Willie Stargell by Frank Garland

Author:Frank Garland
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: McFarland
Published: 2013-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Twilight Time

STARGELL’S PERFORMANCE IN the ’79 World Series vaulted him into national prominence, just as Clemente’s did eight years earlier and it didn’t take long for the networks and other major media to pounce. Although Stargell talked shortly after Game 7 ended about wanting to get away for a bit, he appeared on two network morning television shows in the days following the series, set up a visit to Merv Griffin’s talk show and lined up a 13-city tour sponsored by Gordon’s Dry Gin Company to increase awareness about sickle cell anemia. The tour was due to start November 4 and conclude December 7 and take Stargell to Boston, Portland, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Miami and Washington, D.C. In addition to paying for the tour, Gordon’s donated $10,000 to the Willie Stargell Foundation—the successor to the Black Athletes Foundation.

He also made it to New York in late October to collect the World Series Most Valuable Player award—a silver Corvette, courtesy of Sport magazine. There, he signed scores of autographs, picked up a gold record album that a Sister Sledge representative provided him—commemorating the million-records-sold mark of “We Are Family”—and met with the media, using the opportunity to get a jump on his sickle cell awareness campaign. “Sickle cell hasn’t received the attention other diseases have,” he said. “People are being crippled, others are dying. We’re trying to get a message out here.” He spoke on a variety of other topics while in New York, including his adopted home town. “I complain about the potholes and shoveling the snow, too,” he said, “but when I come through that Fort Pitt Tunnel, especially after being away for a long time, it means a whole lot to me.” He spoke about the future, saying he’d like to work with younger players, “being able to help them over some hurdles I’ve seen.” And he shared his personal philosophy. “Blacks and whites came together on our club and we sacrificed. I can’t see why men can’t work together like that everywhere in the world.”1

Two days after the Sport magazine appearance, he was introduced as a new executive with the Sperry-Remington Company, promoting a new electric shaver. In fact, as he stood at the microphone at the “21” Club, he pulled an electric razor from his pocket and shaved off a three-day growth of beard, triggering a chorus of laughs and applause from the packed house. Stargell talked about his long wait to be discovered by Madison Avenue, saying that he wasn’t bitter about the fact that businesses were reluctant to provide blacks the same opportunities as whites. “I would never tell anyone how to spend their money,” he said. “But at the same time, I’m extremely happy to be one of the first blacks who will participate in the growth of a company.” Howard Cosell—perhaps the top sportscaster in the nation at the time and never one to mince words—told the audience that it was a crime black athletes hadn’t had the same commercial opportunities as white athletes.

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