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Three Rivers Stadium: 1970-2000 Friday, September 29, 2000 By Bob Smizik, Post-Gazette Columnist
Little more than 30 years ago, as the Pirates readied to move out of Forbes Field and into Three Rivers Stadium, there was the same kind of anticipation and excitement in the air that there is today as fans await the opening of PNC Park.
And like today, there was a certain sadness about leaving the past behind, leaving behind memories of team championships and individual brilliance.
But the opening of PNC Park next year will lack one of the ingredients that made the arrival of Three Rivers on July 16, 1970 such an exciting time in the city.
When the Pirates move across the street they'll be moving with a team that well might be years away from contending for a championship. They'll be moving with a roster full of question marks and a franchise unsure of itself. That wasn't the case when Three Rivers opened. The Pirates were a team on the rise, a team led by two future first-ballot Hall of Famers, a team with a supporting cast that was filled with fine players in their own right and a team with a minor-league system stacked with first-rate players.
During their first decade at Three Rivers, the Pirates put a team on the field filled with All-Stars every year. Those clubs either won a division title or were in the race until well into September. There were six division championships, two National League pennants and two World Series wins for the Pirates in the 1970s. It was the greatest era of Pirates baseball and one not soon to be replicated.
Sad to say, the stadium declined in appreciation as the team got better. Almost from the start, there were complaints about access. It was difficult to get there and harder to leave. Additionally, an attempt had been made to satisfy both tenants of the building, the Pirates and Steelers, and neither was totally happy with the final product, although most people agreed it was a better stadium for football than baseball.
But the criticism rarely affected the Pirates' success. They won division titles their first three years at Three Rivers as a young team came of age.
With Roberto Clemente , Willie Stargell and Bill Mazeroski -- who one of these days will become that team's third Hall of Famer -- as exemplary leaders, the young players grew rapidly. Players like Al Oliver, Manny Sanguillen, Richie Hebner and Dave Cash formed a solid cast around Clemente and Stargell. A pitching staff anchored by Steve Blass and Dock Ellis and with Dave Giusti in the bullpen was a worthy compliment to the position players.
More important, when new players were needed, the minor-league system had them ready.
When Cash, who succeeded Mazeroski at second base early in the decade, was traded for pitching help, Rennie Stennett was in the wings to give the Pirates spectacular, if sometimes inconsistent, fielding and a hitting stroke that might have won a batting title if a broken ankle later in the decade had not effectively ended his career.
When Clemente was killed in a plane crash after the 1972 season, Richie Zisk, who drove in 100 runs in his second major-league season, was ready.
And when the team faltered midway through the 1973 season, the call went out to Dave Parker, who won two batting titles and a Most Valuable Player award during the decade and for a time was considered the best player in baseball.
It was an exciting time and made all the more so by the Pirates' World Series victory in 1971.
They were heavy underdogs to the Baltimore Orioles, a team that featured Frank Robinson, Brooks Robinson, Boog Powell and one of the greatest pitching staffs of the modern era. The Orioles had represented the American League in the previous two World Series and had won the year before. True to form, the Orioles smacked around the Pirates in the first two games, winning, 5-3 and 11-3, and the experts figured it would be a short series.
But Blass won game three and in the first night World Series game the next day, rookie Bruce Kison came on in relief in the first inning to pitch superbly and even the series. Neillie Briles pitched a two-hit shutout in the fifth game and the Series went back to Baltimore with the Pirates in the lead. The Orioles won the sixth game in extra innings which set the stage for another magnificent performance by Blass, who pitched a four-hitter as the Pirates won, 2-1, with Clemente hitting a home run.
Pittsburgh was in ecstasy. Not only had the Pirates won the World Series, only the team's second in 44 years, but they had the makings of a dynasty. The team was solid at every position, with depth and good pitching. Only Clemente was close to the end of his career and, despite being 37, he looked to have four or five more good years.
The 1972 Pirates were even better and steamrolled the National League East, winning the division by 11 games. But in the playoff against Cincinnati, a team that in a few years would become part of baseball legend as the Big Red Machine, the Pirates lost in the National League Championship Series in the fifth and deciding game when the winning run scored on a wild pitch.
It was a devastating defeat but paled next to the news of Jan. 1, 1973. Clemente had been killed in a plane crash while flying supplies to Nicaragua, which had been ravaged by an earthquake.
The Pirates unraveled without their leader. Sanguillen was tried in right field but soon returned to catcher. The team stayed in the race until the final day of the season but finished with a losing record.
Major changes were made in the off-season and the Pirates came back to win division titles in 1974 and 1975 but in neither case were they a match for the Los Angeles Dodgers or the Reds in the playoffs.
The team was competitive, finishing second for three straight years, but never a champion. Until 1979. With Stargell having what only could be described as a heroic season -- one that earned him the MVP for the National League -- the Pirates won the East Division, breezed past the Reds in the playoffs and once again met the Orioles in the World Series
As they did in 1971, the Pirates fell behind, this time three games to one and, like 1971, looked hopelessly outclassed. But this team that had taken to heart the hit song, "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge, would not crack and won the final three games, with, appropriately, Stargell's home run the deciding hit in the seventh game.
It was a fabulous era, one the Pirates can only hope to approach as they enter PNC Park.
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