April 10, 1975: Willie Stargell returns to first base, homers twice in Pirates’ Opening Day win over Cubs

Willie Stargell began 1975 with a new assignment. For the first time in 14 seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Stargell was the club’s Opening Day first baseman.1 Already Pittsburgh’s all-time home-run leader, he celebrated by belting two more homers and going 4-for-4 as the Pirates beat the Chicago Cubs, 8-4, on April 10 at frigid Wrigley Field.

From his September 1962 arrival in Pittsburgh until July 1969, Stargell made occasional appearances at first base alongside his primary duties in left field.2 But the emergence of first basemen Al Oliver and Bob Robertson in 1969 turned him into a full-time outfielder for most of a half-decade.3 His only season with more than one game at first from 1970 through 1974 was 1972, when then-manager Bill Virdon benched the slumping Robertson in May and stationed Stargell at first for the rest of the season.4

In 1975 the Pirates were defending their fourth National League East Division title in five seasons,5 and Robertson was their likely first baseman. But he struggled in spring training after offseason surgery on both knees, following two inconsistent, injury-plagued seasons.6

Meanwhile, four Pittsburgh outfielders pushed hard for playing time.7 The 35-year-old Stargell had hit 20 or more homers in 11 straight seasons, taking home-run crowns in 1971 and 1973. His 346 career homers were the most in franchise history. The 28-year-old Oliver, the Pirates’ most used center fielder for the previous four seasons, had finished second in the NL batting race in 1974 and seventh in the league’s Most Valuable Player voting.

Two spots behind Oliver in the ’74 NL MVP balloting was 26-year-old Richie Zisk, who had shored up right field after Roberto Clemente’s tragic death on New Year’s Eve 1972.8 The youngest and most promising member of Pittsburgh’s outfield logjam, 23-year-old Dave Parker, had impressed in part-time action in 1973 and 1974.9

On March 27, less than two weeks before Opening Day, manager Danny Murtaugh announced his decision: Stargell at first, with Oliver in center, Parker in right, Zisk in left, and Robertson on the bench.10

The news pleased Stargell, who had expressed his desire to play first after several collisions with the left-field wall and scoreboard at Pittsburgh’s Forbes Field in the late 1960s,11 and later to preserve his knees from Three Rivers Stadium’s artificial turf.12

“I broke my butt for [Murtaugh] in left field, and I’ll break my butt for him at first base,” Stargell said.13

Pittsburgh’s new alignment was scheduled to debut on April 8, but a blizzard hit Chicago the week before Opening Day. Three days from the opener, the Cubs postponed it a day.14 With snow still covering the field on April 7, they pushed it back another day to April 10.15

By then, Wrigley Field’s snow was gone, but the chill remained. Gametime temperature was just 37 degrees, while 15 MPH winds gusted from the outfield.16 Pregame ceremonies honoring longtime ballpark announcer Pat Pieper, who had died in the offseason, and recent Hall of Fame selection Billy Herman were rescheduled for milder days.17 A crowd of 19,239 bundled up, and the Pirates kept warm with a fire in the runway behind their dugout.18

Scheduled Cubs starter Rick Reuschel, whose 13-12 record had topped sixth-place Chicago’s pitching staff in 1974, showed up with an intestinal flu.19 On less than three hours’ notice,20 manager Jim Marshall turned to righty Bill Bonham, until then slated to start the season’s second game.21

Bonham had blanked the Philadelphia Phillies on Opening Day 1974,22 but his chances for another shutout melted by the second batter. With one out, Richie Hebner drove a low fastball into the third row of the right-center-field bleachers,23 giving the Pittsburgh third baseman three straight Opening Days with home runs.24

Oliver’s deep fly ball chased center fielder Rick Monday to the wall for the second out,25 and Stargell – who hit his first major-league home run while starting at first base at Wrigley Field in 1963 – homered over the right-field seats and onto Sheffield Avenue.26 Stargell’s third career Opening Day home run gave the Pirates a quick 2-0 lead.27

Bonham retired the Pirates in order in the second, got two groundouts to begin the third, and went ahead of Hebner with two strikes.28 But he hit Hebner on the shin with a pitch, and Oliver doubled home Hebner.29 Stargell followed with a line-drive single to center, scoring Oliver to make it 4-0.30

