A moment of silence for Willie Stargell.
I didn’t just now find out, of course, but I’m posting now since no one else has. Kind of eerie that he died the same day PNC Park opened. They have a statue of him there as well.
Y’know, I meant to post this on Monday morning but it must have slipped my mind.
Willie was only 61 years old – he was battling kidney disease. I think it’s a shame that he wasn’t present for the unveiling of his statue at PNC Park. The statue went up Saturday, and he died monday morning. 
I don’t know if the rest of the country knows how much of an icon Pops was to the city of Pittsburgh in the 1970s. He and Mean Joe Greene were the THE MEN that year, when we were “The City of Champions”.
475 career homeruns ties him with the great Stan Musial for 19th all time. 7 time NL All Star. 30th all time with 963 extra base hits. 1540 RBIs puts him in 32nd on the all time list. .529 career slugging pct puts him at 33 all time. He was the NL MVP and WS MVP in 1979. He’s in the top 50 all time for total bases. Pops hit more homeruns than anyone in the 1970s. He is one of only two players to ever hit homeruns out of Dodger Stadium (and he did it TWICE!)
Hall of Fame pitcher Don Sutton: “He didn’t just hit pitchers, he took away their dignity.”
I was six years old when they won the World Series in 1979. I’ll never forget his “whirlybird” bat windup when he was getting ready for a pitch – every kid in my first grade class tried to imitate that while on the playground.
Anyway, it’s late and I’m rambling, but he is going to be missed.
Godspeed, Pops.
RIP, Pops.
A great, great ballplayer and a class act.
Truly a fine man. I was saddened by the news of his passing, not because I was ever a Pirates fan but because I am a baseball fan. He embodied those things that make the game great.
You will be missed, Willie.
Pops, you left us too soon.
By the way, The Pirates won their first game at PNC park last night, putting them at 4-4, much better than could have been expected when 4 of their 5 starting pitchers went down. John Vanderwal hit a homerun over the 21 foot Clemente wall (He was in for Derek Bell who’s hitting .111).
The statue is beautiful. I can’t belive he never got to see the statue which was revealed Saturday.
I remember seeing him last year at the last game at 3 Rivers. He threw a ceremonial pitch to Jason Kendall who immediately jumped up and gave him a big hug. Pops looked terrible. He could hardly throw.
We’ll miss him.
You know, he hit the longest home run in Veterans Stadium history. They’ve still got a gold star out there in the right field upper deck where it hit.
“We are fam-i-lee…”