| Willie Stargell | |
|---|---|
 Stargell with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1965 | |
| Left fielder /First baseman | |
| Born:(1940-03-06)March 6, 1940 Earlsboro, Oklahoma, U.S. | |
| Died: April 9, 2001(2001-04-09) (aged 61) Wilmington, North Carolina, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Left | |
| MLB debut | |
| September 16, 1962, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 3, 1982, for the Pittsburgh Pirates | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .282 |
| Hits | 2,232 |
| Home runs | 475 |
| Runs batted in | 1,540 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Teams | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1988 |
| Vote | 82.4% (first ballot) |
Wilver Dornell Stargell (March 6, 1940 – April 9, 2001), nicknamed "Pops" later in his career, was an American professionalbaseballleft fielder andfirst baseman who spent all of his 21 seasons inMajor League Baseball (MLB) (1962–1982) with thePittsburgh Pirates. Among the most feared power hitters in baseball history, Stargell had the most home runs (296) of any player in the 1970s decade. During his career, hebatted .282 with 2,232hits, 1,194 runs, 423doubles, 475home runs, and 1,540runs batted in, helping his team win sixNational League (NL)East division titles, twoNL pennants, and twoWorld Series championships in1971 and1979, both over theBaltimore Orioles. Stargell was a seven-timeAll-Star and two-timeNL home run leader. In 1979, at the age of 39, he became the first and currently only player to win theNL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, theNL Championship Series MVP Award and theWorld Series MVP Award in one season. In 1982, thePirates retired his uniform number 8. He was inducted into theBaseball Hall of Fame in1988 in his first year of eligibility.[1]
Stargell was born inEarlsboro, Oklahoma, but later moved to Florida with an aunt after his parents divorced. Later, he returned toAlameda, California, to live with his mother.[2] He attendedEncinal High School, where his baseball teammates included future MLB playersTommy Harper andCurt Motton. Stargell signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and entered minor league baseball in 1959.[3]
Stargell played forfarm teams in New Mexico, North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio.[3] While on the road with some of those teams, Stargell was not allowed to stay in the same accommodations as the white players. Lodging for black players was located in the poor black areas of those towns. While inPlainview, Texas, he was accosted at gunpoint by a man who threatened his life if he played in that night's game. Stargell played and nothing came of the incident.[4] He might have quit baseball over the racial difficulties that he experienced, but he was encouraged by letters he received from friend and baseball scout Bob Zuk.[5]
Beloved in Pittsburgh for his style of play and affable manner, Stargell hit seven of the 18 balls ever hit overForbes Field's 86-foot-high right-field stands[6] and several of the upper-tier home runs at its successor,Three Rivers Stadium. Though he became quickly known as Willie Stargell, his autograph suggests that he preferred his given name, Wilver. Biographer Frank Garland relates that Stargell's family and friends called him Wilver and that Dodgers broadcasterVin Scully also made a point of using Stargell's given name. Scully said that because he used the name Wilver, he became Stargell's mother's favorite broadcaster.[4]
Standing 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) with long arms and a uniquebat-handling practice of holding only the knob of the bat with his lower hand to provide extra bat extension, Stargell seemed larger than most batters. Stargell's swings seemed designed to hit home runs ofRuthian proportions. When most batters used a simple lead-weighted bat in theon-deck circle, Stargell took to warming up with asledgehammer. While standing in thebatter's box, he would windmill his bat until the pitcher started hiswindup.
Stargell made his MLB debut at the end of the 1962 season at the age of 22. His 1963 rookie season was lackluster, but he enjoyed much more success the following season, his first as an everyday player. Stargell began and ended the season as the Pirates' everyday left-fielder, but spent extended periods playing first base as well. He hit the first home run atShea Stadium in the first game played in that stadium on April 17, 1964.[7] He made his first of seven trips to theAll-Star Game that year. He returned to the All-Star Game the next two seasons, recording over 100runs batted in (RBIs) in both years, and finishing respectively 14th and 15th inMVP voting. He won the first of the threeNL Player of the Month awards of his career in June 1965 (.330, 10 HRs, 35 RBIs).
