June 25: Going Where No Man Has Gone Before

The Main Event

• June 25, 1971 – Willie Stargell of the Pirates becomes the first player to hit a home run into the 600-level of the Vet, while teammates Richie Hebner and Jackie Hernandez both went deep twice to lead Pittsburgh to a 14-4 win.

On June 25, 1971, Willie Stargell did something no hitter had done before and only two others would ever match: he sent a baseball screaming into the 600 level of Veterans Stadium, the cavernous, multi-purpose ballpark that had opened in South Philadelphia just months earlier. The Pittsburgh Pirates were in town for a midseason series against the Phillies, and what unfolded that afternoon turned into one of the most enduring images in the stadium’s 33-year history. Stargell’s blast, struck in the top of the second inning, traveled an estimated 458 feet, landing high in the upper reserved seating that ringed the circular stadium. It remains, to this day, the longest home run ever measured at the Vet, a building that hosted countless tape-measure shots from sluggers like Mike Schmidt, Greg Luzinski, and Dale Murphy over its three-plus decades of existence. None of them ever topped Pops.

The Pitch and the Pitcher

The man on the mound that day was Jim Bunning, the future Hall of Famer who had actually thrown the first pitch in Veterans Stadium history back on Opening Day that April. By the time he faced Stargell in this particular at-bat, Bunning was struggling through what would become a difficult season, and he made a fateful mistake against one of the most feared left-handed power hitters of his generation. Bunning later explained that he tried to get Stargell out with a high slider, a pitch he had used to retire him plenty of times before. This time, though, he didn’t get enough velocity on it and didn’t locate it where he wanted. Instead of staying up and out of the zone, the slider drifted over the heart of the plate, and Stargell did not miss it. The ball rocketed off his bat and carried deep into the upper deck in right field, an area of the ballpark that, at the time, had never been touched by a home run.

The spot where it landed, in the stadium’s Section 601, would later be commemorated with a small marker: a yellow star with a black “S” set inside a white circle. It became known among Phillies fans and stadium workers simply as the Stargell Star, a quiet tribute that remained in place until the slugger’s death in 2001, when the white circle was repainted black in his memory. The star stayed up until Veterans Stadium itself was finally imploded in March 2004.

Stargell’s Other Tape-Measure Shots

The home run at the Vet was far from an isolated incident in Stargell’s career. He built a reputation across the National League as perhaps the most prolific hitter of mammoth home runs of his era, and his résumé of legendary blasts reads like a tour of baseball’s most famous parks. Two years before his trip to Philadelphia, on August 5, 1969, Stargell became the first player ever to hit a ball completely out of Dodger Stadium, a 507-foot drive off Alan Foster that struck the tin roof above the right-field pavilion before bouncing out of the ballpark entirely. He repeated the feat at Dodger Stadium less than four years later, on May 8, 1973, launching a 470-foot shot off Andy Messersmith that also cleared the stadium. To date, only a handful of balls have ever left Dodger Stadium, and Stargell is responsible for two of them.

Stargell also terrorized his home ballpark in Pittsburgh. At Three Rivers Stadium, he hit four home runs into the upper deck in right field, the most of any player to ever reach that section before the stadium’s closure, including the longest home run in that building’s history. And in 1978, he added an exclamation point north of the border, crushing a 535-foot home run off Wayne Twitchell at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium on May 20, the longest ball ever hit there, which was likewise honored with a gold-painted seat marking the landing spot.

Others Who Reached the 600 Level

For nearly two decades after Stargell’s blast, no one else managed to reach the 600 level at Veterans Stadium. It eventually happened twice more before the ballpark’s closure, both times in Section 638. Butch Huskey, the burly Mets and Mariners slugger, and Ruben Rivera, a one-time Yankees prospect known more for his raw power than his consistency, each hit balls into that section later in the stadium’s history. Even so, neither shot was believed to have traveled as far as Stargell’s original blow, and his home run retained its standing as the longest ever hit at the Vet for the entirety of the ballpark’s existence.

Philadelphia Baseball Events for June 25

• June 25, 1890 – Rookie shortstop Bob Allen is the last of three interim mangers who fill in for an ill Harry Wright. The team puts up a 25-10 record during his tenure.
• June 25, 1950 – Chicago’s Hank Sauer hit two home runs and two doubles in an 11-8 win over the Phils.
• June 25, 1989 – The Mets tie a major league record by recording no assists during their 5-1 win over the Phils. The outs come on 13 strikeouts, 12 fly outs, and two grounders to first.
• June 25, 2010 – A series against Toronto begins with a 9-0 Phillies victory. Roy Halladay got the win with seven clean innings and faced his old team, the Blue Jays for the first time since being dealt to the Phillies. Originally scheduled as an away series, the games were moved to Citizens Bank Park due to protests in Toronto. The Blue Jays were still the home team and batted in the bottom half of each inning during the series. Ryan Howard was the first game’s DH, the first in a National League Park.
• June 25, 2021 – Aaron Nola set a team record by striking out 10 straight Mets in the first game of a doubleheader. The streak tied a major league record held by New York’s Tom Seaver.

ICYMI

• Philly Baseball News – Francisco Renteria Stays Hot in the Dominican

Philadelphia Baseball Birthdays for June 25

• June Greene (born 1899) – His two seasons in the majors were both with the Phillies. The right-hander posted an 18.38 ERA in six relief appearances in 1928 and ’29. He was also used as a pinch-hitter and hit .280 in 31 plate appearances.
• Humberto Robinson (born 1930) – A right-handed pitcher born in Panama, Robinson was acquired from Cleveland for Granny Hamner in May, 1959. He made five starts and 59 relief appearances with the Phillies in 1959 and 1960 with a 2-8 record and a 3.38 ERA.
• Don Demeter (born 1935) – Had his most productive seasons with the Phillies from 1961-1963 when he hit .276/.325/.479/.804 with 71 home runs and 258 RBI in 413 games.

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