Stargell 1979 Home Run

Lore & Background

Stargell was born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, but later moved to Florida with an aunt after his parents divorced. Later, he returned to Alameda, California, to live with his mother. He attended Encinal High School, where his baseball teammates included future MLB players Tommy Harper and Curt Motton. Stargell signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and entered minor league baseball in 1959.

Stargell played for farm teams in New Mexico, North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio. 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 in Plainview, 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. 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.

Reader's Guide

Beloved in Pittsburgh for his style of play and affable manner, Stargell hit seven of the 18 balls ever hit over Forbes Field's 86-foot-high right-field stands 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 broadcaster Vin 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. Standing with long arms and a unique bat-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 of Ruthian proportions. When most batters used a simple lead-weighted bat in the on-deck circle, Stargell took to warming up with a sledgehammer. While standing in the batter's box, he would windmill his bat until the pitcher started his windup.

Did You Know?

• Stargell hit the first home run at Shea Stadium in the first game played in that stadium on April 17, 1964.
• On August 1, 1970, Stargell collected five extra-base hits—three doubles and two home runs—in one game, becoming the third player to do so.
• Stargell originated the practice of giving his teammates embroidered 'Stargell stars' for their caps after a nice play or a good game.
• In 1973, Stargell became the first player since Hank Greenberg in 1940 to lead the league in both doubles and home runs in the same season.