Frequent offseason conditioning problems came to a head in 1967, when Stargell showed up to spring training at a weight of 235 pounds. The team mandated that he diet to get down to a weight of 215 pounds. His batting average dropped more than 40 points that season from .315 in 1966 to .271 in 1967; his home run total was reduced from 33 in 1966 to 20 in 1967. The team had a personal trainer work with Stargell before the 1968 season to get him in the best shape of his career, but Stargell had a poor season and managerLarry Shepard criticized Stargell's physique as too muscular.[8] He finished out the decade with a strong performance in 1969 (.307, 29 HRs, 92 RBIs), and finished 21st in MVP voting.
Stargell enjoyed another fine season in1970, batting .264 with 31 home runs and 85 RBIs and finishing 15th in MVP voting. On August 1 of that year, Stargell collected five extra-base hits—three doubles and two home runs—in the Pirates' 20–10 victory over theAtlanta Braves atFulton County Stadium. He became the third player, afterLou Boudreau in1946 andJoe Adcock in1954, to collect five extra-base hits in one game. The game was a Saturday Game of the Week on network television, and ironically the trivia question during the broadcast was “Who are the two players with five extra-base hits in one game?” Stargell became the third in that very game. In the same game, teammateBob Robertson also collected five hits, including a home run; not untilAndrew McCutchen andGarrett Jones in2012 would two Pirates collect five hits in the same game. The 1970 Pirates won theNational League East title for their first postseason berth since winning the1960 World Series. They were swept inthat year's NLCS by theCincinnati Reds, but not before Stargell collected six hits in 12 at-bats, the most hits by either team in this series.
Stargell's career moved to another level in1971. At age 31, he won the first of his two home-run titles in 1971; his 48 edged outHank Aaron's 47 on the final week of the season and, to date, trail onlyRalph Kiner's 54 and 51 in1949 and1947, respectively, for most by a Pirate in one season. He won the final two NL Player of the Month awards of his career in April (.347, 11 HR, 27 RBIs) and in June (.333, 11 HR, 36 RBIs); yet he did not win the MVP award, finishing second toJoe Torre. Also in April, Stargell hit 3 home runs in a game twice, on April 10 at Atlanta and on April 21 at home.[9] In seven of the next nine seasons, Stargell finished in the top 10 in MVP voting, as his career moved onto a Hall of Fame track.
He was a member of the Pirates'World Championship team, the Pirates defeating theBaltimore Orioles in seven games. The Pirates lost the first two games of that series, which Stargell said that media began referring to as "the St. Valentine's Day Massacre" before Pittsburgh's comeback.[10]
Stargell continued to post excellent numbers in1972 (.293, 33, 112) finishing third in MVP voting behindJohnny Bench andBilly Williams.
In1973, Stargell achieved the rare feat of simultaneously leading the league in both doubles and homers. Stargell had more than 40 of each; he was the first player to chalk up this 40-40 accomplishment sinceHank Greenberg in1940; other players have done so since (notablyAlbert Belle, the only 50-50 player). Stargell won his second home-run title that year, edging out three Atlanta Braves:Davey Johnson's 43,Darrell Evans' 41 and Aaron's 40. He also led the league in runs batted in andslugging percentage. For the third year in a row, he was narrowly edged out of the MVP award.
Beginning in1975, after years of experimenting at the position, Stargell moved permanently to first base. He never played another game in the outfield.
In1977, Stargell hit his 400th career home run on June 29 against theSt. Louis Cardinals.
Stargell originated the practice of giving his teammates embroidered "Stargell stars" for their caps after a nice play or a good game. The practice began during the turbulent 1978 season, when the Pirates came from fourth place and 11.5 games behind in mid-August, to challenge the first-place Philadelphia Phillies for the division title. The season was scheduled to end in a dramatic, four-game showdown against the Phillies in Pittsburgh, in which the Pirates had to win all four games to claim the title. Following a Pirate sweep of the Friday-nightdouble-header, Stargell belted agrand slam in the bottom of the first inning of the season's penultimate game to give the Pirates an early 4–1 lead, although the Pirates relinquished that lead later in the game and fell two runs short after a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning,[11] thus eliminating themselves from contention for the pennant. Stargell called that 1978 team his favorite team ever, and predicted that the Pirates would win the World Series the following year.
