The 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates

In my October 4th post, I made a reference to being a baseball statistics junkie way back when – and even threatened to name the starting line-up and batting averages of the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. (Game 1, to be specific.) I'm delivering on this threat – and offering some parenthetical remarks in the process.

Bill Virdon cf .264 (Best team outfield fielding percentage with .983)
Dick Groat ss .325 (Led the league in batting average)
Bob Skinner lf .273 (Led the team with 11 stolen bases. Not a fleet of foot team.)
Dick Stuart 1b .260 (“Dr. Strangeglove”. 114 hits and 104 strikeouts in 438 at bats)
Roberto Clemente rf .314 (Led the team with 94 rbi’s)
Smokey Burgess c .294 (Struck out only 13 times in 337 at bats)
Don Hoak 3b .282 (Led the team with 74 base on balls)
Bill Mazeroski 2b .273 (Hit the most dramatic home run in baseball history)
Vern Law p .171 (20 wins, 9 losses, with a 3.08 earned run average)

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/PIT/1960.shtml

For Father’s Day this year, JoAnna gave me the David Maraniss biography of Roberto Clemente. I stopped reading it after finishing the chapter on the 1960 World Series. The book reminded me of the plodding, formulaic, young adult sports biographies I regularly checked out of the Warren Public Library in junior high school. (Yes, my reading tastes back then were unforgivably lame.) A friend of mine, also from Pennsylvania – though we didn’t know each other way back when – and also a big Pirates fan during the 60s and 70s agrees with this assessment.

According to the customer reviews on amazon.com, however, the two of us are decidedly in the minority. (Some might say the minor leagues.) 41 reviewers rate the book a 5-star read, 10 give it 4 stars, 2 give it 3 stars, and 1 person only managed a 2-star reaction. I wonder how many people reviewed the person instead of the book. Indeed, Roberto Clemente is one of the few baseball players that I’d give 5 stars.

Unfortunately for Pirate fans, of which I consider myself a dormant example, there’s been nothing to cheer about since 1979 except for a beautiful new stadium.