One of the All-time great Pittsburg Pirate players, Pops was a true superstar and FIRST BALLOT HOF player.
This autograph is on an authentic Official Rawlings National League baseball, with the very limited run of A. BARTLETT GIAMATTI National League stamping, was obtained in person by myself at a local card show in the 1987-1991 time range when I was very active in the hobby.
It is 100% Guaranteed to pass any authentication service check. There is no question about it, so bid with confidence.
Please review all photos, and ask all questions before bidding. The ball is stored in its original Rawlings box with the original tissue paper. One of the baseball's panels has a tinge of yellowing which is somewhat common in older baseballs. The photos clearly show all four panels for you to see.
We want to see this wonderful autograph go to a great new home that will appreciate it.
Willie Stargell
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Willie Stargell
Willie Stargell 1965.jpg
Stargell in 1965
Left fielder / First baseman
Born: March 6, 1940
Earlsboro, Oklahoma
Died: April 9, 2001 (aged 61)
Wilmington, North Carolina
Batted: Left
Threw: Left
MLB debut
September 16, 1962, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Last MLB appearance
October 3, 1982, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
MLB statistics
Batting average .282
Hits 2,232
Home runs 475
Runs batted in 1,540
Teams
Pittsburgh Pirates (1962–1982)
Career highlights and awards
7× All-Star (1964–1966, 1971–1973, 1978)
2× World Series champion (1971, 1979)
NL MVP (1979)
World Series MVP (1979)
NLCS MVP (1979)
Roberto Clemente Award (1974)
2× NL home run leader (1971, 1973)
NL RBI leader (1973)
Pittsburgh Pirates No. 8 retired
Member of the National
Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg Baseball Hall of Fame Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg Empty Star.svg
Induction 1988
Vote 82.4% (first ballot)
Wilver Dornell Stargell (March 6, 1940 – April 9, 2001), nicknamed "Pops" later in his career, was an American professional baseball left fielder and first baseman who spent all of his 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) (1962–1982) with the Pittsburgh Pirates. Among the most feared power hitters in baseball history, Stargell had the most home runs (296) of any player in the 1970s decade, many of the tape-measure variety. During his career, he batted .282 with 2,232 hits, 1,194 runs, 423 doubles, 475 home runs, and 1,540 runs batted in, helping his team win six National League (NL) East division titles, two NL pennants, and two World Series championships in 1971 and 1979, both over the Baltimore Orioles. Stargell was a seven-time All-Star and two-time NL home run leader. In 1979, he became the first and currently only player to win the NL Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, the NL Championship Series MVP Award and the World Series MVP Award in one season. In 1982, the Pirates retired his uniform number 8. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988.[1]
Contents
1 Early life
2 MLB career
2.1 1960s
2.2 1970s
2.3 1980s
2.4 Long home runs
3 Later life
4 Legacy
5 See also
6 References
7 Further reading
8 External links
Early life
Stargell was born in Earlsboro, Oklahoma, but later moved to Florida with an aunt after his parents divorced. Later, he returned to Alameda, California, to live with his mother.[2] He attended Encinal High School, where his baseball teammates included future MLB players Tommy Harper and Curt Motton. Stargell signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates organization and entered minor league baseball in 1959.[3]
Stargell played for farm teams in New Mexico, North Dakota, Iowa, Texas, North Carolina, and Ohio.[3] While on the road with some of those teams, Stargell was not allowed to stay in the same accommodations as the white players. Lodging for black players was located in the poor black areas of those towns. While in Plainview, Texas, he was accosted at gunpoint by a man who threatened his life if he played in that night's game. Stargell played and nothing came of the incident.[4] He might have quit baseball over the racial difficulties that he experienced, but he was encouraged by letters he received from friend and baseball scout Bob Zuk.[5]
MLB career
Beloved in Pittsburgh for his style of play and affable manner, Stargell hit seven of the 18 balls ever hit over Forbes Field's 86-foot-high right-field stands [6] and several of the upper-tier home runs at its successor, Three Rivers Stadium. Though he became quickly known as Willie Stargell, his autograph suggests that he preferred his given name, Wilver. Biographer Frank Garland relates that Stargell's family and friends called him Wilver and that Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully also made a point of using Stargell's given name. Scully said that because he used the name Wilver, he became Stargell's mother's favorite broadcaster.[4]
Standing 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m) with long arms and a unique bat-handling practice of holding only the knob of the bat with his lower hand to provide extra bat extension, Stargell seemed larger than most batters. Stargell's swings seemed designed to hit home runs of Ruthian proportions. When most batters used a simple lead-weighted bat in the on-deck circle, Stargell took to warming up with a sledgehammer. While standing in the batter's box, he would windmill his bat until the pitcher started his windup.
