Rad is short for radius. Maybe at firstbut once the new stadium smell wore off, the fans returned to their nasty habits. The Opening Day result, played before 55,352, would not be typical for the Phillies nor Bunning in 1971. But there was a sense of can do after all the years of cant do back at the old park, as pride of place and a corporate refresh undergone brought an adapted attitude that unchained the Phillies from the defeatist mindset of previous eras. Cramped quarters in a rustic setting yielded to spacious vogue; Phillies pitcher Rick Wise joked to The Sporting News upon entering the Vets expansive clubhouse, Its a toll call if you want to talk to somebody on the other end.. The four the USPS chose to honor were Willie Stargell, Ted Williams, Larry Doby, and Joe DiMaggio. The Ballparks: Shibe Park In baseballs landscape of horse buggies and wooden carts, Shibe Park emerged as the Model T of ballparks, a sparkling trendsetter that introduced steel and concrete to the games vernacular, beget rooftop entrepreneurs long before Wrigley and brought the game out of its lumbered, fire-cursed squalor. Among the 10 players who knocked in seven runs in a game for the Phillies at the Vet was pitcher Robert Person, who belted a grand slam as part of a 10-run first inningthen added a three-run shot in the fifth in an 18-3 win over Montreal on June 2, 2002. Drews deep concerns were confirmed; Phillies fans quickly figured who he was and booed him vociferously throughout, at times throwing batteries at him. Eric Chesterton Willie Stargell watches the ball he hit for a home run. document.write(update); Schmidts 265 homers are double that of second-place Luzinski (130); Von Hayes is a distant third with 77. Willie Stargell weighed 188 lbs (85 kg) when playing. Willie Stargell The driving force of "The Lumber Company", Stargell holds multiple records in Pirates history. Skip to content. (Temple University Libraries, George D. McDowell Philadelphia Evening Bulletin Photographs). The most runs scored by one team at the Vet came on June 11, 1985 when the Phillies smashed the New York Mets, 26-7. He also received his second NL Player of the Month award. He also hit two monsterous homers off a couple of of Sutton's L.A. teammates -- two of the five to ever leave the confines of Dodger Stadium: The team was angered and threatened to leave Philadelphia when the city considered welcoming an American Football League franchise into the new stadium before it was completed. But township residents rose up against the idea, worried over increased taxes, disruption of a quiet lifestyle and because the potential consumption of beer by Phillies fans alarmed them. That's when the Pittsburgh. update=copyright.getFullYear(); Golas idea was ahead of its timeand too soon, apparently, to make any headway. Others came close (Thome missed it by a few feet), but no-one ever went further at the Vet than Willie Stargell did on June 25th, 1971. He also hit arguably the farthest at Olympic Stadium -- connecting on an estimated 535-footer during a game against the Expos in May 1978. Espaol. Wilver Dornell "Willie" Stargell, known as "Pops" by his teammates, played his entire twenty-one-year major league career for the Pittsburgh Pirates and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame with 475 career home runs in 2,360 games. Chronologically, here are the five home runs hit completely out of Dodger Stadium: August 6, 1969 - Willie Stargell off of Dodgers right-hander Alan Foster; May 8, 1973 . Teams. He won 17 of those games alone in 1977, on the way to his second of four Cy Young awards. Beyond the constant updating of the fake turf, the Vet never underwent anything close to an overhauleither a testament to its functionality or a reflection of the citys inability to pony up money to provide upgrades. He gained access to the area while working the stadiums parking lots through a company owned by his uncle. willie stargell home run veterans stadiumgriffin park demolishedgriffin park demolished The only other two players who have hit a home run out of Dodger Stadium since 1973, Mark McGwire and Mike Piazza. The centerpiece of the City of Brotherly Loves sports hub, Veterans Stadium was a civilized structure filled with uncivilized spectators, where Phillies prevailed, Eagles soared and cats and rats ruled the underbelly. The opening of the Vet was more than a mere relocation for the Phillies; the team underwent a virtual makeover on multiple fronts. Future Hall-of-Fame pitcher Jim Bunning, back with the Phillies after four years, took the ball and pitched 7.1 sharp innings in a 4-1 victory over the Montreal Expos. In 1971, Willie Stargell hit the longest home run in stadium history. His 507-foot home shot in 1969 was the longest at Dodger Stadium. The Phanatics favorite target was fiery Los Angeles Dodgers manager Tommy Lasorda, who was once stomped on in effigyprompting the fiery skipper to burst out of the dugout and wrestle the Phanatic to the ground. 39 - Willie Stargell was thirty-nine years old when he won the Most Valuable Player Award in 1979, the oldest in history to earn that honor at that time. They then entered at the top of the lower deck, allowing easy access regardless of whether their seats were on the field level or high up in the rough-and-tumble 700s. 2 - Willie Stargell hit two home runs out of Dodger Stadium. 