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Monday, October 02, 2000 Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com
The challenge was nothing short of monumental, if not impossible. How could the current edition of the Pirates, this ragamuffin team of massive underachievers, pay proper tribute to Three Rivers Stadium in the final baseball game to be played there? What could they do to make this last game memorable?
This was the stadium where so many crucial games had been played. This is the building where division titles and National League pennants had been won, where World Series victories were forged. This was the stadium of Clemente and Stargell, of Parker and Bonds, of Blass and Tekulve. This was a place intimately familiar with excellence.
But on this day, nothing of significance was hanging in the balance. On this late afternoon and early evening on the first day of October, all that was on the baseball stage at Three Rivers Stadium was a game matching the Pirates, who would finish with 69 victories and 93 losses, and the Chicago Cubs, the only team in the National League Central Division with a worse record.
How could they make this memorable? How could they send this crowd of 55,351, the largest to watch a regular-season game at Three Rivers, home with memories to cherish for a lifetime?
There was no pennant won, of course, yesterday at Three Rivers and, sad to say, not even a baseball game. The Cubs were a 10-9 winner, and what transpired on the damnable turf was, for the most part, Pirates baseball of 2000. It was another loss with a plethora of pitchers parading to the mound and very few of them successful.
Hidden among the Cubs' 10 runs, 12 hits and 10 walks were certain little nuggets we won't soon forget.
Most curious but absolutely wonderful was the standing ovation for Manager Gene Lamont when the team was introduced. This is the man who could barely stick his head out of the dugout without awakening a chorus of boos for most of the regular season, but on this final day the fans rose from their seats to give Lamont a prolonged ovation.
"You walk out there hoping you don't get booed, then you get a standing ovation," Lamont said after the game.
He pawed the ground with his foot as the fans cheered on. Next, he doffed his cap, but the cheering didn't stop. Finally, he motioned to get on with announcing the team, and under the blare of leadoff batter Adrian Brown being introduced, the standing ovation ended and the crowd returned to its seats.
It hasn't been a happy season for Lamont. He won't be back as manager, but he has memories of this stadium to hold dear. He was a coach for Jim Leyland when the team that would win three division titles was put together, and he was here for the first two championships. Now he has a more personal memory.
"It was neat," he said. "I won't forget."
He wasn't the only one who won't forget.
Only yesterday morning, John Wehner, Carrick's own, had wisecracked in the Post-Gazette: "Kevin Young told me the other day it would be great if I hit the last home run here. People would say that's improbable, but getting a game-winning hit, that would be really cool."
The winning hit wasn't to be, although Wehner had that chance in the ninth inning before he made the final out, but the final home run -- amazingly, inexplicably, unbelievably -- belongs to Wehner. The great Willie Stargell hit the first Pirates home run at Three Rivers, and John Wehner,who going into this game had three career homers,hit the last.
Wehner came to bat in the fifth inning after the Pirates already had scored twice and after he had shown in his previous at-bat nothing more than warning-track power.
He jacked this one, gone from the crack of the bat.
What a moment it was for this player of modest skills but who has coaxed the most possible mileage out of that talent. Most people expected he'd never make it to the majors. But he has been here for at least parts of the past 10 seasons. He has a World Series ring, and now he has a place in Pittsburgh lore.
This is a guy who spent a good part of his youth at Three Rivers. He was 12 when the Pirates won the World Series. He grew up to live his dream, and yesterday he capped it.
His mom, wife, children and sisters were in the stands. He choked back tears as he talked of his day.
"What irony that a guy like me gets the final home run and makes the final out," he said.
"I came here often from the time I was 10. I remember being here all the time. I've sat all over this place. I've snuck by the ushers to get better seats.
"All game long I was looking around and remember sitting where these people were sitting. It was really something. I couldn't keep my head out of the stands. I was looking around reminiscing."
About 30 minutes after the game ended the Pirates presented their final tribute to Three Rivers. It was first-rate. A couple dozen former Pirates were introduced, and, clearly, the crowd, almost all of which stuck around, was impressed as these heroes of the past took center stage one more time.
The best was saved for last. Tekulve was on the mound, Jason Kendall near where home plate once was, ready to accept the final pitch at Three Rivers. But, wait, Tekulve wasn't going to throw the final pitch. The voice of Art McKennan, the late public address announcer, boomed through the speakers introducing Willie Stargell. The place went wild.
Stargell, clearly not in the best of health but proudly stating he is recovering, was helped to the mound. His former teammates -- Chuck Tanner, John Candelaria, Manny Sanguillen, Grant Jackson, Nellie Briles -- embraced him.
So it was the greatest Pirate to grace the Three Rivers Stadium turf who made the final pitch.
It was some night. The Pirates took this challenge and delivered. It might not have been the perfect ballgame, but it was a night to remember, a day to cherish.
Bob Smizik can be reached at bsmizik@post-gazette.com.
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