Back in the Day: Stennett's 7-for-7 at Wrigley Field
The name Rennie Stennett will never be the first mentioned in a conversation about the great Pittsburgh Pirates teams of the 1970s.
A solid player, Stennett was on both the 1971 and 1979 championship teams, and had some notable seasons. His 31 doubles in 1976 were tied for 10th best in the National League, while his .336 batting average was second only to teammate Dave Parker's .338 among NL leaders in 1977.
At second base, he was in the Top 10 in fielding percentage from 1974 to 1977.
But he was never in a class with immortals like Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell or even Bill Mazeroski.
Yet on one memorable day at Wrigley Field, Stennett, who died of cancer May 18 at 72, accomplished a feat Clemente, Stargell, or Parker - or, for that matter, any major leaguer in the 20th Century - could never claim.
On Sept. 16, 1975, Stennett had seven hits in a nine-inning game. The leadoff hitter, he went 7-for-7 as the Pirates trounced the Cubs 22-0 at Wrigley Field, the widest shutout margin in baseball history.
Only one other player - Wilbert Robinson of the Baltimore Orioles in 1892 - had collected seven hits in a non extra-inning game.
Johnny Burnett of Cleveland pounded nine hits against Philadelphia July 10, 1932, but he did it in an 18-inning game.
After his rampage, Stennett told Dave Anderson of The New York Times he hadn't heard of Robinson before the game. Manager Danny Murtaugh, between puffs on his cigar, told Anderson he heard when Robinson managed the Brooklyn Dodgers he would pull from the game any player who had six hits.
Stennett tied another record Sept. 16, joining John Hodapp, Max Carey, and Sherm Lollar by getting two hits in one inning twice in one game.
Stennett was no stranger to records. Born in Panama, he was part of the first all-Black lineup of African American and Latino players in major league history, when Pittsburgh faced the Phillies Sept. 1, 1971. Among the Pirates' starters was future Cubs coach Gene Clines.
The nearly 5,000 fans at Wrigley Field on hand for Stennett's offensive outburst likely didn't expect history of any kind. While the Pirates were on their way to an NL East title, the Cubs, under manager Jim Marshall, were en route to a 75-87 season and a fifth-place finish in the East.
The crowd included some visitors from the South Side, White Sox pitcher Jim Kaat and organist Nancy Faust, who not only visited Cubs organist Frank Pellico, but sat in to play a couple tunes.
The first inning was a nightmare for Cubs starter Rick Reuschel, who recorded only one out, while yielding eight earned runs, before Marshall summoned Tom Dettore.
In the first Stennett led off with a double and scored on a single by Richie Hebner. In the same inning, facing Dettore, he singled home Frank Taveras and then came home on Stargell's single.
Stennett told the Chicago Tribune after his second hit, umpire Dutch Rennert said, "I might get five. Every time I went out there he said I'd probably get another one."
In the third, he singled and scored on a Hebner home run.
In the fifth, he doubled and scored on Al Oliver's single and then, after Oscar Zamora replaced Dettore, singled home Manny Sanguillen.
In the seventh, Stennett singled off Buddy Schultz and scored on a Parker base hit.
In the eighth, the Cubs brought in Paul Reuschel.
This time, Stennett proved that if he went bowling that day, he likely would have earned a 7-10 split at least once.
The right-handed hitting Stennett drove a pitch to the opposite field for what appeared to be a single. Cubs right fielder Champ Summers charged the ball, leaving his cap behind him, before slamming on the brakes and putting up his hands. The ball skipped past him to his left, allowing Stennett to scamper to third for a triple, only a homer shy of the cycle.
At that point, Murtaugh replaced Stennett with pinch runner and future Yankee Willie Randolph. Stennett received a standing ovation.
Stennett managed to overshadow not only the fact the Pirates scored 22 runs, but didn't surrender one.
Lost in the shuffle were Parker's five runs batted in and John Candelaria's seven shutout innings, in which he only gave up three hits, to Jose Cardenal, Andre Thornton, and Dave Rosello.
Stennett earned NL Player of the Week honors, but Anderson, in his New York Times article, said Stennett's feat "deserves to be chiseled in marble." He wrote, "To appreciate what the 24-year-old second baseman did, consider that only one of more than 10,000 players had done it previously in a nine-inning game in virtually a century of major league baseball."
Summing it up, Stennett said, "Seven clean hits, but I had to be lucky, too. Lucky just to get up seven times. Lucky to be leading off."