Pittsburgh's Shortstop Problem
In the 1970s, the Pirates didn’t make many personnel mistakes.
Pittsburgh started that decade with three straight division titles, and won the World Series in 1971. After a one-year stumble in the wake of Roberto Clemente’s tragic death, they won the division two more times, then battled the rising Phillies each year, averaging 94 wins per season over the final four years of the decade, culminating in another World Series win by the We Are Family club of 1979.
If you average 92 wins a year for an entire decade you’ve got to have a talented squad, and that certainly applied to the Pirates. Besides Clemente they had future Hall of Famers Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, and Bill Mazeroski, along with a seemingly endless supply of talented players coming out of their minor league system. Their affiliates produced excellent players at nearly every position, including catcher Manny Sanguillén, first baseman Bob Robertson, outfielder/first baseman Al Oliver, third baseman Richie Hebner, second basemen Dave Cash, Willie Randolph, and Rennie Stennett, and outfielders Richie Zisk and Omar Moreno. Their pitching may have been patchy at times, but the Pittsburgh Lumber Company was never going to run short of bats for the lineup.
There was, however, one glaring exception. For the entire decade, the Pirates couldn’t seem to put a shortstop on the field who could do much of anything.
