My First Cards

The great Willie Stargell was back in action in '82 after missing most of the previous two seasons with knee problems and surgery.

Willie was a decorated Pirate, who'd been the '79 NL co-MVP, 7 time all-star, helped give the city of Pittsburgh 2 World titles over Baltimore, modestly embarrassed by his power at times, played great year in year out, and rewarded teammates with stars.

I remember the kids I traded cards with, telling me he was going to be in the Hall of Fame. It was just that obvious to everybody at the time. There was simply no doubt.

There's so much talk about Stargell's 1979 season, that people seem to forget that he was great before that too.

Earlier in the decade, he received the Roberto Clemente award, named after his former teammate and lost friend.

As far back as 1964, he was making people stand up and notice him, earning him a trip to the All-Star game.

As if that wasn't enough, the next season he smacked 2 HR's off Don Drysdale in his first 2 plate appearances on June 24, in Los Angeles and added another HR later in the game after Drysdale was showering. Don had a career 2.19 ERA in Dodger Stadium.

Even when the team wasn't able to win, he'd come up with some colorful quotes like "Getting a hit off Koufax is like try to eat soup with a fork".

In "the year of the pitcher", 1968, Stargell pulled the Pirates out of a 5 game losing streak with a 3 homer day against in Chicago, driving in 7 runs as the Cubs whole team only scored 6. His fourth hit, bounced back onto the field after hitting the top of the outfield railing. You can't come any closer to a 4 homer day than that.

The following year, on August 5th, he was the first player to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium. To date, there's been 4 HR's hit out, and Willie launched 2 of them.

When the Pirates opened a new stadium (Three Rivers) on July 16, 1970, Willie was the first Pirate to hit a home run there. It wasn't just a barely over the wall variety either, he deposited the ball in the upper deck! Even though Pittsburgh lost the game, Stargell's home run had tied the game.

The next season Willie lead the majors with 48 home runs. He also posted a 185 OPS+, a .398 OBP, drove in 125 RBI's, scored 104 runs, was worth 8.1 WAR, and led the World Champion Pirates with 131 RC (Runs Created).

In '72, he made the All-Majors team for the 2nd consecutive season.

Then, in '73, he managed the first 40 double 40 homer season since 1940. Nobody did it again 'til 1995, meaning Willie was the only one to do it in a 55 year period. He led the league in doubles, HR's, RBI's, SLG, OPS, and OPS+.

The next season, he led the league in OPS+ for the 2nd consecutive year.

In spring of '75, he moved to a new position—first base. Largely due to learning a new position, he spent most of the first half of the season in a slump. He still finished the year with more than 20 HR's, 90 RBI's, and a slugging percentage over .500.

From '76-'78, he averaged only 101 games, 20 HR's, and 66 RBI's a year. He was in his late 30's, what do you expect? With his on-the-field talent slowing down, he became more of a motivator than he had already been. He would give out "stargell stars" to teammtes when they played a great game or made a fantastic play. They nearly made it to the playoffs in '78 and Stargell said that was the best team he'd ever played on and predicted his Pirates would win the World Series the next season.

That's when 1979 happened. The "we are family" Pirates, led by "Pops" Stargell, are still the last Pirates team to win a playoff series. If you ever get a chance to watch game 7 of the '79 series on the MLB Network or somewhere, don't miss it. Willie launched a pair of home runs, to bring Pittsburgh a championship.

After that, he had a lot of knee trouble the next couple years. Once healthy, he was back in action for a farewell tour in 1982.