Beloved Pirate Slugger Was a Real Card

Amid laughter and funny stories, Willie Stargell was remembered Tuesday for being a trickster and comedian as much as a Hall of Fame slugger who hit 500-foot home runs for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Teammates, current Pirates, friends and relatives gathered at a Pittsburgh memorial service for the man known as “Pops,” who died last week at 61 after a long battle with kidney disease.

Former Pirate manager Chuck Tanner regaled the audience of 900 with tales about Stargell, including:

* Stargell once put wet cabbage under his cap to stay cool for a summer game and drew stares when the leaves flew out as he slid into home.

* During a three-game series in Cincinnati, Stargell duped Red shortstop Dave Concepcion into believing he would be out if he touched a fielder while on the bases.

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More Pops: Stargell kept players loose too, once when the Baltimore Orioles loaded the bases and were trying to rally in the 1979 World Series with Eddie Murray at the plate.

“He calls a timeout. I had no idea what he was up to,” Tanner said. “He went over to [reliever] Kent Tekulve and said, ‘If you’re afraid of him, I’ll pitch to him and you play first.’ ”

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Trivia time: Of all players eligible and not in baseball’s Hall of Fame, who has hit the most home runs?

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Hot dog! San Diego Padre General Manager Kevin Towers finds it mildly amusing that he called a minor league clubhouse in Pasco, Wash., to tell future Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson to get back up to the majors.

Henderson was called up Sunday night and the Padres purchased his contract Tuesday after outfielder Mark Kotsay went on the 15-day disabled list because of a strained left quadriceps.

Henderson took a limo from the ballpark in Pasco after getting the call, annoying some of his teammates.

“I guess they enjoyed me so much down there [in the minors] that they were mad when I left,” he said. “But they understand I had somewhere to be.”

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Popping off: A suspended coach is suing Pop Warner football, which accused him of running up the score in its national championship game at Orlando, Fla. Gator Rebhan, a 34-year-old volunteer coach from Miami, contends the group didn’t give him a fair hearing before suspending him indefinitely this year.

Rebhan’s team of 13- and 14-year-old players, the Sundevils, defeated the Marshall Heights Bisons from Washington, 56-6, in December in the organization’s Midget Division Super Bowl.

“I want to be reinstated,” said Rebhan, a Pop Warner coach for 10 years. “There was no reasoning for this suspension. They are trying to break up the team by getting rid of the coaching staff.”

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Trivia answer: Dave Kingman, who hit 442. In 1992, his first year of eligibility, Kingman received only three votes and was dropped from future consideration.

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And finally: Coach Mike Dunleavy of the Portland Trail Blazers, on his team’s poor play to end the season: “It’s like Etch-a-Sketch. You turn it up, all of a sudden it’s empty. That’s where we are right now. It’s all empty.”