Barney Dreyfuss owned the National League's Pittsburgh Pirates from 1900 to 1932 and created baseball's World Series. An innovator during professional baseball's tumultuous formative years, Dreyfuss built the first modern steel-frame tripletier stadium, Forbes Field, in 1909.

He was elected to the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame in 2008.

In 1890, Dreyfuss obtained part ownership of the Louisville Colonels, then a Major League team in the American Association. In late 1899, he acquired the Pittsburgh Pirates team, bringing with him from Louisville future Hall-of-Famers Honus Wagner, Rube Waddell, and Fred Clarke.

During his 32-year reign as president and general manager of the Pirates, Pittsburgh finished in the first division 26 times, winning six pennants' 1901, 1902, 1903, 1909, 1925, 1927, and the World Series in 1909 and 1925.

Dreyfuss led the successful battle to obtain a commissioner for baseball. A visionary who rose above the petty disputes rampant in the sport at the turn of the century, Dreyfuss arranged the first World Series in 1903, when the Boston Pilgrims, champions of the upstart American League, accepted his challenge to meet his National League champion Pirates in an eight-game post-season tournament. The Pirates lost, but the World Series became a permanent fixture in baseball.

Dreyfuss was also a pioneer in professional football, as co-owner and manager of the Pittsburgh Athletic Club, winners of the pro football championship in 1898, professional football's fourth organized season.