The Pirates did win the World Series in 1979, in a similar style as they had ended the 1978 season: from last place in the NL East at the end of April, the Pirates clawed their way into a first-place battle with theMontreal Expos during the latter half of the season. They excited fans with numerous come-from-behind victories along the way (many during their final at-bat) to claim the division pennant on the last day of the season. At his urging as captain, the team adopted theSister Sledge hit song "We Are Family" as the team anthem. Then, his play on the field inspired his teammates and earned him the MVP awards in both the NLCS and the World Series. Stargell capped off the year by hitting a dramatic home run in Baltimore during the late innings of a closeGame 7 to seal a Pirates' championship. The home run was his third of the series and, coincidentally, credited Stargell with the winning runs in both Game 7s of the two postseason meetings between the Pirates and the Orioles (1971 and 1979). The 1979 World Series victory also made the Pirates the only franchise in baseball history to twice recover from a three-games-to-one deficit and win a World Series (previously they had done so in1925 against theWashington Senators). For the series, Stargell went 12-for-30; along with his three home runs, he also recorded four doubles for 25 total bases, which remains tied as a World Series record,Reggie Jackson having set it in the1977 World Series, and his seven extra-base hits (three HRs and four doubles) in the 1979 World Series also set a record.
In addition to his NLCS andWorld Series MVP awards, Stargell finally took home the elusiveMVP award (as co-winner along with St. Louis'Keith Hernandez) at the age of 39. Stargell is the only player to have won all three MVP trophies in a single year. He shared theSports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award withNFLquarterbackTerry Bradshaw, who also played at Three Rivers Stadium, for thePittsburgh Steelers. Pirates managerChuck Tanner said of Stargell, "Having him on your ball club is like having a diamond ring on your finger." TeammateAl Oliver once said, "If he asked us to jump off theFort Pitt Bridge, we would ask him what kind of dive he wanted. That's how much respect we have for the man."
Stargell played until 1982, but he never appeared in more than 74 games after 1979.[12] He retired with 475 home runs despite playing much of his career atForbes Field, whose center field distance was 457 feet (139 m). Hall of FamerRoberto Clemente estimated, perhaps generously, that Stargell hit 400 fly balls to the warning track in left and center fields during his eight seasons in the park. The short fence in right field (300 feet (91 m) to the foul pole) at Forbes Field was guarded by a screen more than 20 feet (6.1 m) high which ran from the right-field line to the 375-foot (114 m) mark in right center. Three Rivers Stadium, a neutral hitter's park, boosted Stargell's power numbers. The Pirates moved into Three Rivers in mid-1970, and he hit 310 of his 475 career home runs from 1970 until his retirement, despite turning 30 in 1970. Stargell's two home run titles came in his first three years at Three Rivers. Stargell's last game was on October 3, 1982, atThree Rivers Stadium against theMontreal Expos. Batting leadoff, he hit a single offSteve Rogers. He was then pinch run byDoug Frobel and subsequently was replaced byRichie Hebner at first base.[13]
At one time, Stargell held the record for the longest home run in nearly half of the NL parks. On August 5, 1969, Stargell hit a home run offAlan Foster that left the stadium and measured 507 feet, the longest home run hit atDodger Stadium. He hit a second home run out of Dodger Stadium on May 8, 1973, againstAndy Messersmith, measured at 470 feet (140 m). Dodger Hall of FamerDon Sutton said of Stargell, "I never saw anything like it. He doesn't just hit pitchers, he takes away their dignity." Only six other home runs have been hit out of Dodger Stadium (2 in the 2025 postseason).
On June 25, 1971, Stargell hit the longest home run inVeterans Stadium history during a 14–4 Pirates win over the Philadelphia Phillies.[14] The shot came in the second inning and chased starting pitcherJim Bunning out of the game. The spot where the ball landed was eventually marked with a yellow star with a black "S" inside a white circle until Stargell's 2001 death, when the white circle was painted black.[15] The star remained in place until the stadium's 2004 demolition. In 1978, againstWayne Twitchell of the Montreal Expos, Stargell hit the only fair ball to reach the club deck ofOlympic Stadium. The seat where the ball landed (the home run was measured at 535 feet (163 m)) was replaced with a yellow seat, while the other seats in the upper deck are red. Upon the Expos departure in 2004, the seat was removed and sent to theCanadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bob Prince, the colorful longtime Pirate radio announcer, would greet a Stargell home run with the phrase "Chicken on the Hill". This referred to Stargell's ownership of a chicken restaurant in Pittsburgh'sHill District. For a time, whenever he homered, Stargell's restaurant would give away free chicken to all patrons present in the restaurant at the time of the home run, in a promotion dubbed "Chicken on the Hill with Will". Prince himself once promised free chicken to listeners if Stargell hit a home run; Stargell did homer and Prince picked up a $400 bill at the restaurant.[16]
| Category | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | AVG | OBP | SLG | OPS | FLD% | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 2,360 | 7,927 | 1,194 | 2,232 | 423 | 55 | 475 | 1,540 | 937 | .282 | .360 | .529 | .889 | .985 | [17] |
In 36 postseason games, Stargell batted .278 (37-for-133) with 18 runs, 10 doubles, 7 home runs, 20 RBIs, 17 walks, on-base percentage of .359, slugging average of .511, andon-base plus slugging of .871.
