1979 Pittsburgh Pirates season
The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates had 98 wins and 64 losses and captured the National League East Division title by two games over the Montreal Expos. The Pirates beat the Cincinnati Reds to win their ninth National League pennant, and the Baltimore Orioles to win their fifth World Series title – and also their last playoff series victory to date. The disco hit "We Are Family" by Sister Sledge was used as the team's theme song that season.
Offseason
- October 23, 1978: Will McEnaney was released by the Pirates.
- December 4, 1978: Ken Macha was drafted from the Pirates by the Montreal Expos in the 1978 rule 5 draft.
- December 5, 1978: Odell Jones, Rafael Vásquez, and Mario Mendoza were traded by the Pirates to the Seattle Mariners for Enrique Romo, Rick Jones and Tom McMillan.
Regular season
Key transactions
- April 19, 1979: Traded Frank Taveras to the New York Mets for Tim Foli and Greg Field.
- June 28, 1979: Traded Fred Breining, Al Holland and Ed Whitson to the San Francisco Giants for Bill Madlock, Lenny Randle, and Dave Roberts.
Season standings
Record vs. opponents
Game log
!width="5%"|Streak!width="5%"|Streak
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! colspan=9 | Legend: = Win = Loss = Tie
Bold = Pirates team member
Source: baseball-reference.com
Roster
Opening Day lineup
- SS Frank Taveras
- CF Omar Moreno
- RF Dave Parker
- 1B Willie Stargell
- LF Bill Robinson
- 2B Rennie Stennett
- C Ed Ott
- 3B Phil Garner
- P Bert Blyleven
Player stats
| Player | ||||||
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 44 | 13 | 7 | 0.538 | 0 | 1 | |
| 85 | 311 | 102 | 0.328 | 7 | 44 | |
| 158 | 622 | 193 | 0.310 | 25 | 94 | |
| 150 | 549 | 161 | 0.293 | 11 | 59 | |
| 133 | 525 | 153 | 0.291 | 1 | 65 | |
| 70 | 191 | 55 | 0.288 | 4 | 13 | |
| 162 | 695 | 196 | 0.282 | 8 | 69 | |
| 126 | 424 | 119 | 0.281 | 32 | 82 | |
| 55 | 54 | 15 | 0.278 | 2 | 11 | |
| 128 | 326 | 90 | 0.276 | 16 | 60 | |
| 117 | 403 | 110 | 0.273 | 7 | 51 | |
| 148 | 421 | 111 | 0.264 | 24 | 75 | |
| 84 | 182 | 45 | 0.247 | 5 | 15 | |
| 11 | 45 | 11 | 0.244 | 0 | 1 | |
| 108 | 319 | 76 | 0.238 | 0 | 24 | |
| 56 | 74 | 17 | 0.230 | 0 | 4 | |
| 44 | 123 | 26 | 0.211 | 3 | 15 | |
| 29 | 49 | 10 | 0.204 | 0 | 3 | |
| 10 | 5 | 1 | 0.200 | 0 | 0 | |
| 34 | 45 | 8 | 0.178 | 2 | 5 | |
| 84 | 12 | 2 | 0.167 | 0 | 1 | |
| 37 | 55 | 8 | 0.145 | 1 | 6 | |
| 94 | 15 | 2 | 0.133 | 0 | 1 | |
| 33 | 68 | 9 | 0.132 | 0 | 6 | |
| 38 | 70 | 9 | 0.129 | 0 | 3 | |
| 19 | 33 | 4 | 0.121 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 72 | 9 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 1 | |
| 21 | 5 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 1 | |
| 19 | 13 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | |
| 11 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 |
| Player | ||||||
| 2 | 1 | 1 | 1.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | 36 | 17 | 0.472 | 1 | 6 | |
| 10 | 41 | 17 | 0.415 | 5 | 13 | |
| 10 | 41 | 14 | 0.341 | 0 | 6 | |
| 10 | 36 | 12 | 0.333 | 1 | 5 | |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | 0.333 | 0 | 1 | |
| 10 | 42 | 14 | 0.333 | 0 | 6 | |
| 10 | 45 | 14 | 0.311 | 0 | 3 | |
| 6 | 25 | 7 | 0.280 | 0 | 3 | |
| 4 | 4 | 1 | 0.250 | 0 | 0 | |
| 10 | 22 | 5 | 0.227 | 0 | 2 | |
| 3 | 6 | 1 | 0.167 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 6 | 1 | 0.167 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 18 | 3 | 0.167 | 0 | 1 | |
| 4 | 16 | 1 | 0.063 | 0 | 0 | |
| 4 | 1 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 4 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 7 | 3 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 0.000 | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | |
| 1 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | |
| 6 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 | |
| 2 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 | 0 |
;Pitching
| Player | ||||||
| 3 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 2.57 | 1 | |
| 94 | 10 | 8 | 2.75 | 75 | ||
| 34 | 12 | 4 | 2.81 | 103 | ||
| 72 | 82 | 8 | 5 | 2.96 | 39 | |
| 84 | 10 | 5 | 2.99 | 106 | ||
| 33 | 13 | 7 | 3.19 | 105 | ||
| 33 | 207 | 14 | 9 | 3.22 | 101 | |
| 21 | 5 | 2 | 3.26 | 15 | ||
| 37 | 12 | 5 | 3.6 | 172 | ||
| 29 | 8 | 8 | 3.87 | 96 | ||
| 19 | 2 | 3 | 4.37 | 31 | ||
| 19 | 4 | 7 | 4.6 | 44 | ||
| 10 | 0 | 0 | 6.1 | 14 | ||
| 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 7.2 | 2 |