1960s
Stargell made his MLB debut at the end of the 1962 season at the age of 22. His 1963 rookie season was lackluster, but he enjoyed much more success the following season, his first as an everyday player. Stargell began and ended the season as the Pirates' everyday left-fielder, but spent extended periods playing first base as well. He hit the first home run at Shea Stadium in the first game played in that stadium on April 17, 1964.[7] He made his first of seven trips to the All-Star Game that year. He returned to the All-Star Game the next two seasons, hitting over 100 runs batted in (RBI) in both years, and finishing respectively 14th and 15th in MVP voting. He won the first of the three NL Player of the Month awards of his career in June 1965 (.330, 10 HR, 35 RBI).
Frequent offseason conditioning problems came to a head in 1967, when Stargell showed up to spring training at a weight of 235 pounds. The team mandated that he diet to get down to a weight of 215 pounds. His batting average dropped more than .040 points that season; his home run total was reduced from 33 in 1966 to 20 in 1967. The team had a personal trainer work with Stargell before the 1968 season to get him in the best shape of his career, but Stargell had a poor season and manager Larry Shepard criticized Stargell's physique as too muscular.[8] He finished out the decade with a strong performance in 1969 (.307, 29 HR, 92 RBI), and finished 21st in MVP voting.
1970s
Stargell playing first base for the Pirates in 1979.
Stargell enjoyed another fine season in 1970, batting .264 with 31 home runs and 85 RBIs and finishing 15th in MVP voting. On August 1 of that year, Stargell collected five extra-base hits—three doubles and two home runs—in the Pirates' 20–10 victory over the Atlanta Braves at Fulton County Stadium. He became the third player, after Lou Boudreau in 1946 and Joe Adcock in 1954, to collect five extra-base hits in one game. In the same game, teammate Bob Robertson also collected five hits, including a home run; not until Andrew McCutchen and Garrett Jones in 2012 would two Pirates collect five hits in the same game. The 1970 Pirates won the National League East title for their first postseason berth since winning the 1960 World Series. They were swept in that year's NLCS by the Cincinnati Reds, but not before Stargell collected six hits in 12 at-bats, the most hits by either team in this series.
Stargell's career moved to another level in 1971. At age 31, he won the first of his two home-run titles in 1971; his 48 edged out Hank Aaron's 47 on the final week of the season and, to date, trail only Ralph Kiner's 54 and 51 in 1949 and 1947, respectively, for most by a Pirate in one season. He won the final two NL Player of the Month awards of his career in April (.347, 11 HR, 27 RBI) and in June (.333, 11 HR, 36 RBI); yet he did not win the MVP award, finishing second to Joe Torre. In seven of the next nine seasons, Stargell finished in the top 10 in MVP voting, as his career moved onto a Hall of Fame track.
He was a member of the Pirates' World Championship team, the Pirates defeating the Baltimore Orioles in seven games. The Pirates lost the first two games of that series, which Stargell said that media began referring to as "the St. Valentine's Day Massacre" before Pittsburgh's comeback.[9]
Stargell continued to post excellent numbers in 1972 (.293, 33, 112) finishing third in MVP voting behind Johnny Bench and Billy Williams.
In 1973, Stargell achieved the rare feat of simultaneously leading the league in both doubles and homers. Stargell had more than 40 of each; he was the first player to chalk up this 40-40 accomplishment since Hank Greenberg in 1940; other players have done so since (notably Albert Belle, the only 50-50 player). Stargell won his second home-run title that year, edging out three Atlanta Braves: Davey Johnson's 43, Darrell Evans' 41 and Aaron's 40. He also led the league in runs batted in and slugging percentage. For the third year in a row, he was narrowly edged out of the MVP award, as Pete Rose took the honor.
Beginning in 1975, after years of experimenting at the position, Stargell moved permanently to first base. He never played another game in the outfield.
In 1977, Stargell hit his 400th career home run on June 29 against the St. Louis Cardinals.
