Willie Stargell memorabilia auction brings mixed emotions

The auction of Willie Stargell memorabilia is upsetting to some members of the Stargell family.

In March, Joe Posnanski wrote a column about Theo Epstein that touched on many things, not the least of which was the age at which a young fan falls in love with baseball. Epstein suggested 12 as the age when a fan fully connects with his or her team, but eight years old as the perfect age for understanding enough of the game while still retaining “the full wonder of the ballpark and the colors and the smells and everything else.”

Posnanski’s personal theory has long been that eight years old is the perfect age to fall in love with baseball. Posnanski was eight years old when the Cincinnati Reds beat the Boston Red Sox in the amazing 1975 World Series (picture Carlton Fisk waving his home run ball fair at Fenway Park in Game 6). He wrote that it was a life-altering moment for him: “That Series came along at exactly the right moment in my life.”

When I was eight years old I lived in Florida, a state without Major League Baseball at the time. The Atlanta Braves were the closest MLB team to where I lived, but I wasn’t interested in rooting for “America’s Team.” I chose the Pittsburgh Pirates as my favorite team and when I was eight years old, they won the 1979 World Series. They’ve been my team ever since, through all of the ups and downs the franchise has experienced.

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To my eight-year-old self, Willie Stargell was bigger than life. Statistically, he wasn’t the best player on the 1979 squad (Dave Parker was), but he was the heart and soul of the team. He ran the clubhouse with the deft touch of an 18-year veteran, encouraging players young and old, black and white, starter or role player to come together as a “Fam-A-Lee.” He famously handed out “Stargell Stars” to teammates who came through in big moments. And even if he wasn’t the team’s best player, he was still quite good, leading all Pirates hitters in home runs and finishing second on the team in RBI.

Stargell was the co-MVP of the National League (with Keith Hernandez) during the regular season, then the MVP of the National League Championship Series and the MVP of the World Series. In 10 post-season games, he hit .415/.435/.927, with nine runs, five homers, and 13 RBI. He dominated that post-season like few players have dominated a post-season before or since.

Through this entire run from the spring to summer to triumphant October, the eight-year-old version of me watched in awe. I loved the way Stargell stood in the batter’s box wind-milling his bat around as he waited for the pitcher to get set, then would send the baseball flying deep into the right field seats. He hit tape-measure home runs years before such blasts were regularly tracked.

That was almost 40 years ago and the 1979 World Series title is still the last title won by the Pittsburgh Pirates. So when I read about Willie Stargell memorabilia from that season going up for auction, it brought bittersweet feelings. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the auction began on Wednesday and will include 20 pieces of memorabilia from Willie Stargell’s career.

The Stargell items include his 1979 NL MVP Award, personal player trophies from the 1971 and 1979 World Series Champions, his 1988 National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction ring, and his 1978 Fred Hutchinson Award. The Fred Hutchinson Award is given every year to an MLB player who “best exemplifies the fighting spirit and competitive desire” of former MLB pitcher and manager Fred Hutchinson.

Stargell died in 2001 at the age of 61. In a perfect world, he would still be alive and these items would be displayed proudly in his home for visitors to admire and as a reminder to Stargell of the many great moments of his career. Of course, this world is not perfect. In this imperfect world, Stargell’s most prized items from his long baseball career are being auctioned off 16 years after his death by his second wife, Margaret Weller-Stargell.

The items in the Stargell Collection were willed to Weller-Stargell upon the player’s death in 2001. They are expected to earn more than a half a million dollars at the auction. Weller-Stargell is the beneficiary and has said a portion of the proceeds will be donated, though she didn’t say how much that portion will be. A statement from Weller-Stargell read,

“Willie made the decision years before his death that he wanted these items left to me because I know that he trusted me to do what was in the best interests of both a game that he loved, the Pirates organization and its fans that he honored and respected.”

Not everyone is happy about the auction, though. Willie Stargell was married to his first wife, Dolores, from 1962 to 1983, a time that spanned his entire baseball career. They had two children. According to Dolores Stargell, their daughter is handicapped and their son suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder because of his time in the Gulf War. She said the family lives in poverty.

Dolores Stargell and her grown children had no idea the items were going up for auction. They collaborated to write an open letter on the WS Stargell Facebook page that read, in part, “Dad would want the accomplishments of his lifetime achievements to be on display and enjoyed by all, as opposed to sitting in someone’s basement collecting dust.”

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As a long-time Pittsburgh Pirates fan who fell in love with baseball as an eight-year-old in large part because of Willie Stargell, I would like to see at least a few of the items on display somewhere. It’s perfectly legal for Weller-Stargell to auction them off. They were left to her and she is free to do what she will with them, but it would be nice if fans could enjoy them and remember the good times. Perhaps the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise can purchase a few of the items and put them on display at PNC Park for current fans young and old to enjoy.

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