Pittsburgh starter Dock Ellis’s 1974 season had ended when a batted ball broke his hand in September.31 Ellis had gone 9-1 with a 1.87 ERA while the Pirates surged into first place in the season’s second half; his injury triggered a six-game losing streak that jeopardized Pittsburgh’s division title hopes. During spring training in 1975, Ellis had allowed just one earned run in 36 innings.32

Away from Florida’s warmth, Ellis battled the chilly air – “I tried blowing on my hands to get them warm, but that never worked,”33 he observed – but kept the Cubs scoreless through the first four innings. He stranded two runners after Steve Swisher’s wind-aided leadoff pop-fly double in the third.34 Monday’s double to begin the fourth was also fruitless.

The Pirates had a chance to expand their lead in the fifth with two runners in scoring position and two outs for Stargell. But he was intentionally walked, and Bonham deflected Zisk’s liner to shortstop Don Kessinger, who threw out the Pirate left fielder to keep it a four-run game.35

Granted a reprieve from a looming blowout, the Cubs rallied in the bottom of the inning. Swisher grounded Chicago’s third leadoff double in a row down the third-base line.36 He took third on Vic Harris’s pinch-hit single and scored when Ellis turned Kessinger’s bouncer into a force at second.37

After José Cardenal walked, Monday and Bill Madlock hit back-to-back doubles, bringing in three more runs to tie the game. Jerry Morales reached on an infield single, and Murtaugh went to the bullpen for lefty Sam McDowell with Cubs at the corners and one out.

McDowell, a Pittsburgh-area native, was a five-time strikeout king with the Cleveland Indians.38 But he had withered ever since the Indians traded him to the San Francisco Giants after the 1971 season. Released by the New York Yankees in January 1975, McDowell made the Pirates as a nonroster invitee to spring training.39 A Chicago Sun-Times profile repeated rumors – denied by the 32-year-old McDowell – that alcoholism had contributed to his downfall.40

He walked Pete LaCock to load the bases, then needed just six pitches to strike out Manny Trillo and Swisher and end the inning.41

Still, momentum trended toward the Cubs. Lefty Ken Frailing pitched hitless innings in the sixth and seventh. McDowell walked Frailing and Kessinger on a total of nine pitches in the bottom of the sixth,42 and it was Larry Demery’s turn to put out a fire. Cardenal hit into a force, and Madlock grounded to second baseman Rennie Stennett, who stepped on the bag and threw to Stargell for the double play.

Murtaugh brought in fireman Dave Giusti after the seventh-inning stretch, and Monday hit the Cubs’ fourth leadoff double of the game, a pop fly that fell between Stennett and Parker.43 One out later, an intentional walk brought up Trillo with two runners on.44 He lined it toward left, but shortstop Frank Taveras made a leaping catch and flipped to Stennett to double off Monday.45

The temperature had dipped to 30 degrees when Frailing returned to the mound in the eighth.46 He threw a high curve, and Stargell unloaded, driving it deep into the seats in right-center – “starting low and rising as it bored into the spectators,” noted the Chicago Tribune.47 The Pirates led, 5-4.

“I didn’t think there would be any homers today,” Murtaugh said afterward. “But, man – those two by Willie. He really hit the dog bleep out of them.”48

One out later, Parker had an infield single, and Marshall called on 37-year-old Bob Locker, back in the majors after missing 1974 with an elbow injury. Manny Sanguillén hit Locker’s first pitch into the seats in left, just clearing the wall, for a two-run homer.49

“Manny’s [home run] might have been the best of all,” Stargell said. “He really hit his right into the wind.”50

The Pirates added an eighth run later in the inning when Stennett singled home Taveras. Giusti defanged the Cubs in the final two innings to close out the win.

Stargell singled in the ninth to make it a four-hit game. His new position had helped on a cold afternoon.