6 - Willie Stargell hit four home runs into the upper deck of right field at Three Rivers Stadium including the longest home run in the history of the Stadium. Stargells bomb soared halfway up the upper deck in right-center field, through an exit tunnel; the ball, given a traveling estimate of well over 500 feet, was never found. The original seats have been replaced by new blue ones, and the upper deck penthouse suites, added in 1986 to keep the football Eagles in town, rim the top. 296 - Willie Stargell hit two-hundred ninety-six home runs hit during the 1970s, the most by any player in the big leagues across that entire decade. His 1978 blast up north again garnered gold seating. One disc jockey failed the ostrich jockey test as she was thrown off the animal, which ran amok around the fieldwhile another was spooked and took its rider (retired Phillie and future Hall of Famer Richie Ashburn) for the ride of his life. This late 1980s view of the Vet reveals many of the stadiums more notable features: The display of National League team logos above the outfield wall, twin scoreboards in the upper deck, and a replica of Philadelphias famed Liberty Bell at the very top. 4 - Willie Stargell hit three home runs in a game four times in his career. He struck the seven of the 18 balls that went over the Forbes Field's stands. Fans walked up one of eight semi-circular walkways that rose to a main walkway rimming the base of the stadium, above a moat of parking for players, staff and service vehicles. Willie's restaurant in the Hill District of Pittsburgh gave away a free chicken to all present in the restaurant every time he hit a home run. (The crowd, naturally, booed.) Toward the end, the Vet grew increasingly popular with the cats and rats that dominated the stadiums substructure and ducts. Is Willie Stargell in the Hall of Fame? In baseballs landscape of horse buggies and wooden carts, Shibe Park emerged as the Model T of ballparks, a sparkling trendsetter that introduced steel and concrete to the games vernacular, beget rooftop entrepreneurs long before Wrigley and brought the game out of its lumbered, fire-cursed squalor. Sign in/Sign up; Mike Schmidt rounds the bases after one of his 265 home runs hit at the Vet. Though they ultimately did not, they still voluntarily pitched in for some needed fixing up. Three weeks before the Phillies played their first game next door at brand new Citizens Bank Park, the demolition button was pushed and the Vet came tumbling down. First MLB home run hit in Jarry Park: Mack Jones, Montreal Expos, 4/14/1969 Last MLB home run hit in Jarry Park : Greg Luzinski, Philadelphia Phillies, 9/26/1976 Player who hit the most home runs . he hit the longest ball in Veterans Stadium history, 535 feet. 25 - Willie Stargell had twenty-five total bases during the 1979 World Series, the record for Most Total Bases in a 7-Game Series still to this day. Throwing beer cups and hotdog wrappers onto the field wasnt good enough for some Phillies fans. Football coach/broadcaster Jon Gruden, brought on as the Eagles offensive coordinator in 1995, recalls one of his first days on the job when, while working in the team offices at the Vet, a cat and two rats fell through the ceiling and crashed upon his desk. But Willie Stargell, the Pittsburgh Pirate slugger who died earlier this month, left no doubt about his "called shot" home run at Portland's Multnomah Stadium in 1979. Fueled by a career comeback and a sunny disposition that he had never lost, Willie Stargell became a critical guiding . As of 2020, it was generally regarded as the longest home run in the stadium's history, and Stargell was still the only player to hit a ball into the stadium's second deck. This was excruciatingly exemplified in 1993 when Chicago Bears wide receiver Wendell Davis blew out both knees running a simple fly pattern, ending his football career at age 27. Two new architects were brought in; Ronald Knabb Jr., another local designer, and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Hugh Stubbins, whose portfolio was heavy in educational projects. Philadelphia-based talk show host Mike Douglas sang the National Anthem; the ceremonial first pitch was chucked out of a helicopter 150 below to back-up Phillies catcher Mike Ryan, who bobbled but hung on. Babe Ruth did it once -- on his 714th and final long ball in 1935. By the mid-1980s, the amount of drunken hostility among Eagles fans grew so disturbing that the team begged the NFL not to schedule late afternoon (4:00) games so that tailgating fans would have less time to get liquored up. How much did Willie Stargell weigh when playing? Willie Stargell played 21 seasons. To their pleasant surprise, what they saw contained far more character than the noble yet gray faade outside. On Opening Day 1972, a hang glider who went by the handle of Kiteman was to roll down a 100-foot wooden ramp on the upper deck and soar above the field to deliver the ball for the first pitch; but he lost his balance halfway down the ramp and crashed into the seats. It all came together in 1980, when the Phillies won their first world title in their 98-year history; Schmidt bashed a career-high 48 homers, Carlton won 24 games and became the last pitcher to date to log over 300 innings in a regular season, Rose led the NL with 42 doubles, Maddox earned a Gold Glove in center, and McGraw saved 20 games with a sterling 1.46 ERA. Stargell was 22 years old when he broke into the big leagues on September 16, 1962, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Willie Stargell was a former Major League Baseball player from the United States. In 1971, he hit a 535-foot home run, the longest in Veterans Stadium history. The city, worried that the Phillies might throw up their hands and depart westward as well, grew nervous enough to begin conceptualizing a new facility, either as a baseball-only venue for the Phillies or a multi-purpose stadium that would include the Eagles of the National Football League. And for what it was worth, the Vet organist routinely played the theme from Soul Train. Stargell also owned the longest shot ever hit in