I can still recite that ‘79 lineup from memory.
1st. base - Stargell
2nd. base - Garner
Shortstop - Foli
3rd. base - Madlock
Catcher - Ott/Nicosia (platoon)
Center field - Moreno
Right field - Parker
Left field - Robinson/Lacy (platoon)
Helluva season.
The official LF platoon was John Milner against righties and Bill Robinson against lefties, although Stargell needed enough days off that both Milner and Robinson played plenty of 1B as well (and Lee Lacy often played LF against lefties, with Robinson at 1B).
1979 was the year that I became a baseball fan, and it certainly was a magical ride through the NLCS and World Series. I was an instant Pirate fan, and Bill Madlock became my favorite player, but then the drug trials led me away from the Bucs and, since I was watching Cubs games every day on WGN, the 1984 Cubs (which were both miraculous and heartbreaking) turned me into a lifelong Cubs fan. However, I’ll be rooting for the Pirates this post-season (being a Cubs fan gives me plenty of opportunities to root for some other team in October).
Through the years, I’ve gone back and studied the 1979 Pirates and their roster changes, and have read up on everyone who played on the team, even minor-league infielder Gary Hargis, who pinch ran in a single game in late September. But I didn’t discover until a week or so ago that Chuck Tanner called up a fourth catcher when rosters expanded in September (Manny Sanguillen was the third catcher), a lefty-hitting AAA catcher named Harry Saferight. According to Wikipedia, Saferight suffered the heartbreak of being the on-deck batter during three separate games, but on all three occasions the preceding batter made the last out of the game and Saferight was never even announced as a pinch hitter (so he isn’t listed in The Baseball Encyclopedia). See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantom_ballplayer#Real_players_who_never_played