1971 World Series

The 1971 World Series was the championship round of Major League Baseball's (MLB) 1971 season and featured the first night game in its history. The 68th edition of the Fall Classic was a best-of-seven playoff between the defending World Series and American League (AL) champion Baltimore Orioles and the National League (NL) champion Pittsburgh Pirates. The Pirates won the World Series in seven games, in large part because of superstar right fielder Roberto Clemente, whose all-around brilliance was on full display on a national stage.^[1] Game 4 in Pittsburgh was the first World Series game played at night.^[2]

Many in the know expected the highly touted Orioles to repeat as world champions, but the upstart Pirates proved to be the better team after some early struggles. The home side prevailed in each of the first six contests. In Game 7 in Baltimore, Pirates ace Steve Blass pitched a four-hit complete game in a 2–1 win over Mike Cuellar and the Orioles.^[1]

In his final World Series appearance, the 37-year-old Clemente became the first Spanish-speaking player to earn World Series Most Valuable Player Award. The veteran delivered 12 hits for a .414 batting average and reached base four other times, two on walks and two on errors. He hit safely in all seven games of the Series, duplicating a feat that he had performed in 1960.

Twenty-one-year-old rookie Bruce Kison pitched 6+1⁄3 scoreless innings and allowed just one hit in two appearances for the Pirates. The right-handed side-winder set a record of three hit batters in a World Series game, which also tied the 1907 record.

This was the first of three consecutive World Series, all seven games, in which the winning team scored fewer runs overall. The trend continued for the next seven-game series in 1975. These two teams met again in the Fall Classic eight years later with the same result, as the Pirates won the final three games to win in seven, the final one on the road.