A Star-gell Is Born
For Pittsburgh Pirates fans, Willie Stargell is a franchise stalwart. The left fielder turned first baseman spent his entire career with the Pirates with a penchant for hitting long balls and having fun, perhaps best captured by his observation that “The man says ‘Play ball,’ not ‘Work ball,’ you know.”
For a man with 475 career home runs, there was plenty of fun to enjoy along his 21 years of big league tenure. But in the early ‘60s, he was just a young Buc.
Called up at the end of the 1962 season, Stargell’s 1963 rookie campaign was relatively quiet; his .243 batting average, complete with just 11 home runs and 47 RBI, did little to foreshadow the power hitter he would become.
That would all change in 1964.
Just halfway through the regular season, Stargell had already outhit his 1963 numbers. He had improved his batting average to .285, adding one to his rookie home run total with 12 blasts while tallying 52 RBI. Despite a knee injury limiting his appearances to less than three-quarters of the Pirates’ schedule at that point, he remained a welcome sight at the plate for Pittsburgh fans – and a feared one for pitchers.
On July 22, 1964, against the St. Louis Cardinals, Stargell made it clear that he was just getting started by hitting for the cycle.
Sidelined by injury for two games leading into the matchup, Stargell quickly brushed the dust off the plate at Busch Stadium. Following up a single by Jerry Lynch, which would score Bill Virdon and put the Pirates up 1-0, Stargell drove in two runs with a triple to center field. Stargell advanced to first base in his next plate appearance, drawing a walk for the Pirates in the top of the fourth.
Lynch put the Pirates up 4-0 with a fifth-inning blast into deep right field. And where there was Jerry Lynch, Stargell was soon to follow.
A call to the bullpen for St. Louis and a fresh arm in Bob Humphreys would not keep the first baseman from launching an assault of his own on the battered Cardinals, sending a solo shot over the right field wall.
Facing yet another Cardinals’ arm in the top of the seventh, Stargell would send a pitch from Ray Washburn into left field for a single. And Stargell would keep the good times rolling with a ninth-inning double to right field to complete the cycle.
Only the second National Leaguer to hit for the cycle at that point in the season, Stargell used the Cardinals to offer a glimpse at the offensive skill set, and tenacity, which would come to define his major league career.
He told the Pittsburgh Press: “The more hits I got, the better my knee felt. I wanted to stay in the game even after we had a big lead because I felt good hitting.”
Stargell was just one of four big leaguers to hit for the cycle in the 1964 season. Twenty-four years later, he would be inducted to the Hall of Fame.
Abbey Dempsey is the 2026 communications intern in the Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Leadership Development
