Tom Brennan - Killer Mets Opponent: Willie Stargell

Portrait of a Met Killer

Previously, I wrote an article where I glanced back at the great WIllie McCovey, whose greatness (upon analysis) was to a degree aided and abetted by slugging against the 1962-67 utterly hapless Mets. 

Remember, there were no divisions back then - your team played every other NL team 18 times, so Willie Mac, despite being on a west coast team, got plenty of chances to develop his fierce hitting results - when so many of your games are against weak expansionist Mets and Astros pitching, your career timing clearly was very fortuitous.

That said, there was another Willie, Willie Stargell, who got started a few years after McCovey and was also hugely aided in his career launch by weak Mets pitching.

In 1963, the first year Stargell got a decent number of MLB ABs, he was just 4 for 25 against the Mets, although with a couple of HRs.

But then, from 1964-67, he utterly destroyed the Mets for those 4 seasons.  He went 83 for 237 (.350) with 23 HRs and 69 RBIs, and an OBP well north of .400.  Ruthian.

Against the league as a whole, including the Mets, he did well enough in those 4 years: 

283, 25 HRs 90 RBIs, averaging 475 official ABs per season, and a .345 OBP.  But take out those enormous Mets numbers, and I won't do the calculations, but the full season numbers would not have looked quite as solid.  They were inflated by being able to gorge himself on Mets pitching.

By this point, Stargell no doubt looked at the Mets staff like a Grizzlie Bear would look at a tasty meal.

Then, the weak hitting season of 1968 rolled around, and Mets pitching (with Tom Seaver and Jerry Koosman demonstrating excellence) was vastly improved....but Willie kept right on gorging.  Although he hit just .237 that season, he hit .294/.393/.608 against the Mets.

He had a much better season in 1969, but facing a now-elite Mets World Championship staff, he struggled finally, right?  No.  He still put up a clearly better slash line (.340/.426/.604) than he did against the rest of the league.

Thereafter, he finally started to be handled better by the Mets.

Career-wise, Stargell ended up in the Hall of Fame, with 475 HRs, 1,540 RBIs and a .282/.360/.529.  Very strong.

But career-wise against the Mets? A robust .287/.366/.576 with 44 doubles, 7 triples, 60 HRs and a staggering 182 RBIs in 825 at bats.  

But the results were bifurcated: Against the triumvirate of Seaver, Koosman, and Matlack, he hit just .226 in 243 at bats with 15 HRs.  Against the rest, he smashed to the tune of .313 with 45 HRs in 582 at bats.

He also had the benefit of hitting against the expansion Astros, Padres, and Expos, and like he did against the Mets, his career slash lines against those neophytes exceeded his career average.  Nothing quite like hitting against lots of decidedly inferior competition.  Just ask Yankee hitters in recent years, who love to beat the Al East patsy Orioles like a drum.

Anyway, I remember not one of Stargell's HRs, but one of his outs, most of all - in a 1-0 Mets win in Forbes Field where, late in the game, Tug McGraw got him to fly out to center.  Of course, Stargell hit the ball 458 feet to dead center, but Tommie Agee caught it.

A tribute to the man's enormous power that Agee would be in a position to catch Stargell's 450+ foot drive at all.  As you probably remember, they played him DEEP.  Real deep.

I believe Forbes Field's mammoth dimensions kept him out of the 500 HR club.  He hit just 74 HR in Forbes Field in 1,879 plate appearances, during his early prime years.  His HR rate was significantly higher elsewhere.

If I was a Bucs fan, I no doubt would have been outside Forbes Field forming a protest of one, holding a sign up saying, "Move the @#%&# Fences In!  Free Willie!"

A final note before I go - I always remember him as a first baseman, but Willie actually played more career games beyond the infield - 1,262 games in the outfield, including 8 games in center field.

Anyway, Willie Stargell?  

Met Killer Supreme.