“When you play the outfield, you can get tight just standing out there between pitches,” he said. “At first base, you’re always moving around.”51

Stargell never played the outfield again. The Pirates won the NL East in 1975,52 and he finished seventh in the league’s MVP voting.53 Four years later, in 1979, Stargell led the Pirates to a World Series championship, sharing NL MVP honors with the Cardinals’ Keith Hernandez and getting named MVP of the NL Championship Series and the World Series.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin. The author thanks SABR’s Gary Belleville and Kurt Blumenau for their comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Photo credit: Willie Stargell, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play. He also reviewed game coverage in the Chicago Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Pittsburgh Press newspapers.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN197504100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1975/B04100CHN1975.htm

Notes

1 Stargell debuted in the major leagues in September 1962 and first made Pittsburgh’s Opening Day roster in 1963. The Pirates’ Opening Day first basemen during Stargell’s earlier years were Donn Clendenon (1963-68), Bob Robertson (1969, 1971-73), Al Oliver (1970), and Dave Parker (1974).

2 As of the All-Star break in 1969, Stargell had appeared in 601 career games in left field, 74 games in the other two outfield slots, and 161 games at first base.

3 From July 24, 1969, through April 29, 1972, Stargell appeared at first just once. On July 3, 1970, he moved from left field to first as a part of a double switch in the seventh inning of the Pirates’ 16-14 win over the Cubs at Wrigley Field and remained there for the rest of the game. His only game at first in all of 1973 and 1974 was in the second game of the Pirates’ doubleheader with the Cincinnati Reds on July 12, 1974, when manager Danny Murtaugh started him at first because of a pulled muscle in his left shoulder. Stargell was removed from the game after five innings because of shoulder pain. Charley Feeney, “Carroll, Ex-Little Pirate, Beats Big Ones: Reds Sweep 2; Buc Bats Fizzle,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 13, 1974: 6.

4 Charley Feeney, “Playing Games,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 1972: 21. Stargell appeared in 101 games at first in 1972, more than twice as many as in any of the 10 previous seasons of his career.

5 The Pirates had lost the NL Championship Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers, three games to one.

6 Bob Smizik, “Shades of 1972,” Pittsburgh Press, July 6, 1973: 23; Jeff Samuels, “Season Bringing Robby to His Knees,” Pittsburgh Press, August 5, 1974; Bob Smizik, “Who Should Be on First?,” Pittsburgh Press, March 20, 1975: 37.

7 Smizik, “Who Should Be on First?”

8 Bob Smizik, “Zisk Faces Loss of Status,” Pittsburgh Press, March 18, 1975: 24.

9 Bob Smizik, “Parker Ponders Future, Goes on the Defensive,” Pittsburgh Press, February 28, 1975: 29.

10 Charley Feeney, “Starg on 1st, Zisk in Left, Parker Right,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 28, 1975: 10. Robertson was a part-time player in Pittsburgh in 1975 and 1976, and the Pirates released him during spring training in 1977. He finished his career by playing for the Seattle Mariners in 1978 and Toronto Blue Jays in 1979. Vito Stellino, “Robertson’s Career in Jeopardy,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 17. 1977: 10.

11 Charley Feeney, “Stargell Starts at First Base Sunday,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, February 28, 1969: 21.

12 Charley Feeney, “Playing Games,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 20, 1972: 21.

13 Feeney, “Starg on 1st, Zisk in Left, Parker Right.”

14 Bob Verdi, “Cubs’ Opener Reset to Wednesday,” Chicago Tribune, April 6, 1975: 3,1.

15 Bob Smizik, “For Hot Bucs, a Real Game May Be Cool,” Pittsburgh Press, April 8, 1975: 22.

16 Charley Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 11, 1975: 11.

17 “Cub Clouts,” Chicago Tribune, April 10, 1975: 4,2.

18 Bob Verdi, “Pirates Buffet Cubs in Season Opener: Stargell’s 2 Homers Lead Way in 8-4 Win,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1975: 4,1.

19 Verdi, “Pirates Buffet Cubs in Season Opener.”

20 David Condon, “Cubs Fans Defy the Cold to View the Opener,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1975: 4,3.

21 “Cub Clouts,” Chicago Tribune, April 4, 1975: 4,4.

22 Richard Dozer, “Cubs Take Opener 2-0,” Chicago Tribune, April 10, 1974: 3,1. Bonham finished the 1974 season with an 11-22 record in 44 appearances – 36 starts – but his 3.86 ERA was good enough for a 99 ERA+.

