Sailing the Three Rivers to the Title: Pittsburgh's 1971 Voyage of the Pirate Ship

Relive the 1971 voyage of the Pittsburgh Pirate ship with author Greg Spalding in SAILING THE THREE RIVERS TO THE TITLE, the only book ever written about that fine team.

Fans will remember this Bucco team for its comeback after trailing 2-0 in the World series against what many considered a superior Oriole team. Yet it also stood as Roberto Clemente's shining moment, that time when the world's baseball fans discovered "The Great One," as he batted .414 and won the MVP Award. For that reason, as well as his humanitarian efforts, the Pirates dedicated a statue in his honor during the 1994 All-Star Game festivities.

Greg grew up listening to Bob Prince and Nellie King paint great pictures of the '71 Pirates, which included Roberto Clemente, Willie Stargell, Al Oliver, Dock Ellis, Manny Sanguillen, Steve Blass and many other popular players, on the canvas of radio and desired to put together his own compendium about the team he loved.

On top of the season chronology, the author celebrated the world championship squad with a poetic rhyme, a Clemente pictorial, player and coach bios, and individual chapters about Roberto Clemente and Bob Prince.

Greg Spalding is a freelance writer who grew up in Pittsburgh and now resides there. He's been an active basketball player, coach, baseball fan, missionary SABR(Society for American Baseball Research) member and a frequent traveler on the information superhighway. Other books by Greg include SHINE! ALL-STARS, SHINE!, about the '94 MLB All-Star Game and All-Star Pirate history, and RUN THE GREATEST RACE, about running life's race. His City of Champions Publishing Company serves as a desktop publishing entity and publishing concern, which recently published Al Oliver's autobiography entitled BASEBALL'S BEST KEPT SECRET. Additionally, Greg serves as Research Analyst for the nationally syndicated SPORTSWEEK tv show, as he compiles statistics for host Tom McGough and his guests.