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1979 World Series
 | This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. (February 2020) |
| 1979 World Series | ||||||||||
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| Dates | October 10–17 | |||||||||
| Venue(s) | Memorial Stadium (Baltimore) Three Rivers Stadium (Pittsburgh) | |||||||||
| MVP | Willie Stargell (Pittsburgh) | |||||||||
| Umpires | Jerry Neudecker (AL), Bob Engel (NL), Russ Goetz (AL), Paul Runge (NL), Jim McKean (AL), Terry Tata (NL) | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Pirates: Bert Blyleven Dave Parker Willie Stargell Orioles: Eddie Murray Jim Palmer Frank Robinson (coach) Earl Weaver (manager) | |||||||||
| Broadcast | ||||||||||
| Television | ABC | |||||||||
| TV announcers | Keith Jackson (in Baltimore) Al Michaels (in Pittsburgh) Howard Cosell and Don Drysdale | |||||||||
| Radio | CBS | |||||||||
| Radio announcers | Vin Scully and Sparky Anderson | |||||||||
| Streaming | ||||||||||
| ALCS | Baltimore Orioles over California Angels (3–1) | |||||||||
| NLCS | Pittsburgh Pirates over Cincinnati Reds (3–0) | |||||||||
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The 1979 World Series was the championship series of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1979 season. The 76th edition of the World Series was a best-of-seven playoff between the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates (98–64) and the American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles (102–57). The Pirates won in seven games, becoming the fourth team in World Series history to come back from three games to one deficit to win the Series. This marked the second time in the 1970s the Pirates won a World Series Game 7 on the road against the Orioles, the previous time being in the 1971 World Series. The Pirates were famous for adopting Sister Sledge's hit song "We Are Family" as their theme song during the 1979 season.
Left fielder/first baseman Willie Stargell, pitcher Bruce Kison, and catcher Manny Sanguillén were the only players left over from the Pirates team that defeated the Orioles in 1971, and Orioles' pitcher Jim Palmer, shortstop Mark Belanger, and manager Earl Weaver were the only remaining Orioles from the 1971 team. Grant Jackson pitched for the Orioles in the 1971 series and for the Pirates in the 1979 series.
In this series, each game was played with National League rules, meaning there was no designated hitter and the Orioles' pitchers would have to bat. While this resulted in Tim Stoddard getting his first major league hit and runs batted in (R.B.I.) 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.
Willie Stargell was named the World Series Most Valuable Player after batting .400 with a record seven extra-base hits that matched Reggie Jackson's record of 25 total bases that the latter set in 1977. At age 39, Stargell became the oldest player to be named World Series MVP, breaking the previous mark set by former Pirate, Roberto Clemente, who won the 1971 World Series MVP at the age of 37.
The 1979 Pirates were the last team to win Game 7 of a World Series on the road until the San Francisco Giants defeated the Royals in Kansas City to win Game 7 of the 2014 series.[1] Pittsburgh also became the third city to win both the Super Bowl and the World Series in the same season or calendar year, with the Steelers having already won Super Bowl XIII (they would later repeat in Super Bowl XIV following the Pirates' championship), New York's Jets and Mets won championships in the 1969 calendar year, followed by Baltimore (Orioles and Colts) in the 1970 season, New York (Mets and Giants) in the 1986 season, and Boston/New England in the 2004 (Red Sox and Patriots) and 2018 seasons (Red Sox and Patriots).
To date, this is Pittsburgh’s last appearance in the World Series, and they have the longest active World Series appearance drought in the National League.
- ^ Eagle, Ed (June 14, 2009). "Bucs honor Stanley Cup champ Pens". MLB. Archived from the original on November 4, 2013. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
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