Stargell originated the practice of giving his teammates embroidered "Stargell stars" for their caps after a nice play or a good game. The practice began during the turbulent 1978 season, when the Pirates came from fourth place and 11.5 games behind in mid-August, to challenge the first-place Philadelphia Phillies for the division title. The season was scheduled to end in a dramatic, four-game showdown against the Phillies in Pittsburgh, in which the Pirates had to win all four games to claim the title. Following a Pirate sweep of the Friday-night double-header, Stargell belted a grand slam in the bottom of the first inning of the season's penultimate game to give the Pirates an early 4–1 lead, although the Pirates relinquished that lead later in the game and fell two runs short after a four-run rally in the bottom of the ninth inning,[10] thus eliminating themselves from contention for the pennant. Stargell called that 1978 team his favorite team ever, and predicted that the Pirates would win the World Series the following year.
The Pirates did win the World Series in 1979, in a similar style as they had ended the 1978 season: from last place in the NL East at the end of April, the Pirates clawed their way into a first-place battle with the Montreal Expos during the latter half of the season. They excited fans with numerous come-from-behind victories along the way (many during their final at-bat) to claim the division pennant on the last day of the season. At his urging as captain, the team adopted the Sister Sledge hit song "We Are Family" as the team anthem. Then, his play on the field inspired his teammates and earned him the MVP awards in both the NLCS and the World Series. Stargell capped off the year by hitting a dramatic home run in Baltimore during the late innings of a close Game 7 to seal a Pirates' championship. The home run was his third of the series and, coincidentally, credited Stargell with the winning runs in both Game 7s of the two postseason meetings between the Pirates and the Orioles (1971 and 1979). The 1979 World Series victory also made the Pirates the only franchise in baseball history to twice recover from a three-games-to-one deficit and win a World Series (previously they had done so in 1925 against the Washington Senators). For the series, Stargell went 12-for-30; along with his three home runs, he also recorded four doubles for 25 total bases, which remains tied as a World Series record, Reggie Jackson having set it in the 1977 World Series, and his seven extra-base hits (three HRs and four doubles) in the 1979 World Series also set a record.
In addition to his NLCS and World Series MVP awards, Stargell finally took home the elusive MVP award (as co-winner along with St. Louis' Keith Hernandez) at the age of 39. Stargell is the only player to have won all three MVP trophies in a single year. He shared the Sports Illustrated magazine's "Sportsmen of the Year" award with NFL quarterback Terry Bradshaw, who also played at Three Rivers Stadium, for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Pirates manager Chuck Tanner said of Stargell, "Having him on your ball club is like having a diamond ring on your finger." Teammate Al Oliver once said, "If he asked us to jump off the Fort Pitt Bridge, we would ask him what kind of dive he wanted. That's how much respect we have for the man."
1980s
Stargell with Fred Rogers in 1980
Stargell played until 1982, but he never appeared in more than 74 games after 1979.[11] He retired with 475 home runs despite playing much of his career at Forbes Field, whose center field distance was 457 feet (139 m). Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente estimated, perhaps generously, that Stargell hit 400 fly balls to the warning track in left and center fields during his eight seasons in the park. The short fence in right field (300 feet (91 m) to the foul pole) at Forbes Field was guarded by a screen more than 20 feet (6.1 m) high which ran from the right-field line to the 375-foot (114 m) mark in right center. Three Rivers Stadium, a neutral hitter's park, boosted Stargell's power numbers. The Pirates moved into Three Rivers in mid-1970, and he hit 310 of his 475 career home runs from 1970 until his retirement, despite turning 30 in 1970. Stargell's two home run titles came in his first three years at Three Rivers. Stargell's last game was on October 3, 1982 at Three Rivers Stadium against the Montreal Expos. Batting leadoff, he hit a single off Steve Rogers. He was then pinch run by Doug Frobel and subsequently was replaced by Richie Hebner at first base.[12]
Long home runs
At one time, Stargell held the record for the longest home run in nearly half of the NL parks. On August 5, 1969, Stargell hit a home run off Alan Foster that left the stadium and measured 507 feet, the longest home run ever hit at Dodger Stadium. He hit a second home run out of Dodger Stadium on May 8, 1973, against Andy Messersmith, measured at 470 feet (140 m). Dodger Hall of Famer Don Sutton said of Stargell, "I never saw anything like it. He doesn't just hit pitchers, he takes away their dignity." Only four other home runs have been hit out of Dodger Stadium.
