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Willie Stargell

Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.

Willie Stargell was born on, March 6, 1940, in Earlsboro, Oklahoma. Stargell was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 16, 1962, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His height was six foot 2 inches with weight 225 lbs. He died on 09 April 2001, Wilmington, North Carolina.

In the World Series win, he set records with 25 total bases and seven extra-base hits three homers, four doubles. He also became the first person to win three major MVP, Most Valuable Player awards sharing regular season honors of the National League with Keith Hernandez, and also bringing home the NLCS, National League Championship Series and World Series MVP, Most Valuable Player trophies. After playing three more painful seasons with arthritis tearing away at his knees, Pops retired in 1982 as the Pirate career leader in home runs, RBIs, Run Batted In and eight other categories.

Stargell was always a Pirate at heart. One of the most popular figures in Pittsburgh sports history, he was given loud ovations at every public appearance. When he was selected for the Hall of Fame by the BBWAA, Baseball Writers' Association of America in 1988. Pops returned to the Pirates in 1997, working as an aide to General Manager Cam Bonifay. Around that same time, he developed a kidney disorder that would require constant dialysis, and leave him weak in the ensuing years.

At the Three Rivers closing ceremony on October 1, 2000, it was announced that a 12-foot high statue of Stargell would be erected outside the Pirates' new home, PNC, Pittsburgh Pennsylvania Park. The statue was to be unveiled on April 7, 2001, but Stargell was too sick to attend the event and the ceremony was postponed until two days later.

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