| Player | ||||||
| 6 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 | 4 | ||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 1.04 | 4 | ||
| 3 | 19 | 2 | 0 | 1.42 | 13 | |
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 2.08 | 15 | ||
| 7 | 12 | 0 | 1 | 3.00 | 12 | |
| 4 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 3.60 | 5 | |
| 6 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 3.86 | 6 | |
| 3 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 3.94 | 8 | |
| 1 | 0 | 1 | 108.00 | 0 | ||
| 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | — | 0 |
Postseason
Postseason game log
National League Championship Series
Game 1
October 2, Riverfront StadiumGame 2
October 3, Riverfront StadiumGame 3
October 5, Three Rivers StadiumWorld Series
The Pirates became one of only six teams in the 20th century to have won a World Series after trailing three games to one. Two of those teams were the Pirates, in 1925 and 1979. The others were the 1903 Boston Red Sox, 1958 New York Yankees, 1968 Detroit Tigers, and 1985 Kansas City Royals. Five Pirates had 10 or more hits in this series, a World Series record.Chuck Tanner's mother died the morning of Game 5. 1960 World Series hero Bill Mazeroski threw out the first ball in Game 5.
The Pittsburgh Pirates were the last team in the 20th Century to win Game 7 of the World Series on the road. U.S. President Jimmy Carter made an appearance in Game 7, he threw out the first ball, and after the game made a visit to the victorious Pittsburgh locker room.
Willie Stargell at 39 was the oldest player to win MVP honors for both the National League and the World Series. In the World Series, he hit.400 with a record seven extra-base hits and matched Reggie Jackson's record of 25 total bases, set in 1977. Stargell, pitcher Bruce Kison, infielder Rennie Stennett, and catcher Manny Sanguillén were the only players left over from the 1971 World Series, when the Pirates faced the Orioles. Orioles' pitcher Jim Palmer, Mark Belanger, and manager Earl Weaver were the only ones who were still with the team that faced the Pirates in 1971.
As was the case when the same two teams played in the 1971 World Series, a game in Baltimore was rained out. Game 1 of this series was postponed, while Game 2 of the 1971 series had to be moved back a day. In this Series, it was the American League team's "turn" to play by National League rules, meaning that there was no designated hitter and the Orioles' pitchers would have to bat. While this resulted in pitcher Tim Stoddard getting his first major league hit and RBI in Game 4. Overall, it hurt the Orioles because Lee May, their designated hitter for much of the season and a key part of their offense, was only able to bat three times in the whole series.
The Pirates wore four different uniform combinations during the series: gold cap, black jersey and gold pants for Games 1 & 5, black cap, gold jersey and black pants for Games 2, 6 & 7, black cap and solid white pinstriped uniform for Game 3 and a black cap and solid gold uniform for Game 4.
Game 1
October 10, 1979, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendance: 53,735Game 2
October 11, 1979, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendance: 53,739Game 3
October 12, 1979, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attendance: 50,848Game 4
October 13, 1979, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attendance: 50,883Game 5
October 14, 1979, at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Attendance: 50,920Game 6
October 16, 1979, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendance: 53,739Game 7
October 17, 1979, at Memorial Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland. Attendance: 53,733Composite Box
1979 World Series : Pittsburgh Pirates over Baltimore OriolesAwards and honors
- Willie Stargell, Associated Press Athlete of the Year
- Willie Stargell, 1B, Babe Ruth Award
- Willie Stargell, 1B, National League Most Valuable Player Award
- Willie Stargell, 1B, National League Championship Series Most Valuable Player Award
- Willie Stargell, 1B, World Series Most Valuable Player Award
All-Stars
- Dave Parker, OF, starter, game MVP
League leaders
- Omar Moreno, National League stolen base leader, 77
- Dave Parker, led NL in extra-base hits
- Dave Parker, led NL in sacrifice flies
Other team leaders
- Runs scored – Omar Moreno
- Stolen bases – Omar Moreno
- Walks – Dave Parker
Farm system