On June 25, 1971, Stargell hit the longest home run in Veterans Stadium history during a 14–4 Pirates win over the Philadelphia Phillies.[13] The shot came in the second inning and chased starting pitcher Jim Bunning out of the game. The spot where the ball landed was eventually marked with a yellow star with a black "S" inside a white circle until Stargell's 2001 death, when the white circle was painted black.[14] The star remained in place until the stadium's 2004 demolition. In 1978, against Wayne Twitchell of the Montreal Expos, Stargell hit the only fair ball to ever reach the club deck of Olympic Stadium. The seat where the ball landed (the home run was measured at 535 feet (163 m)) was replaced with a yellow seat, while the other seats in the upper deck are red. Upon the Expos departure in 2004, the seat was removed and sent to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.
Bob Prince, the colorful longtime Pirate radio announcer, would greet a Stargell home run with the phrase "Chicken on the Hill". This referred to Stargell's ownership of a chicken restaurant in Pittsburgh's Hill District. For a time, whenever he homered, Stargell's restaurant would give away free chicken to all patrons present in the restaurant at the time of the home run, in a promotion dubbed "Chicken on the Hill with Will". Prince himself once promised free chicken to listeners if Stargell hit a home run; Stargell did homer and Prince picked up a $400 bill at the restaurant.[15]
Later life
Stargell signs autographs after his retirement in 1983.
After retirement, Stargell spent two years as a first base coach for the Atlanta Braves from 1986–1988, wearing his customary #8. He was the first minor-league hitting coach for Chipper Jones.[16] He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, his first year of eligibility. He had an awkward interaction with the Pirates that season when the team wanted to schedule a Willie Stargell Night to honor his Hall of Fame election. Stargell refused to participate in the team's plans, still stinging from the team's refusal to even consider him for its managerial job that season.[8]
In the 1985 trial of alleged cocaine dealer Curtis Strong, Stargell was accused by Dale Berra and John Milner (both former Pirates teammates) of distributing "greenies" (amphetamines) to players.[17] Berra said that he obtained amphetamines from Stargell and Bill Madlock; he said he could get them from Stargell "on any given day I asked him for one."[18] Stargell strongly denied these accusations.[17] Commissioner Peter Ueberroth later cleared Stargell and Madlock of any wrongdoing.[5]
Stargell returned to the Pittsburgh club in 1997 as an aide to Cam Bonifay, the team's general manager. He also worked as a special baseball adviser to Pirates owner Kevin McClatchy, who called Stargell "the ultimate class act".[15] Stargell was hospitalized for three weeks in 1999 to treat undisclosed medical problems with one of his organs. A source close to the Pirates blamed Stargell's health issues on his weight gain after retiring as a player. Stargell lost some of that weight, but gained weight again while working for the Pittsburgh front office.[19]
After years of suffering from a kidney disorder, he died of complications related to a stroke in Wilmington, North Carolina, on April 9, 2001. In his later life, Stargell had also suffered from hypertension and heart failure. A segment of Stargell's bowel was removed more than two years before he died. He had been in the hospital recovering from a gallbladder surgery at the time of his death.[4] On April 7, 2001, two days before Stargell died, a larger-than-life statue of him was unveiled at the Pirates' new stadium, PNC Park, as part of the opening-day ceremonies.[15] As his death occurred on the same day as the official opening of the stadium against the Reds, the statue served as a de facto memorial for Stargell.
Legacy
Pirates 8.png
Willie Stargell's number 8 was retired by the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1982.
The Pirates retired his number 8 on September 6, 1982. In 1999, he ranked 81st on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players,[20] and was also nominated as a finalist for the MLB All-Century Team. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Stargell also threw out the ceremonial last pitch at Three Rivers Stadium before the team's move after the 2000 season.
After Stargell died, Joe Morgan said, "When I played, there were 600 baseball players, and 599 of them loved Willie Stargell. He's the only guy I could have said that about. He never made anybody look bad and he never said anything bad about anybody."[5]
The Willie Stargell Foundation was established to promote research and treatment for kidney disease.[21] Champion Enterprises sponsors a Willie Stargell Memorial Awards Banquet which raises money for disadvantaged children in Pittsburgh.[22]
Stargell also worked to raise awareness of sickle cell anemia. He formed the Black Athletes Foundation (BAF) shortly after President Richard M. Nixon identified the disease as a "national health problem" in the early 1970s. For a decade, BAF, renamed the Willie Stargell Foundation, raised research money and public awareness about the disease. Starting in 1981, sickle cell awareness and fundraising was gradually being assumed by The Sickle Cell Society Inc. The Willie Stargell Foundation transitioned to raising money for treatment of and research into kidney disease.[23][24][25]
Wilver “Willie” Stargell Avenue (formerly Tinker Avenue) is a major thoroughfare in his adolescent home of Alameda, California, connecting to the former Naval Air Station Alameda, and Stargell is honored with a plaque and plaza at its intersection with Fifth Street.[26]
See also
icon Baseball portal
List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
List of Major League Baseball players to hit for the cycle
Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame
List of Major League Baseball home run records
List of Major League Baseball career home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
A. Bartlett Giamatti
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A. Bartlett Giamatti
7th Commissioner of Baseball
In office
April 1, 1989 – September 1, 1989
Preceded by Peter Ueberroth
Succeeded by Fay Vincent
14th President of the National League
In office
June 10, 1986 – April 1, 1989
Commissioner Peter Ueberroth
Preceded by Chub Feeney
Succeeded by Bill White
19th President of Yale University
In office
December 20, 1978 – June 10, 1986
Preceded by Hanna Holborn Gray (Acting)
Succeeded by Benno C. Schmidt Jr.
