50 years ago today, The Pittsburgh Pirates made MLB history when the put nine minority players on the field to start a game.
On September 1, 1971, manager Danny Murtaugh put the following lineup on the field against the Philadelphia Phillies at Three Rivers Stadium:
2B: Rennie Stennett
CF: Gene Clines
RF: Roberto Clemente
LF: Willie Stargell
C: Manny Sanguillen
3B: Dave Cash
1B: Al Oliver
SS: Jackie Hernandez
P: Dock Ellis
While it’s not exactly known if Murtaugh made the lineup to intentionally feature all Black and Afro-Latino player, his grandson, Tim Murtaugh says he never talked about it with the family.
“I think it was just the sort of thing he put the best nine guys out there,” Murtaugh told the KDKA Radio Morning Show. “It was commonplace to start seven and eight Black or Latin players all the time, so putting nine guys out there wasn’t terribly out of the ordinary.”
Murtaugh says he doesn’t know if his grandfather would have even known if it had ever been done before, since things like Google didn’t exist.”
Another reason that Murtaugh believes his grandfather just put out the best nine guys is because the Pirates were in the middle of a pennant race.
“the first six guys in that lineup were all batting over .300, which is incredible, this was a team that he put out on the field that he thought could win the game.”
With Gene Alley on the bench with a sprained knee, Jackie Hernandez played shortstop, Dave Cash moved over from second to play third base with Richie Hebner dealing with an illness and Oliver (typically an outfielder) was penciled in at first over Bob Robertson.
The players on the field didn’t realize what was happening until the second inning, when Cash told Oliver on the bench something like, “We’ve got all brothers out there.”
Ultimately, whether or not Murtaugh knew he was putting an all-minority lineup on the field doesn’t matter, 50 years later the achievement is seen as a historic benchmark for the game that for too long excluded some of the best players in the world because of their skin.
It wasn’t a publicity stunt, the Pirates wanted to win and win they did, claiming their fourth championship crown in history the next month, when the beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series.