Willie Stargell became one of the most feared hitters of his generation and a baseball legend as “Pops” on a Pittsburgh Pirates team that won two World Series in the 1970s. He played his entire career with the Pirates, from 1962 to 1982, and is perhaps most famous as part of the “We Are Family” Pirates team from 1979 that won the World Series.
The Pirates also won six division titles during Stargell’s time with the team. Stargell hit more than 20 home runs in 13 straight seasons from 1964 to 1976. He accomplished the feat again in 1978 (29 home runs) and 1979 (32 home runs) when he was 38 and 39 years old, respectively. In all, he hit more home runs than any other player in the 1970s.
Stargell left baseball with a lifetime .282 batting average, 2.232 hits, 1,194 runs, 1,540 RBI, and 475 home runs. “Having Willie Stargell on your ball club is like having a diamond ring on your finger” Pirates manager Chuck Tanner said about Stargell.
Yankees World Series Wins 1903 - Present
Wille Stargell’s Early Life
Stargell had a tumultuous upbringing. Born March 6, 1940 in tiny Earlsboro, Oklahoma, Wilver Dornell Stargell’s father had already left the family (he would not meet him until he was 19 years old). His mother moved to California and remarried, but after that marriage failed Stargell moved across the country to Orlando, Florida, to live with his aunt. He later equated the experience to being in a prison, but after six years his mother (married again) brought him back to the Oakland area of California.
Stargell played baseball for Encinal High School in Alameda, and signed with the Pirates in 1959. It’s the only Major League organization he ever played for, starting with minor league teams in New Mexico and Texas.
Stargell and his Black teammates were not allowed to eat in restaurants with white players in many places. Instead, they ate Spam and salami sandwiches on the team bus, according to “Pittsburgh Sports: Stories From the Steel City” by Randy Roberts. They also could not stay in motels and often slept with Black families willing to board them for the night. Roberts quotes Stargell as saying: “I lived on back porches in fold up beds.”
Stargell had all the raw talent but needed to refine his game. He spent most of three seasons in the minors. Finally, he got called up to the big club in 1962. He stayed there 20 seasons.
Best Baseball Moments in the 1960s
Stargell’s MLB Career
At the age of 23, Stargell saw 328 plate appearances in 1963, hitting 11 home runs and knocking in 47 runs. In 1964 he made the All-Star team and hit 21 home runs on the year with a .273 batting average. His game was beginning to come around.
In 1965, he broke out, hitting 27 home runs and driving in 107 (the first of his five seasons of 100-plus RBIS in 1966 and 1971-1973). He battled weight issues and sometimes sloppy play in the outfield. But he hit more consistently and with better power after taking the advice of teammate Roberto Clemente and using a heavier bat starting in 1969, when he would go on to hit 29 home runs.
In 1971, when the Pirates moved to the smaller Three Rivers Stadium, Stargell hit 48 home runs, drove in 145 and was a big part of the team that won the World Series that year, beating the Baltimore Orioles.
Throughout the 1970s, Stargell posted big numbers. He hit 33 home runs in 1972, and in 1973 led the league in both doubles and home runs. In 1975, he moved to first base and in 1977 he hit his 400th home run.
Best Baseball Moments in the 1970s
But fans outside Pittsburgh likely remember him best today for the 1979 Pirates, a fun-loving championship team that started the season slowly. At a game in June, the then-disco hit “We Are Family” played over the loudspeakers at Three Rivers Stadium, and Stargell decided to adopt it as the team’s theme song. The Pirates went on a tear, rising from last place to win the National League pennant and another world series, again beating the Orioles.
Stargell hit a home run in Game 7 to help seal the victory and the championship, one of many exciting moments in a season that featured many come-from-behind wins and close games. Even the series itself was a comeback – the Pirates had trailed 3-1 before winning three games in a row. The Pirates did the same thing in the 1925 World Series against the Washington Senators. They are the only team to do it twice.
Stargell won MVP for both the season and the World Series. His 25 total bases tied the World Series record (set by Reggie Jackson in 1977) and his seven extra base hits also set a record.
Life After Baseball
Stargell retired at the age of 42 after the 1982 season. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988. He served as first base coach for the Atlanta Braves from 1986 to 1988. He had hoped to manage the Pirates after retirement, but never did so.
He had become very active in the Pittsburgh community, including opening a popular fried chicken restaurant.
Stargell spent about a decade with the Braves in various jobs, including roving hitting coach in the minors. He rejoined the Pirates in 1997 as an assistant to general manager Cam Bonifay.
Stargell also suffered from problems with his kidneys, hypertension and heart ailments. He died at the age of 61 after suffering a stroke in Wilmington, North Carolina, on April 9, 2001.
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