We are Family
Not many teams in Major League Baseball (MLB) who start their season 7-11, and at one point are nine games back of first place, go on to have much success in any given season.
Unless you’re the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates.
The team was building something, after they finished 1.5 games behind the eventual National League (NL) East Champion Philadelphia Phillies in 1978. But after their slow start to the 1979 season, the team needed a something to rally around. Nobody in their wildest dreams ever thought what would propel the Pirates to greatness would be a melody that I guarantee will be stuck in your head by the time you’re done reading.
June 1, 1979 - Rain covered the area of Three Rivers Stadium, the former home of the Pirates. Any MLB team knows that once you enter June, and more specifically, get closer to the All-Star Game, you need to be in prime position in the standings for a deep playoff run. The further back in the standings you are, the bleaker your season outlook stands. That was the case for the Pirates, whom on this wet afternoon, were 23-21 — Six games behind the first place Montreal Expos.
Many were surprised at where the Pirates stood in the standings, especially with a loaded roster.
Sister Sledge was a vocal group from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania who gained notoriety in the 1970’s at the height of the Disco era.
The group, which consisted of four sisters (last name Sledge - hence the group name), were given vocal training at a young age from their grandmother.
While performing in high school, the group toured the East Coast, and that continued until all of them graduated from Temple University.
After some success in the United Kingdom with their 1973 single “Mama Never Told Me,” and followed-up with “Love Don’t Go Through No Changes on Me,” which became a hit in Japan in 1974, they still yearned for success in the United States.
Like most music groups, they saw themselves at a musical “crossroads” in the late 1970’s. Atlantic Records connected the sisters with Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards of the band Chic. While working through some rough patches from a collaboration standpoint, the band broke through and released their album “We are Family,” which would change their lives and music careers forever.
The group saw success with the first single off the album, “He’s the Greatest Dancer,” which landed at #1 on the R&B charts, and was #9 on the national charts. Will Smith would later sample the song for his hit, “Gettin’ Jiggy wit It.”
“We are Family,” the single, was released in April 1979 and it immediately gained national club and radio play.
The lyrics (which I’m sure you hear in your head as you’re reading this) focuses on the group being sisters, and how their bond is unbreakable.
Sister Sledge, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The sisters (Debbie, Kathy, Joni, and Kim) helped the
1979 Pittsburgh Pirates and their quest for the World Series (Photo: Philadelphia Music Alliance)
Willie Stargell, the Hall of Fame outfielder and first baseman for the Pirates, won the 1979 National League (NL) MVP award. Although he hit .281, with 32 home runs, 82 RBI’s, and a .904 OPS that season, it wasn’t his greatest contribution to the Pirates that season.
During the infamous rain delay June 1, “We are Family” was blasting over the speakers throughout Three Rivers Stadium. Stargell, a quiet leader, made an executive decision. He picked up the phone for the press box.
Joe Safety, the Pirates Public Relations Director answered, and heard Stargell make a request that would alter their season starting that night.
“Joe, when this song is done,” Stargell said in a 2022 MLB article “I want you to make the announcement that this is the official Pirates clubhouse song.”
Safety told the future hall-of-famer to “hold” as he called the person in charge of in-game entertainment, and before Stargell knew it across the scoreboard read “We are Family - The Official Theme Song of the 1979 Pirates.”
After the rain passed, the game turned into a thriller. Down 8-5 going into the bottom of the 9th, Dave Parker hit a game tying three-run home run, and then with bases loaded, future hall-of-famer Rollie Fingers of the San Diego Padres walked in a run, giving the Pirates a 9-8 win.
It was the beginning of a magical run for the Pirates.
After the team adopted their official song June 1, they played .500 ball for the rest of the month, going 13-13. They were as little as three games back of first place at one point, and as many as six and a half at another.
The Pirates stormed up the standings in July, going 19-11, and by month’s end were just a game back of first place.
Willie Stargell, inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1988, adopted “We are Family” for the Pirates in 1979. Stargell hit .400, with 3 home runs, 7 RBI’s, and a 1.208 OPS in seven games in the 1979 World Series. (Photos: Google)
“We are Family” became the song for Sister Sledge, reaching #1 on the R&B chart, #2 on the Pop chart, and accumulated international success for the sisters. The record amounted to “the ultimate disco manifesto” argued Craig Werner, author of the book “A Change Is Going to Come: Music, Race and the Soul of America.”
Sister Sledge’s success came at poor timing, as the anti-disco movement started in July 1979. Across the country, the biggest revolt against the music genre took place in Chicago where nearly 40,000+ disco records were destroyed, a movement organized by a local DJ.
