Many Pittsburgh Pirates fans wear jerseys of their favorite players in the stands at PNC Park on a regular basis.

McCutchen 22, Harrison 5, Walker 18.

But Butler 14?

“At the start of the season, people saw someone wearing that jersey and thought the Pirates called up some guy they didn’t know about,” Butler Township resident JoniBeth Loverick said, laughing.

The “Butler 14” jersey is the creation of Loverick. She bought the black Pirates shirt over the winter and had Butler printed on the back with the No. 14 to symbolize this season.

Her idea was to turn the jersey into a traveling shirt to be signed out by Pirates fans in the Butler area and worn to games home and away. It was a scheme to bring Pirates fans together.

And the idea took off.

“People communicated with us through social media and the shirt became familiar at PNC Park before long,” Loverick said. “It’s appeared on the scoreboard and people in the stands would spot it and say, ‘hey, you’re from Butler. That’s the shirt!’”

The shirt was signed out by 64 people during the season. It appeared at Pirates spring training in Bradenton, Fla., made its way to Cincinnati, Chicago, Philadelphia, and even Yankee Stadium in New York.

“Strangers, people who didn’t even know each other, would make arrangements with each other to transfer the shirt,” said Beth Painter of Butler. “A lot of people got into this.”

Many of the people who wore the shirt — along with other Pirates fans — gathered at Kelly Automotive Park Tuesday to celebrate its success and to encourage the Pirates to extend their season with a win over San Francisco in tonight’s National League wild card game at PNC Park.

Karen Vargo, daughter of the late Ed Vargo, a longtime major league umpire and Butler resident, said Loverick was her first friend in junior high school.

“I’m proud of what Joni’s done here. My father would have loved this,” Vargo said. “I’ve never seen fan support for the Pirates in Butler like this in my life.

“That shirt has helped bring the community together.”

Valerie Deal said she’s been a Pirates fan all her life, “win or lose.” She took the shirt to a game in late April for her nephew Trevor Nordquist’s 21st birthday celebration.

“It felt like an honor to have it,” she said. “I loved watching this whole thing just grow.”

Loverick put the idea of a traveling shirt in motion hoping that 9-year-old Brayden Povlick, a son of a close friend, would wind up with it.

“When the playoffs are over, I’ll probably give it to him,” she said. “We had people take pictures whenever they took the shirt during the season, and I’ll put together a book with those.

“Hopefully, 30 years from now, Brayden will look at that shirt, that book, and remember all of this. I’m sure I’ll be gone by then.”

Brayden’s favorite Pirate at the start of the season, Jason Grilli, was traded during the year.

He switched his allegiance to third baseman Josh Harrison.

“He’s cool ... He gets out of rundowns a lot,” Brayden said.

Loverick plans to create another shirt — or some type of Pirates traveling item — for next season.

“Oh, yes, we have to do this again,” Painter said. “We’ve learned so much about how to communicate, organize, get the word out. It should get even bigger next year.”