History of baseball team nicknames by calling them "Pirates" for "stealing" their players. The "Pirates" tag stuck and the alliterative name was eventually adopted as Pittsburgh's official team nickname. By the time of the 1903 World Series, the team was commonly known as "Pirates", although the club did not acknowledge it on their uniforms until 1912. Alternate nicknames such as "Bucs" or "Buccos", short for "buccaneer", have been used through the years. "Buccaneer" is typically used synonymously with "pirate", although historically "buccaneer" is a more specific term for pirates who operated in the Caribbean, especially along the Spanish Main coast. The Pittsburgh Steelers of the
National sports team the biggest influence on the popularity of national sports team. There is a certain amount of prestige which is associated with competing on the "world stage". Competitions with the most teams involved offer the most international competition and are often most popular. The most popular multi-sport international competitions that include team sports include the Olympic Games, Commonwealth Games are relatively open for participation. Other competitions that are specific to sports, such as the FIFA World Cup (Association football), Rugby World Cup (rugby union) and Cricket World Cup (cricket) allow many countries to qualify. For instance, the popularity of the Socceroos