*Bar Chat will return Monday.
Baseball Quiz: 1) Name the 3 players in baseball history who had
20 stolen bases and 50 home runs in a single season.
2) Name the 3 players in baseball history to have 40 stolen bases
and 40 home runs in a single season. [Hint: These are six
different players. Only one is in the Hall of Fame.] Answers
below.
“Pops”
Pittsburgh Pirates great Wilver Dornel (Willie) Stargell died the
other day at age 61. The baseball Hall of Famer had 475 home
runs (tied for 19th all time) and 1,540 RBI (30th). But he was far
more than a slugger, he was also one of the great leaders in the
game.
Growing up, my family would take an annual summer vacation
back “home,” which was the Pittsburgh area for me. As a kid
there was nothing better than spending my days at my cousin Joe
and AJ”s gas station. They”d ring up 100 games on the pinball
machine, give me all the ice cream and Mountain Dew I wanted,
and then I”d just soak up the atmosphere as my cousins” friends
would come in to talk Pirate baseball. And, of course, everyone
loved Willie Stargell.
Unless you were a pitcher…then you faced him with terror. For
baseball fans in the 1960s and 70s, there were two hitters you
feared more than any other (especially if you were a Mets fan
like yours truly); Stargell and Willie McCovey. I have to be
honest (especially since I”ve already mentioned this in a previous
spot), but I feared McCovey the most…if I could only pick one.
But certainly Stargell hit them as far as any player in the history
of the game.
At 6”4″ and 225 lbs. (McCovey was 6”4″, 215), Willie Stargell
cut a fearsome presence, pinwheeling his 40-ounce bat before the
pitcher delivered the ball. He once had the record for the longest
homer in half the parks in the National League. And consider
this, at Forbes Field, where Willie spent the first 8 years of his
career, he is responsible for 7 of the 18 shots that sailed clear out
of the stadium. [You”ll recall from just two days ago in this
space that Babe Ruth was the first to hit it out of Forbes.] In
fact, Forbes Field was the most spacious park of this era and if
Willie hadn”t played there, he would probably have been a
member of the 600-homer club. Among his other prodigious
shots, Stargell was the first one to hit a ball out of Dodger
Stadium. L.A.”s Don Sutton once commented, “He didn”t just
hit pitchers, he took away their dignity.”
Considering that players like Stargell and McCovey played in a
dead ball era, compared to today, it would have been fun to see
where they”d hit some these days. Johnny Mac told me that you
would definitely have to watch where you parked the car.
Mark R. called to tell me about the time that legendary Pirates
radio announcer Bob Prince implored Stargell to hit a home run
up on “the Hill” district. It seems that Stargell had just
purchased a fried chicken joint in that neighborhood. Well,
Willie complied with a blast and forever after, with each Stargell
homer it was “Chicken on the Hill with Will.”
But Willie Stargell was more than just a slugger, he was one of
the great leaders of any sport. As he aged, the label “Pops” was
handed to him for his clubhouse presence. And his shining
moment was 1979.
At age 39, Stargell hit 32 homers in the ”79 regular season,
fueling the Pirates to the division championship. Then in the
National League Championship Series he hit 2 homers in a 3-
game sweep of the Reds (for which he was named MVP). The
fairytale continued as Willie was the MVP, again, for Pittsburgh
in their dramatic, come-from-behind World Series triumph over
Baltimore (after trailing 3 games to 1) as he clubbed another 3
dingers. Pops was then named Co-MVP for the regular season
(sharing it with Keith Hernandez). In other words, he swept the
awards and he remains the oldest player ever to gain the regular
season MVP honor.
The 1979 Pirates were the group best known for the Sister Sledge
song, “We Are Family,” which the Bucs adopted as their anthem.
And there was nothing phony about it; Pittsburgh was a happy
team, led by Pops Stargell. Commenting on the season, Willie
said:
“We won, we lived and we enjoyed as one. We molded together
different individuals into one working force. We were products
of different races, were raised in different income brackets, but in
the clubhouse and on the field we were one.”
That season, Captain Willie would pass out stars for performance
after every win and his teammates would bust their butts for one.
He was an original. And he was also just a great person.
Roberto Clemente Jr. recalled the moment that his father died in
that New Year”s Eve tragedy, back in 1972. Stargell was the
first player to arrive at the Clementes” home in Puerto Rico. He
asked 7-year-old Roberto Jr. if he understood what had
happened.
“”Of course I know what happened,”” said Roberto, recalling the
moment with the New York Post”s Tom Keegan. “Then he told
me I had to be there to help my mother take care of my brothers.
He said he would always be there for all of us, any time we
needed him. He was true to his word. He was always there for
us.”