Montreal's Olympic Stadium. The clinching victory of that World Series, a 4-1 Game Six win over the Kansas City Royals before a mammoth crowd of 65,838, was accompanied by an overextended display of security and police as Philadelphia mayor Frank Rizzo didnt want to take any chances with the notorious Philly sports fans who could potentially cause celebratory riots inside and outside the Vet. Among the architects initial ideas was to build both a subway station and parking garage into the structure itself to reduce walking time to the seats. On the other end, there were those looking for a more lighthearted and provincial tone; the top choice among local residents and columnists was the Philadium, while others with a deeper, National Lampoon-ish sense of humor suggested titles such as Losers Paradise, the Topless Terrace (because it had no dome) and Swamp Hollow, because the Vet was built on a former swamp. Willie Stargell was 6-2 (188 cm) tall. As the 21st Century dawned and it became apparent that multi-purpose stadiums were becoming an unwanted fad of the past, both the Phillies and Eagles began clamoring for separate new facilities to replace the Vet, each feeding their own interests. Pops had three doubles and two home runs that day. One year and more money than the city had budgeted later, the first model was revealed; no one was happy with it. Only four other players at the time of his retirement had at least four three-homer games: Johnny Mize (6 times), Ernie Banks (4 times), Lou Gehrig (4 times) and Ralph Kiner (4 times). Hall of Famer Willie Stargell, who led the Pittsburgh Pirates to two World Series victories with his tape-measure home runs and patriarchal leadership, died Monday . After an especially rowdy Monday night game at the Vet in 1997, the Eagles and the city decided to clear out a maintenance area under the stands and use it as an actual courtroom, with an actual judge, where quick justice would be meted out to those arrested above. 13 Copy quote. Willie Stargell - 1963 - 506 feet The first home run ever to be hit out of Dodger Stadium was also the longest. Philadelphia was emblematic of American Northeast cities in the decade following World War II: Rotting, rusting and unable to contain white flight to the suburbs. They were all universally hated. willie stargell home run veterans stadium. copyright=new Date(); The Vet opened with a 200-foot-long bar that served up to 500 patrons, with all seats facing the field. That it stood for generations while two tenants largely stank up the joint was a testament to its perseverance. He walloped 296 home runs, more than any other player. Did you know he accomplished the MVP trifecta exactly one year after The Sporting News named him the Comeback Player of the Year? When the last round of turf was planted at the Vet in 2001, the divots and cutouts that surrounded the baseball infield proved so hazardous for football players that a preseason game between the Eagles and Baltimore Ravens was cancelled shortly before kickoff. Only two other players would hit a home run into the 600 level, the upper deck, at the Vet (before it closed), Butch Huskey (Section 638) & Ruben Rivera (Section 638). The American League, originally founded in 1901, consists of the following teams: Baltimore Orioles; Boston Red Sox; Chicago White Sox; Cleveland Indians; Detroit Tigers; Houston Astros; Kansas City Royals; Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim; Minnesota Twins; New York Yankees; Oakland Athletics; Seattle Mariners; Tampa Bay Rays; Texas Rangers; and Toronto Blue Jays. Some in the crowd of 45,000 became irate at the news, smashing windows at the will call booth. They give you a round bat and they throw you a round ball and they tell you to hit it square. He capped that decade off in 1979 with a magical season at the ripe age old of 39. . He takes their dignity." Other proposed sites, including a number of country clubs with expansive land to offer, barely got past the conversation stage. Photo: Benoit Brouillette 1.1K Most relevant Enrique Lopez Forget name. Willie Stargell was born on Wednesday, March 6, 1940, in Earlsboro, Oklahoma. However, it is worth noting that home plate . Too many people already think of Philadelphia as a cemetery with lights, he said. Fans. It seemed like an even deal at the time, and Wise would go on to have a decent rest of his career, winning 188 games over 18 seasonsbut with the Phillies, Carltons trajectory would ascend him to the Hall of Fame. The Phillie Phanatic chimed in, dumping two bags labeled with dollar signs onto the field between innings. fourth place on the career home run list with 587 and led the San. . A shot of Stargell's home run to win the 1979 World Series for the Pittsburgh Pirates Consider the time and the age of wonder. A formal dedication took place on April 4, 1971 before 36,832 folks who, after watching the exterior build up, finally got a chance to check out the interior. For as big of a star and then villain as Barry Bonds was during his career, it's surprisingly difficult to find details regarding the longest home run he ever hit at AT&T Park. That it stood for generations while two tenants largely stank up the joint was a testament to its perseverance. Copyright 1999- Part of the Baseball Almanac Family, League Championship Most Valuable Player Award, Oleander Memorial Gardens, Wilmington, North Carolina, Willie Stargell Stats by Baseball Almanac. Such trends not only hurt the Phillies reputation, but their place in the NL standings. No home runs were hit, meaning that the last official deep fly, hit the day before, was registered by Hall of Famer Jim Thomeplaying his first of three seasons with the Phillies and giving him a stadium-record 28 for the season.