Baseball legend's children, widow fighting over valuable memorabilia

ATLANTA — Several members of Willie Stargell’s family are not happy with his widow’s decision to sell his baseball memorabilia.

Stargell’s children and grandchildren say the two-time World Series champion has memorabilia from his Hall of Fame career worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They want to keep the memorabilia in the family, or at the very least, have it at the Hall of Fame and with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Atlanta Braves.

However, Stargell's widow is selling the items online.

"We would go get stuff and put it on," Willie Stargell Jr. told Channel 2's Tom Jones on Wednesday.

Stargell Jr. said he and his siblings tried to get their father's widow, Margaret Weller-Stargell, not to sell the items, but she refused.

"We were blindsided by it," Stargell's daughter, Dawn Moore Stargell, said.

Stargell's will indicated that Margaret Weller-Stargell, not his children, would have possession of the items after he passed.

In a statement to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette, Weller-Stargell said the items will be in the hands of those that will appreciate the significance of them to the game of baseball and the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"We want to make sure it's available to everyone," Stargell's daughter, Precious Stargell Cushman, said.

The children said they want to make it clear that the sale of the items is legal. The sale is expected to raise around $500,000.

Weller-Stargell said a portion of the proceeds will go to the Willie Stargell Foundation, the Baseball Hall of Fame and the Pirates charities.

Cox Media Group