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Sunday, September 19, 1999 By Bob Smizik, Post-Gazette Columnist
The fans have spoken and their voice was both profoundly brilliant and, well, peculiar.
More than 14,000 votes were cast for the Pirates' Team of the Century and they brought the expected election of some of the greatest players in the history of the game, others who were or are particular fan favorites and finally one player who was seemingly there because of just one game.
The voting had a modern flavor, with a nod to old-timers like Honus Wagner and Pie Traynor, and a not unexpected slant to the 1960 World Series champions, a team that captured the hearts of Western Pennsylvanians like no other baseball team.
The 12 elected to the Team of the Century are:
Willie Stargell (first base), Bill Mazeroski (second base), Honus Wagner (shortstop), Pie Traynor (third base), Ralph Kiner (left field), Lloyd Waner (center field), Roberto Clemente (right field), Jason Kendall (catcher), Vernon Law (right-handed pitcher), Harvey Haddix (left-handed pitcher), Kent Tekulve (relief pitcher) and Danny Murtaugh (manager).
Player
Willie Stargell
Mazeroski, regarded as the greatest fielding second baseman in baseball history, received the most votes, 13,049, about 92 percent. Clemente, the legendary right fielder, was second with 12,791 and Stargell third with 12,579.
"It's hard to believe," said Mazeroski. "It's a tremendous honor that I could get more votes than Honus Wagner, Pie Traynor, Ralph Kiner and Roberto Clemente."
There were six Hall of Famers on the team -- Stargell, Wagner, Traynor, Kiner, Waner and Clemente. Another Hall of Famer, Paul Waner, finished a distant second to Clemente in right field.
The closest votes were in center field, where Lloyd Waner received 48 more votes than Andy Van Slyke, and at relief pitcher where Tekulve received 160 more votes than ElRoy Face.
The most controversial vote was for left-handed pitcher, where Haddix received 6,222 votes, almost 2,000 more than John Candelaria. The surprise was that Wilbur Cooper, the winningest pitcher in Pirates history, didn't get more support.
Haddix pitched one of the greatest games in baseball history in 1959 when he threw 12 perfect innings against the Milwaukee Braves before losing in the 13th. He is best remembered for that game and it probably had a significant influence on the vote.
Based on career numbers, Haddix can't compare with Cooper. Haddix pitched for the Pirates for five seasons and was 45-38. Cooper was 202-159 in 13 years with the Pirates from 1912 through 1924. Candelaria also had it all over Haddix with a 124-88 record in 11 seasons.
Another controversial choice was at catcher where Jason Kendall became the only active Pirates to be elected. Kendall has played only four seasons with the Pirates. He received 5,508 votes compared to 5,265 for Manny Sanguillen, who played with the Pirates from 1969 through 1980, with one year off with the Oakland Athletics in 1977.
One of the more interesting races was in left field where Ralph Kiner, a seven-time National League home run champion with the Pirates in the 1940s and 1950s received 7,948 votes to 4,834 for Barry Bonds.
Bonds won two Most Valuable Player awards with the Pirates, in the division-winning seasons of 1990 and 1992, but his six-year career with the Pirates doesn't measure up to Kiner's. Among retired players, only Babe Ruth had more home runs per at bats than did Kiner.
Tekulve, who had 31 saves and pitched in 94 games when the Pirates won the World Series in 1979, was typically gracious in his win over Face. He paid tribute both to Face and Dave Giusti, who finished third among relief pitchers.
"I'm very pleased," he said. "To know that the fans still remember me 20 years later is gratifying. To be thought of that way is tremendous.
"When I walked into this town as a reliever, there were expectations from Elroy in the 1960s and Dave in the 1970s. There was a standard that was set and I was extremely proud to continue what those guys had built.
Elroy was one of the pioneers of relief pitching. He's one of the men who made it a viable part of the team. If it wasn't for guys like him, there wouldn't have been a job for me when I came along."
It's doubtful if another team in baseball could measure up to the infield the fans elected. Three are in the Hall of Fame and the fourth, Mazeroski, figures to be elected by the Veterans Committee within the next two years. Wagner is generally regarded as the greatest shortstop of all time. Traynor had that distinction at third base until a spate of modern players surpassed him. But he still ranks among the top five. Stargell hit 475 home runs and Mazeroski's fielding skills are legendary.
There was a decided 1960 coloring to the voting. Clemente, Mazeroski, Haddix, Law and Murtaugh were part of that team, as were runners-up Dick Groat at shortstop, Bob Friend as right-handed pitcher, Dick Stuart at first base and Face.
The 1960 team accounted for nine of the 24 first and second-place slots. By comparison, the 1971 champions had four of the 24 -- Stargell, Clemente, Mazeroski and Sanguillen. The 1979 championship team was represented by Stargell and Tekulve and runners-up Bill Madlock (third base), Sanguillen and Candelaria.
The three division winning teams at the start of the decade had three runners-up -- Bonds, Van Slyke and Manager Jim Leyland.
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