POPS IS TOPS : Stargell to Join Baseball’s Best in Hall of Fame

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. —  The Hall of Fame family is getting a new pop.

Willie Stargell has the stage to himself Sunday as he takes his place next to baseball’s all-time greats.

“To be in the same room as Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and Roberto Clemente is a great honor and a wonderful feeling,” Stargell said.

Stargell hit 475 homers with 1,540 runs batted in and a .282 batting average in 21 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

He was equally regarded for his qualities as a leader on the field and in the clubhouse and was affectionately known as “Pops” to his teammates in the 1970s.

Last Jan. 12, Stargell, who is 47, became the 17th player to be elected in the first year of eligibility. He was named on 352 of 427 ballots (82.4%) returned to the Baseball Writers’ Association of America. In order to be elected, a player must be named on 75 percent of the ballots, which this year was 321.

Jim Bunning, who won 100 games in each league, almost made it. After missing by 21 votes last year, the Kentucky congressman fell four votes short with 317 (74.2%) in his 12th year of eligibility.

After Bunning, Tony Oliva was third in the voting with 202, followed by Orlando Cepeda 199 and the late Roger Maris with 184. It was Maris’ 15th and last year of eligibility.

Next year, Johnny Bench and Carl Yastrzemski are eligible and are expected to make it the first time. Gaylord Perry, Jim Palmer, Rod Carew, Tom Seaver and Pete Rose are among other top candidates who will come up for election in the near future.

For the first time since 1956, the Veterans Committee failed to elect anyone to the Hall, again passing up such former stars as Phil Rizzuto, Leo Durocher, Joe Gordon and Gil Hodges. None of the 29 candidates was able to garner 75% of the vote required for election last March.

But while election to the Hall of Fame is a singular honor, Stargell was not a soloist. He was a team player, a team leader who grew in stature and ability as he aged.

Stargell was 38 in 1979 when he led the Pirates back from a 3-1 deficit in the World Series against the Baltimore Orioles. He was selected the most valuable player of the Series and shared the National League MVP award with Keith Hernandez, then with the St. Louis Cardinals.

In the decisive seventh game at Baltimore, Stargell hit a two-run homer, two doubles and a single.

It was a strange repeat of history. In 1971, Stargell scored the winning run in the Pirates’ seventh-game victory over the Orioles at Memorial Stadium.

“That (1971) was Roberto Clemente’s series,” Stargell said of the Pirates’ Hall of Fame outfielder. “He was the greatest. It was Roberto who started the Pirate spirit.”

And it was Stargell who kept it going.

Clemente, who batted .414 in dominating the 1971 World Series with his bat and glove, died on Dec. 31, 1972, in the crash of a small plane on a mission of mercy to earthquake-shattered Nicaragua.

After Clemente’s death, Stargell took over as team leader and kept the Pirates a winner.

In the 1979 Series, Stargell had 12 hits in 30 at-bats for a .400 average. He had a record 7 extra base hits, including 3 home runs, and his 25 total bases tied the Series record set by Reggie Jackson in 1977.

It was Stargell, with his ear-splitting disco music, his hundreds of crocheted gold stars for meritorious performances and his constant banter that kept the clubhouse free of strain and high on hopes. As the Pirates fought to win the National League East in 1979, their rallying song became “We Are Family” by Sister Sledge.

“I was always in awe of Willie Stargell,” Bruce Kison, who was a pitcher for the Pirates, said. “He could relate to a person off the street or to the president of the United States, and to anybody in between.”

“The man had a big presence on the field, and he continues to have a big presence off the field,” Commissioner Peter Ueberroth said in tribute to Stargell.

Stargell’s power seemed to have no limits.

He is the only batter to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium--and he did it twice. He cleared the right-field roof at old Forbes Field seven times and hit four balls into the upper deck in right field at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium.

For all his accomplishments, Stargell’s presence in baseball is uncertain at the moment.

He began the season as a coach with the Atlanta Braves but was released when Manager Chuck Tanner was fired on May 22.

“At the end of this season, I’d love to manage somewhere in the winter leagues, and I wouldn’t rule out the possibility of managing in the minor leagues,” Stargell said.

“I do very much want to be a manager,” Stargell said. “I don’t have a time frame. I don’t have a hurry-up idea of wanting to manage.”

Only a handful of players have managed in the major leagues after being elected to the Hall of Fame, and none has enjoyed much success. Ted Williams, Rogers Hornsby and Frankie Frisch are among those who have struggled in the dugout while their golden plaques hung in the Hall.