The hit song continued its reign across the charts, and even though Disco was dying, it was alive and well in Pittsburgh.
Willie Stargell almost didn’t choose “We Are Family.”
“I wanted something a little more outlandish,” Stargell said.
His first choice was “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now” by McFadden and Whitehead - A song I had never heard until I looked it up on Apple Music. It’s fun to think about if Stargell had chosen this song, and if “We are Family” would have been as successful if it weren’t for the Pirates.
As the Pirates took over first place in August, the team was often referred to as “Family” or “Famalee” as fans centered their signage, t-shirts, and chants around the hit song. The song not only brought the team together with its message, but their fans, as well.
The Pirates also made an executive decision regarding the most famous baseball song ever, and its airtime at their games.
“We just threw [“Take me out to the Ballgame” out,” said Pirates pitcher Kent Tekulve, who pitched in five games in the 1979 World Series, posting a 2.89 ERA with 10 strikeouts and a 0.750 WHIP.
Pirates pitcher Kent Tekulve, who went 10-8 with a 2.75 ERA, and finished 5th in Cy Young vote and 8th in NL MVP vote in 1979, was an instrumental part of the Pirates championship run. (Photo: Google)
“Everybody in the ballpark now knew all the words. So, every seventh-inning stretch, they’re singing and yelling and everything else. And then it just got bigger and bigger,” Tekulve said.
There was no better example of this than Game 3 of the 1979 NLCS. After the Pirates won 5-2 in 11 innings and Game 1, and 3-2 in 10 innings in Game 2, they had a lead of 6-1 going into the bottom of the seventh inning. As the team’s song blared across the stadium, Tekulve got worried.
As the Pirates’ wives were dancing and singing atop a raised platform behind home plate, Tekulve didn’t want to give the “Big Red Machine” Cincinnati Reds any motivation.
“I look across the field, and obviously it’s the Big Red Machine in that dugout. And I’m looking at [Johnny] Bench, I’m looking at Joe [Morgan]. They’re all turned and got their heads watching what the wives are doing. And I’m thinking to myself, ‘Hey, don’t poke the bear. Leave them alone. We got them in a pretty good spot. Leave them alone. Don’t give them something.’”
The distraction didn’t matter, as the Pirates would win the game 7-1 and advance to the World Series.
The Baltimore Orioles provided a formidable opponent for the Pirates, as many chose the 102 win Orioles to run away with the series. And they almost did.
The teams split the first two games in Baltimore, and as the series moved to Pittsburgh, the Orioles took a commanding 3-1 series lead after winning Games 3 and 4. As the team’s theme song resonated with the players and fans, the Pirates cruised to a 7-1 win in Game 5, a 4-0 win Game 6, and eventually won the World Series after winning 4-1 in Game 7.
The 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates were the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the World Series after the playoffs expanded to two rounds starting in 1969. Since then, that feat in the Fall Classic has only happened twice (1985- Royals over Cardinals, and 2016 - Cubs over Indians).
Baseball’s favorite family put their offense on display for the entire series, scoring a total of 32 runs, compared to Baltimore’s 26, and slashed .323/.364/.438 with an .802 OPS. Baltimore struggled offensively, slashing .232/.312/.335 with a .646 OPS.
After returning to Pittsburgh victorious with the World Series trophy in hand, the Pirates exited the plane to hear the song they had heard all season blared from car stereos of fans who greeted them at the airport. The song brought together a team that had to truly earn their World Series title.
“Earlier, someone asked me if The Family was overrated,” Stargell said soon after the Pirates won it all.
“That bothered me because this person didn’t live with us and didn’t see how much we depended on each other. There’s really no words to put into the way I feel. We had to scratch, we had to crawl, and we did it together because we are family. We didn’t mean to be sassy or fancy, but we felt the song typified our ball club.”
With their success and worldwide tour, Sister Sledge never knew about their song’s popularity with the Pirates until the World Series was happening.
“We did a TV show in Hamburg [Germany] and we were on our way back to the hotel listening to the international news,” Kim Sledge said.
“The announcer was talking about the fifth game of the World Series. We couldn’t believe it when he said there were 50,000 people at the World Series screaming ‘We are Family.’”
The song did wonders not just for the Pirates, but also for Sister Sledge. When the Pirates adopted the song June 1, it had been on the chart for six weeks, and never got higher than the fourth spot. Two weeks later, it was #1, which led to the album eventually becoming certified gold.
When the single was first released, it sold 35,000 copies in Pittsburgh - another 10,000 were purchased in the area during the Pirates postseason run.
“It’s a miracle,” Kathy Sledge said after the Pirates won the World Series.
“We thought the song had much as much noise as it ever would. Then the Pirates came along.”