Personal details
Born Angelo Bartlett Giamatti
April 4, 1938
Boston, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died September 1, 1989 (aged 51)
Oak Bluffs, Massachusetts, U.S.
Nationality American
Spouse(s) Toni Marilyn Smith (m. 1960)
Children 3, including Paul and Marcus
Education Yale University (BA, PhD)
Occupation President of Yale University (1978–1986)
National League President (1986–1989)
MLB Commissioner (April 1, 1989–September 1, 1989)
Angelo Bartlett Giamatti (/dʒiːəˈmɑːti/; April 4, 1938 – September 1, 1989) was an American professor of English Renaissance literature, the president of Yale University, and the seventh Commissioner of Major League Baseball.
Giamatti served as Commissioner for only five months before dying suddenly of a heart attack. He is the shortest-tenured baseball commissioner in the sport's history and the only holder of the office not to preside over a full Major League Baseball season. Giamatti negotiated the agreement resolving the Pete Rose betting scandal by permitting Rose to voluntarily withdraw from the sport to avoid further punishment.[1]
Contents
1 Personal life
2 Yale
3 Baseball
4 Death
5 Legacy
6 Works
7 See also
8 References
9 Further reading
10 External links
Personal life
Giamatti was born in Boston and grew up in South Hadley, Massachusetts, the son of Mary Claybaugh Walton (Smith College 1935) and Valentine John Giamatti.[2] His father was professor and chairman of the Department of Italian Language and Literature at Mount Holyoke College.[3] Giamatti's paternal grandparents were Italian immigrants Angelo Giammattei (Italian pronunciation: [dʒammatˈtɛi]) and Maria Lavorgna (Italian pronunciation: [laˈvɔrɲa; -orɲa]): his grandfather Angelo emigrated to the United States from Telese, near Benevento, Italy, around 1900.[4] Giamatti's maternal grandparents, from Wakefield, Massachusetts, were Helen Buffum (Davidson) and Bartlett Walton, who graduated from Phillips Academy Andover and Harvard College.[2] Giamatti attended South Hadley High School, spent his junior year at the American Overseas School of Rome, and graduated from Phillips Academy in 1956.[2] At Yale College, he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Phi chapter) and as a junior in 1960 was tapped by Scroll and Key,[5] a senior secret society. He graduated magna cum laude in 1960.[2]
In 1960, he married Toni Marilyn Smith, who taught English for more than 20 years at the Hopkins School in New Haven, Connecticut, until her death in 2004.[6] Together the couple had three children: actors Paul and Marcus and jewelry designer Elena.