After retirement, Stargell spent two years as a first base coach for theAtlanta Braves from 1986 to 1988, wearing his customary #8. He was the first minor-league hitting coach forChipper Jones.[18] He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, his first year of eligibility. He had an awkward interaction with the Pirates that season when the team wanted to schedule a Willie Stargell Night to honor his Hall of Fame election. Stargell refused to participate in the team's plans, still stinging from the team's refusal to even consider him for its managerial job that season.[8]
In the1985 trial of allegedcocaine dealer Curtis Strong, Stargell was accused byDale Berra andJohn Milner (both former Pirates teammates) of distributing "greenies" (amphetamines) to players.[19] Berra said that he obtained amphetamines from Stargell andBill Madlock; he said he could get them from Stargell "on any given day I asked him for one."[20] Stargell strongly denied these accusations.[19] CommissionerPeter Ueberroth later cleared Stargell and Madlock of any wrongdoing.[5]
Stargell returned to the Pittsburgh club in 1997 as an aide toCam Bonifay, the team's general manager. He also worked as a special baseball adviser to Pirates ownerKevin McClatchy, who called Stargell "the ultimate class act".[16] Stargell was hospitalized for three weeks in 1999 to treat undisclosed medical problems with one of his organs. A source close to the Pirates blamed Stargell's health problems on his gaining weight after retiring as a player. Stargell lost some of that weight, but gained weight again while working for the Pittsburgh front office.[21]
After years of suffering from a kidney disorder, he died of complications related to astroke inWilmington, North Carolina, on April 9, 2001. In his later life, Stargell had also suffered fromhypertension andheart failure. A segment of Stargell's bowel was removed more than two years before he died. He had been in the hospital recovering from gallbladder surgery at the time of his death.[4] On April 7, 2001, two days before Stargell died, alarger-than-life statue of him was unveiled at the Pirates' new stadium,PNC Park, as part of the opening-day ceremonies.[16] As his death occurred on the same day as the official opening of the stadium against the Reds, the statue served as ade facto memorial for Stargell.
The Pirates retired his number 8 on September 6, 1982.[22] In1999, he ranked 81st onThe Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players,[23] and was also nominated as a finalist for the MLB All-Century Team. He threw out theceremonial first pitch at the1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Stargell also threw out the ceremonial last pitch at Three Rivers Stadium before the team's move after the 2000 season.
After Stargell died,Joe Morgan said, "When I played, there were 600 baseball players, and 599 of them loved Willie Stargell. He's the only guy I could have said that about. He never made anybody look bad and he never said anything bad about anybody."[5]
The Willie Stargell Foundation was established to promote research and treatment for kidney disease.[24] Champion Enterprises sponsors a Willie Stargell Memorial Awards Banquet which raises money for disadvantaged children in Pittsburgh.[25]
Stargell also worked to raise awareness ofsickle cell anemia. He formed the Black Athletes Foundation (BAF) shortly after PresidentRichard M. Nixon identified the disease as a "national health problem" in the early 1970s. For a decade, BAF, renamed the Willie Stargell Foundation, raised research money and public awareness about the disease. Starting in 1981, sickle cell awareness and fundraising was gradually being assumed by The Sickle Cell Society Inc. The Willie Stargell Foundation transitioned to raising money for treatment of and research into kidney disease.[26][27][28]
Wilver “Willie” Stargell Avenue (formerly Tinker Avenue) is a major thoroughfare in his adolescent home ofAlameda, California, connecting to the formerNaval Air Station Alameda, and Stargell is honored with a plaque and plaza at its intersection with Fifth Street.[29]
· Baseball Almanac, orRetrosheet| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Hitting for the cycle July 22, 1964 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Major League Player of the Month June 1965 (withVern Law) April 1971 June 1971 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
