Monday, December 5, 2016

no. 603 - pirates


Who is the man: The Pittsburgh Pirates won their first division title since 1960 when they took the NL East by five games over the Cubs in 1970. Pittsburgh was then swept by the Reds in the NLCS. But the Pirates would have the last laugh in 1971.

Can ya dig it: This was an organization on the cusp of their greatest decade since the 1920s. It's cool to see them at the beginning.

Right on: Just in case you didn't know who the bat boy was, he's seated in the front wearing three bats.

You see that cat Murtaugh is a bad mother: Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh is seated directly above the bat boy.

Shut your mouth: I was practically giddy because this team photo is the first to feature players with jersey numbers on the front in a long time. But then I found the same team photo with ID's underneath, so it's very easy to spot everyone. Roberto Clemente is the first guy seated on the left in the front row. Bill Mazeroski is at the opposite end of that row. Manny Sanguillen is two people to the left of Mazeroski. Al Oliver is the first player on the left in the middle row. Steve Blass is standing near the center of the back row between two large pitchers, Bob Veale on the left and Dock Ellis on the right. Finally, Willie Stargell is the second guy in from the right in the back row.

No one understands him but his woman: The traveling secretary never gets IDed. Let's get him in here. He's John Fitzpatrick and he's standing at the far right of the middle row next to pitcher Luke Walker.


(A word about the back): A little surprisingly (although not that much if you really look at the numbers), almost all of the Pirates' individual all-time season marks remain intact on this card. The only more recent player to crack the list is Kent Tekulve, who now holds the Pirates mark for most games pitched in a season with 94 in 1979.

5 comments:

  1. What IS surprising is that Clemente holds none of the records.

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  2. I was 12 years old in the summer if '71. Clemente, Stargell, Oliver, Robertson, Sanguillen . . . these guys could rake, and I became a fan for life.

    ReplyDelete