{"id":85234,"date":"2026-01-13T05:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85234\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T05:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T05:02:08","slug":"former-pittsburgh-pirates-reliever-dave-giusti-who-helped-win-the-1971-world-series-dies-at-86","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/85234\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Pittsburgh Pirates reliever Dave Giusti, who helped win the 1971 World Series, dies at 86"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dave Giusti, a reliable reliever who spent 15 years in the majors and helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win the 1971 World Series title, has died. He was 86.<\/p>\n<p>The club, citing Giusti\u2019s family, said he died on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>The right-hander went 100-93 with a 3.60 ERA in 668 career appearances for five clubs from 1962-77. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38167543\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-102100383.jpg\" alt=\"Relief pitcher Dave Giusti #31 of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during a Major League Baseball game at Three Rivers Stadium in July 1976 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. \" class=\"wp-image-38167543\"  \/>Relief pitcher Dave Giusti of the Pittsburgh Pirates pitches during a Major League Baseball game at Three Rivers Stadium in July 1976 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>He began his career as a starter in Houston but had his greatest success with the Pirates, who acquired him from St. Louis in October 1969 and then moved him to the bullpen full-time.<\/p>\n<p>Giusti led the National League with 30 saves in 1971, then added 10 2\/3 scoreless innings in the playoffs as the Pirates beat the Giants in the NLCS and then the Baltimore Orioles in seven games in the World Series.<\/p>\n<p>Giusti made his lone All-Star appearance in 1973. <\/p>\n<p>He played seven seasons for Pittsburgh, registering 133 saves, which ranks third in franchise history. <\/p>\n<p>He split time between Oakland and the Chicago Cubs in 1977 before retiring.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38167547\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/AP26012714682639.jpg\" alt=\"Giusti, a member of the 1971 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, takes part in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the championship season before of a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets in Pittsburgh, July 17, 2021. \" class=\"wp-image-38167547\"  \/>Giusti, a member of the 1971 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates, takes part in a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the championship season before of a baseball game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets in Pittsburgh, July 17, 2021.  AP<\/p>\n<p>A native of Seneca Falls, New York, Giusti played collegiately at Syracuse before being signed by Houston, then an expansion team known as the Colt .45s, as an amateur free agent. <\/p>\n<p>He appeared in 22 games as a rookie in 1962, spent all of 1963 in the minors before returning to the majors for good after being called up during the 1964 season.<\/p>\n<p>Giusti is survived by his wife, two daughters and four grandchildren.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dave Giusti, a reliable reliever who spent 15 years in the majors and helped the Pittsburgh Pirates win&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85235,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[42674,33588,1423,73,75,74,10997,726,11013],"class_list":{"0":"post-85234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh","8":"tag-celebrity-deaths","9":"tag-deaths","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-headlines","13":"tag-pittsburgh-news","14":"tag-pittsburgh-pirates","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-world-series"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}