearkening back to the days when similar scoreboards would track the exploits of Hall of Fame Pittsburgh Pirates like Roberto Clemente and Bill Mazeroski in area watering holes as the Pirates grew stronger before the team's 1960 World Championship.

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