23 Charley Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 11, 1975: 11.

24 Verdi, “Pirates Buffet Cubs in Season Opener.” On Opening Day 1973, Hebner homered once against Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals; he hit two home runs against Gibson in Pittsburgh’s 1974 opener. He went on to hit Opening Day home runs in 1979 with the New York Mets and 1981 with the Detroit Tigers.

25 Brent Frazee, “Stargell Powers Pirates to 8-4 Victory over Cubs,” Woodstock (Illinois) Daily Sentinel, April 11, 1975: 8.

26 Jerome Holtzman, “Bucs’ Rally in 8th Clips Cubs,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 11, 1975: 128.

27 Stargell homered on Opening Day 1966, a go-ahead two-run homer in the 13th inning against Tony Cloninger of the Atlanta Braves in the first major-league game played at Atlanta Stadium. On Opening Day 1969, Stargell homered against Bob Gibson in St. Louis.

28 Gary Stein, “Stargell’s Smoking Bat Chills Cubs, 8-4,” Rockford (Illinois) Morning Star, April 11, 1975: B1.

29 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

30 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

31 Bob Smizik, “Bad Break for Pirates: Ellis’ Hand,” Pittsburgh Press, September 12, 1974: 32.

32 Bob Smizik, “Dock Prescribes Dedication,” Pittsburgh Press, April 10, 1975: 24.

33 Bob Smizik, “Open Season on Cubs! Willie, Bucs Have Blast,” Bob Smizik, Pittsburgh Press, April 11, 1975: 30.

34 Pat Livingston, “A Smashing Start,” Pittsburgh Press, April 11, 1975: 30.

35 Livingston, “A Smashing Start.”

36 Holtzman, “Bucs’ Rally in 8th Clips Cubs.”

37 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

38 Among pitchers active on Opening Day 1975, McDowell’s 2,424 career strikeouts were topped only by Bob Gibson (3,057) and Mickey Lolich (2,540).

39 “McDowell Released,” New York Daily News, January 7, 1975: 63; Bob Smizik, “Sam McDowell Signs With Pirates,” Pittsburgh Press, January 19, 1975: D-1; Bob Smizik, “McDowell Coming Home,” Pittsburgh Press, April 3, 1975: 31.

40 James C. Mullen, “McDowell Ready for Comeback With Pirates,” Chicago Sun-Times, April 11, 1975: 126. McDowell appeared in 14 games for the Pirates, all but one in relief, and posted a 2-1 record and a 2.86 ERA. His major-league career ended when Pittsburgh released him in June to call up right-handed reliever Kent Tekulve from Triple A. In 1980, after his retirement from baseball, McDowell underwent treatment for alcoholism. He later became a drug and alcohol counselor. David Fink, “Sam’s Dream Suddenly at an End,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 27, 1975: 12; Jean Bryant, “McDowell Helps ’Em Keep Eye on Ball,” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, May 16, 1996: E-4.

41 Holtzman, “Bucs’ Rally in 8th Clips Cubs.”

42 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

43 Livingston, “A Smashing Start.”

44 Trillo had come to Chicago in the October 1974 deal that sent future Hall of Famer Billy Williams to the Oakland A’s. Richard Dozer, “Billy Williams to A’s,” Chicago Tribune, October 24, 1974: 4,1.

45 Smizik, “Open Season on Cubs!” According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Taveras made three outstanding plays at shortstop. Holtzman, “Bucs’ Rally in 8th Clips Cubs.”

46 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

47 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR”; Rick Talley, “Seat Repairs Are Needed,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1975: 4,3.

48 Stein, “Stargell’s Smoking Bat Chills Cubs, 8-4.”

49 “Cubs Scoring,” Chicago Tribune, April 11, 1975: 4,3; Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

50 Verdi, “Pirates Buffet Cubs in Season Opener.”

51 Feeney, “Bucs Grab Opener on Stargell’s Second HR.”

52 The Cubs and Montreal Expos were tied for fifth, 17½ games behind the Pirates.

53 Parker, also involved in the preseason lineup shuffle, went on to have a breakout season, leading the NL with a .541 slugging percentage and coming in third – behind Joe Morgan of the Reds and Greg Luzinski of the Phillies – in the NL MVP balloting.