With his 5th-inning, solo HR, Willie Stargell passes Honus Wagner as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ all-time RBI leader, bringing his career total thus far to 1,476. His milestone shot makes it 3 – 0, Bucs, and they will hang on to beat Chicago, 5 – 3, clinching the National League Eastern Division title in the process. Exactly seven years after his late friend and mentor Roberto Clemente would enter the 3,000-hit club on his final regular season at-bat, Stargell, one of his era’s premier run-producers, culminates his 1979 MVP season by gaining this gratifying and much-deserved distinction. In a sense, the season itself could be seen as a culmination of his entire career, both by virtue of winning at least part of the NL MVP award he should have won in 1971 (the current edition being awarded jointly to Stargell and Keith Hernandez of the Cards) and by getting a retroactive mulligan on his 1971 World Series no-show and making the most of it, following in Clemente’s footsteps by winning a World Series MVP on his second try. In addition, Stargell will be named NLCS MVP, the only player ever to receive all three awards in the same season.

This Day In Baseball

On September 30, 1979 — With his 5th-inning, solo HR, Willie Stargell passes Honus Wagner as the Pittsburgh Pirates’ all-time RBI leader, bringing his career total thus far to 1,476. His milestone shot makes it 3 – 0, Bucs, and they will hang on to beat Chicago, 5 – 3, clinching the National League Eastern Division title in the process. Exactly seven years after his late friend and mentor Roberto Clemente would enter the 3,000-hit club on his final regular season at-bat, Stargell, one of his era’s premier run-producers, culminates his 1979 MVP season by gaining this gratifying and much-deserved distinction. In a sense, the season itself could be seen as a culmination of his entire career, both by virtue of winning at least part of the NL MVP award he should have won in 1971 (the current edition being awarded jointly to Stargell and Keith Hernandez of the Cards) and by getting a retroactive mulligan on his 1971 World Series no-show and making the most of it, following in Clemente’s footsteps by winning a World Series MVP on his second try. In addition, Stargell will be named NLCS MVP, the only player ever to receive all three awards in the same season.

 

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Sources:
Baseball Reference September 30
National Pastime September 29
Retro Sheet
Hall of Fame
SABR Games Project
Replay The Game