Simply call him the “Gravedigger”.  Richie Hebner’s father ran a cemetery and in the off-season and Hebner would dig graves for the family.  It made for an interesting sidelight to one of the most fascinating players in the history of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
    
Hebner was born in hockey rich Boston and was an outstanding player as a youth.  Luckily for Pittsburgh, he chose baseball when he was drafted in the first round of the 1966 draft and then was given a $40,000 signing bonus.
    
Richie had a successful minor league career prompting Pirate manager Larry Shepard to say of his young prospect
 “I think we have one of the finest defensive men in the League with Dick Hebner”.   While Shepard wasn’t exactly on the money with Hebner defensively, he had a –85 fielding runs in his career and led all third baseman in errors during the 1974 campaign, the Boston lefty turned out to be one of the top offensive third sackers in his day.
    
He began his career in 1968 and hit .301 in his first season as a full time player the following campaign.  The first few season’s for Hebner, were interrupted on several occasions, as he had to fulfill his military commitment in the reserves.
    
The gravedigger followed up his rookie season with a .290 average in 1970 before going 4 for 6 in his first ever NLCS against the Reds with two doubles.   He hit a then career high 17 homers the subsequent season in 1971.  Although Richie had a solid ’71 campaign, it was his play in the 1971 NLCS that really put him on the map. He hit under .300, .294, but had two clutch home runs, one in game three, when his shot in the eighth inning gave the Bucs a 2-1 victory, putting them up 2-1 in the series, and then the following day, cracked three hits that included a homer and 3 RBI’s in the Bucs come from behind 9-5 victory to send the club to the World Series for the first time in 11 seasons.
    
Despite his success that season, Hebner was often replaced against southpaws including in the playoffs.  It was those moves by Murtaugh that sometimes angered the young third baseman.
    
It was also that competitive spirit that led Richie to a fine .300, 19 homer season in 1972, before hitting a career high 25 round trippers in 1973.
    
The lefty was one of the free-swinging aggressive hitters in the Pirate lineup during that time period.  Hebner felt that he had the ability to lead the league in hitting if he became more selective at the plate.  Although he would never win the coveted batting title, he did have a fine 1974 season hitting .291 with 18 homers, before slumping to .246 and .249 in ’75 and ’76.  Richie played out his option and signed with the Bucs cross state rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies, where he played first base for the two time Eastern Division champions.  His appearance in those NLCS’s and the subsequent one he played on with the Cubs in 1984, gave him the distinction of playing in more National League Championships than any other player in the circuits history, 8, including playing on a record 7 losing teams.
    
After going from Philly, to the Mets and then the Tigers, which included the 1980 campaign when he knocked in 82 runners in only 341 at bats, Hebner was sold back to the Bucs in 1982.  The Gravedigger hit .300 in 70 at bats before finishing his time with the Bucs the following year with a .265 mark.  The Cubs signed him as a free agent following the season where he retired in 1985 with 203 homers and a lifetime .276 average in 18 major league seasons.
    
Through it all, Richie proved to be worth much more than the $40,000 bonus he was given, but it was his other job that made Hebner unique in the annuls of the game.  When asked about his job as a gravedigger as, Richie once said that he was so good at it, no one ever dug their way out, and that is a statement no one would ever argue with.