Wilver Dornell Stargell

Now I know why they boo Richie all the time. When he hits a home run, there's no souvenir.

~ Willie Stargell

A couple of weeks ago I added the the DVD games from the 1979 World Series to my Netflix que. I've been watching the games when I spend some quality time on my treadmill. If you enjoy watching old games, these are some gems.

There isn't anything better than listening to the overly dramatic sounds of Howard Cosell and witnessing again the horrific Pittsburgh Pirates uniform combinations. You also get to see a young Eddie Murray, Dave Parker in his prime, and Willie Stargell lead the Pirates back from a 3 games to 1 deficit to their last World Championship.

Stargell is a contemporary of Dick Allen in almost every sense of the word. He started his Hall of Fame career one year before DA in 1963 and played longer (Willies retired in 1982) -- but they were both the same type of player. Willie Stargell was a powerful player and I have no doubt that he belongs in the Hall of Fame -- but I can't help but mention Stargell's Hall of Fame statistics/standards listed in Baseball Reference.com and offer a comparison to Dick Allen's.

Willie Stargell:
Black Ink : Batting - 17 (131), Average HOFer ≈ 27Gray Ink : Batting - 125 (144), Average HOFer ≈ 144Hall of Fame Monitor : Batting - 105 (139), Likely HOFer ≈ 100Hall of Fame Standards : Batting - 43 (108), Average HOFer ≈ 50

Dick Allen:
Black Ink : Batting - 27 (67), Average HOFer ≈ 27Gray Ink : Batting - 159 (74), Average HOFer ≈ 144Hall of Fame Monitor : Batting - 99 (151), Likely HOFer ≈ 100Hall of Fame Standards : Batting - 38 (161), Average HOFer ≈ 50