In
my on-going thread of filling-in "missing" players in the great 1971
"Baseball's Greatest Moments" set, we add "Pops" Willie Stargell, who
had himself a huge day on August 1st of 1970:
On
that day in Atlanta, Georgia, the Pittsburgh Pirates slugger collected
five hits, all of them for extra bases, becoming just the third player
at the time to do so.
Stargell
had three doubles and two home runs in the 20-10 victory at Atlanta
Fulton County Stadium, padding his already impressive Major League
credentials while still in his 20's.
As we all know by now, over 21 seasons, he would lead the Pittsburgh Pirates to two
world championships, take home an MVP Award in 1979 (shared with the
Cardinals Keith Hernandez), and get named to seven All-Star teams.
"Pops" would also have a great three-year run between
1971 and 1973 that saw him finish second, third and second respectively
in MVP voting, winning two home run titles, an RBI title and even lead
the league with 43 doubles (1973).
Luckily, I got to see him towards the end of his career in the late-70's/early-80s before he retired after the 1982 season.
His
final numbers? Hall of Fame worthy as he'd finish with 475 home runs,
1540 RBIs, a surprisingly high .282 batting average and 2232 hits over
2360 games and 7927 at-bats.
Think about those numbers in UNDER 8000 at-bats!
Of course when eligible for the Hall of Fame, he was in, with 82.4% of the vote in 1988.
So sad that he would pass away at only 61 years of age in 2001.