It seemed only fitting that Stargell”s death came as the Pirates
were inaugurating their new stadium on Monday. Earlier, a 12-
foot bronze statue of “Pops” had been unveiled outside. From
here on, every Opening Day in Pittsburgh will be Willie Stargell
Day. [Additional source: Richard Goldstein / New York Times]
Shawn Kemp
From the class of Willie Stargell to one of the great dirtballs of
any era, the NBA”s Shawn Kemp, who recently checked himself
into rehab. Kemp, known for fathering something like 9 kids
with 6 different women, is a truly awful person. The New York
Post”s Peter Vecsey wrote:
“As a time-honored, at large humanitarian, it”s probably
politically correct I be sympathetic to Shawn Kemp”s plight as a
cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, womanizing, baby-making, over-
eating addict.”
But he”s not. According to Vecsey, Kemp (a member of the
Portland Trailblazers) was so out of control he was getting high
in the Blazers bathroom and leaving the evidence behind. And
he would be in such bad shape his teammates were afraid he”d
drop dead on the court. So here at StocksandNews we really
couldn”t give two hoots about a fellow who could retire the
“Dirtball of the Year Award.” [But first we”ll see how the China
situation wraps up.]
Ed “Big Daddy” Roth
I missed the classic era of Big Daddy by just a few years but I
certainly observed my older brother in action. You see, Roth,
who died last week at age 69, was the man who defined
California”s hotrod culture of the 50s and 60s with his whacky
car designs and creation of “Rat Fink,” the counterculture”s
answer to Mickey Mouse.
Roth would tour the country, attending car shows and selling his
wild monster T-shirts (I do have one of these creations, featuring
the other “Big Daddy,” dragster Don Garlits). But aside from his
creation of Rat Fink, he made a mini-fortune doing model car
kits for Revell Company (my brother had every one made).
Revell produced millions of them.
Unfortunately for Roth, he lost all of his money in a motorcycle
magazine, “Choppers,” and he was kind of blackballed (for lack
of a better term) for his association with the Hell”s Angels. So
toss back a brewski for Big Daddy. And find out if your mother
threw away your Rat Fink items. [Undoubtedly she did.]
Killer Bees!!!
A Guyanese farmer was killed by a swarm of killer bees on
Sunday. This is important because with the budget talks likely to
heat up in Washington, the issue of subsidies for honeybee
farmers in the U.S. will have to be explored carefully. I”m not
too sure how ticked off we want to make bees of any kind right
about now. Give them the money.
Excess
The New York Post (as you can tell a major source for this
edition of Bar Chat) had a story about a dinner at a Manhattan
eatery on Monday night (Nello”s / Upper East Side) wherein a
British trader left a $16,000 tip with the maitre d”.
“I feel very fortunate,” said 31-year-old Lenny Lorando. “We
try to do the best and make everybody happy, and we get excited
about that when they are pleased. But tonight, I must say, I was
struck.”
The customer was a 37-year-old regular. He had just one
companion, ordered a modest meal, but racked up an incredible
bar tab of $8,900 as he bought drinks for the other tables. [Jamie
Lee Curtis was a diner…I always liked her.] Lorando said he”d
keep $10,000 and give the rest to the other 10 staffers.
But something tells me there is more to this story. Wasn”t it in
Chicago (?) last year where another British chap gave a waitress
something like $10,000 and then later canceled the credit card?
It”s also awful weird that the New York Post was called the night
this happened. Now I realize the restaurant owner likes the
publicity, but, still, it sounds fishy. We”ll update as warranted.
Top 3 songs for the week of 4/12/69: #1 “Aquarius / Let The
Sunshine In” (The 5th Dimension…StocksandNews is a charter
member of the Marilyn McCoo Fan Club) #2 “You”ve Made Me
So Very Happy” (Blood, Sweat & Tears) #3 “Dizzy” (Tommy
Roe).
*Augusta National is lengthening four holes for next year. Tiger
will win by 9…unless Arnie wins.
Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) 20SB / 50HR: Ken Griffey Jr., 1998
(20SB – 56HR); Brady Anderson, 1996 (21SB – 50HR.a
travesty); Willie Mays, 1955 (24SB – 51HR). 2) 40SB / 40HR:
Jose Canseco, 1988 (40SB – 42HR); Alex Rodriguez, 1998
(46SB – 42HR); Barry Bonds, 1996 (40SB – 42HR).
Next Bar Chat, Monday…we are taking Good Friday off. And
we”ll do MacArthur next week. Stargell took precedence today.
*Yes, sports junkies. Your editor is thrilled that there will be a
coaching change at my alma mater, Wake Forest. YESSSSS!!!
