Great Baseball Moments- Willie Stargell’s 1979 World Series
In the 1971 World Series- it was Roberto Clemente’s showcase. The player who carried the Pirates offensively the entire season- with a league leading 48 home runs was Willie Stargell- but Stargell went into a slump in the playoffs and World Series. In the seven games Stargell went 5 for 24 .208 with one RBI.
In 1979 Willie Stargell at the age of 39 got a second chance. He had an outstanding regular season- he would be co-MVP of the National League with Keith Hernandez of the Cardinals. In the NLCS he was the MVP and in the World Series- he repeated Clemente’s heroics – and was also the MVP in the World Series coming up with clutch hit after clutch hit. For the 1979 series- Stargell hit .400 hitting 3 home runs and knocking in 7 and scoring 7 runs. The Pirates won the series coming back from being down 3 games to 1. The Pirates haven’t been back to the World Series since.
slicethelife 
That’s a long World Series drought that parallels my Indians last series victory in 1948.Do you think payroll has anything to do with this?
The Indians have made a few appearances in the series in the last 25 seasons- and I think they should have won all three… I’ve always had a soft spot for the Indians in the American League.
Stargell was the hitting coach in Atlanta when I moved here. I think Chuck Tanner brought him from Pittsburgh, along with Bruce Dal Canton as pitching coach.
If I recall Tanner brought a lot of his Pittsburgh gang with him to Atlanta-including the Pirates trainer Tony Bartirome who became a coach in ATL…