Yale
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Giamatti stayed in New Haven to receive his doctorate in 1964, when he also published a volume of essays by Thomas G. Bergin he had co-edited with a philosophy graduate student, T. K. Seung. He became a professor of comparative literature at Yale University, an author, and master of Ezra Stiles College at Yale, a post to which he was appointed by his predecessor as Yale president, Kingman Brewster, Jr.[2]
Giamatti taught briefly at Princeton but spent most of his academic life at Yale. His scholarly work focused on English Renaissance literature, particularly Edmund Spenser, and relationships between English and Italian Renaissance poets. His tenure as Stiles master ended in 1972.[2]
Giamatti served as president of Yale University from 1978 to 1986. He was the youngest president of the university in its history and presided over the university during a bitter strike by its clerical and technical workers in 1984–1985. As university president, he refused student, faculty, and community demands to divest from apartheid South Africa. He also served on the board of trustees of Mount Holyoke College for many years, participating fully despite his Yale and baseball commitments. Giamatti was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1980.[7]
Baseball
In 1989, Giamatti declined to reinstate Shoeless Joe Jackson because the case was "now best given to historical analysis and debate as opposed to a present-day review with an eye to reinstatement".[8]
See also: Dowd Report
Giamatti had a lifelong interest in baseball and was a noted Boston Red Sox fan. In 1978, when he was first rumored to be a candidate for the presidency of Yale, he had deflected questions by observing that "The only thing I ever wanted to be president of was the American League." His noteworthy baseball publications include "Tom Seaver's Farewell", published in Harper's Magazine in September 1977, and "Baseball and the American Character," published in that magazine in October 1986. Giamatti became president of the National League in 1986, and later commissioner of baseball in 1989. During his stint as National League president, Giamatti placed an emphasis on the need to improve the environment for the fan in the ballparks. He also decided to make umpires strictly enforce the balk rule and supported "social justice" as the only remedy for the lack of presence of minority managers, coaches, or executives at any level in Major League Baseball.[citation needed]
While still serving as National League president, Giamatti suspended Pete Rose for 30 games after Rose shoved umpire Dave Pallone on April 30, 1988. Later that year, Giamatti also suspended Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Jay Howell for three days, after Howell was caught using pine tar during the National League Championship Series.
Giamatti, whose tough dealing with Yale's union favorably impressed Major League Baseball owners, was unanimously elected to succeed Peter Ueberroth as commissioner on September 8, 1988.[9] He formally took office on April 1, 1989. Determined to maintain the integrity of the game, on August 24, 1989, Giamatti prevailed upon Pete Rose to agree voluntarily to remain permanently ineligible to play baseball.[10][1]
Death
Giamatti's grave in New Haven, Connecticut
While at his vacation home in Edgartown on Martha's Vineyard, Giamatti, a heavy smoker for many years, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 51, eight days after banishing Pete Rose and 154 days into his tenure as commissioner.[11] He was interred at Grove Street Cemetery in New Haven, Connecticut.[12]
He became the second baseball commissioner to die in office, the first being Kenesaw Mountain Landis in 1944. Baseball's owners soon selected Fay Vincent, Giamatti's close friend and baseball's first deputy commissioner, as the new commissioner. On October 14, 1989, before Game 1 at the World Series, Giamatti—to whom this World Series was dedicated—was memorialized with a moment of silence.[13] Son Marcus Giamatti threw out the first pitch before the game.[13] Also before Game One, the Yale Whiffenpoofs sang the national anthem,[13] a blend of "The Star-Spangled Banner" with "America the Beautiful" that has been since repeated by other a cappella groups.
Legacy
The Little League Eastern Regional Headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut is named after Giamatti.[14] One of the three awards given annually by Major League Baseball's Baseball Assistance Program is named the "Bart Giamatti Award".
Giamatti was inducted into the National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.[15]
James Reston, Jr. notes in his book Collision at Home Plate: The Lives of Pete Rose and Bart Giamatti that Giamatti suffered from Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, an inherited neuromuscular disease affecting peripheral nerves.[16]
Neil Thomas Proto argues in his book Fearless: A. Bartlett Giamatti and the Battle for Fairness that Giamatti's early life with his parents and family in New Haven established the code of conduct about fairness that tempered his decision about Pete Rose. Proto also states that as president of Yale, Giamatti was a consequential force in changing Yale's once-harmful relationship with New Haven; in reintroducing Sterling Scholarships for New Haven high school students, which had been discontinued by his predecessors; in challenging the eugenics culture at Yale, which had spread nationally and affected Yale's view of urban renewal; and in challenging an admissions system that excluded applicants on the basis of race and religion. According to Proto, Giamatti believed the university's duty was to educate students in the civic responsibility of good citizenship, not the elitist imperative of creating "leaders."[2] A recent review of Proto's book by Dan A. Oren takes issue with some of the assertions made by Proto, particularly with respect to Yale University.
Works
Master Pieces from the Files of T.G.B., ed. Thomas K. Swing and A. Bartlett Giamatti (1964).
The Earthly Paradise and the Renaissance Epic (1966)
Play of Double Senses: Spenser's Faerie Queene (1975)
The University and the Public Interest (1981)
Exile and Change in Renaissance Literature (1984)
Take Time for Paradise: Americans and their Games (1989)
A Free and Ordered Space: The Real World of the University (1990)
A Great and Glorious Game: Baseball Writings of A. Bartlett Giamatti (ed. Kenneth Robson, 1998)