ALL BLACK LINE-UP
08/20/2004
By Perry Rotolo
Staff Writer
When I was growing up in Aliquippa, Pa. I had a friend by the name of Tykie Maravich. Not only was Tykie a good athlete but he was also the king of sports trivia. One of his questions was to name the starting line-up for the all black team that the Pittsburgh Pirates fielded in the early 70's.
Throughout the years I've heard people come up with different versions of the starting line-up so I decided once and for to go In Surf of.....The Pittsburgh Pirates all black starting line-up.
First I want to see how my memory serves me. This is what I think the starting line-up was:
1. Pitcher: Dock Ellis 2. Catcher Manny Sanguillen 3. Firstbase: Willie Stargell 4. 2b: Dave Cash 5. SS: Jackie Hernanadez 6. 3b: Jose Pagan 7. Leftfield: Al Oliver ( If I remember correctly he was the hardest starter to name because he platooned in left field or was it first base?} 8. Centerfield: Gene Clines (Another toughie but I always remembered he was in center.} 9. Rightfield: Roberto Clemente (The easiest of the answers but for some reason I think either him or Stargell was out of the line-up but I'll stick with Clemente in right.}. Time to go surfing!!!
I started by putting Pirates all black line-up in the search engine. Bad Move, unless you are looking for the movie The Pirates of the Caribbean. {I forgot it is sub- titled the Black Pearl.}
Next I just added Pittsburgh to the search and bingo...paydirt.
The baseballpage.com had this little tidbit about the all black lineup: A significant event occurred in the early 1970s when Pittsburgh fielded the first all-black lineup. Manny Sanguillen, Stargell, Dave Cash, Al Oliver, Clemente, Dave Parker, Frank Taveras, Omar Moreno, and Bill Robinson were some of the minorities who played regularly for the team in the decade. "
The baseballballpage.com also mentions the all black team in this article about Al Oliver but nothing beats the article by BruceMarkusen.
He gives you the starting line-up: Rennie Stennett, 2B Gene Clines, CF Roberto Clemente, RF , Willie Stargell LF Manny Sanguillen, C Dave Cash, 3B Al Oliver, 1B Jackie Hernandez, SS Dock Ellis, P. {The only player I was missing was Rennie Stennet and I had Cash at second instead of third base.}
The Pirates won the game 10-7 and Ellis only lasted 1 1/3 innings and was replaced by white pitcher Bob Moose. Moose was in return replaced by Black pitcher Bob Veale. A great article by Markusen and he covers the game in detail and pretty much ending our need for more searching.
The Beaver County Times had an article on Sunday May 2nd, 2004 by Chuck Curti, which can be ordered through the archives. The Times was writing about the decline in numbers of the African-American player in the major leagues and included a recap of the game. The Times goes on to say, The Pirates line-up of Sept. 1, 1971, is something not likely to happen anytime soon--if ever.
Also check out Glenn's Pirate page. Glenn does not go in depth about the All black team but the site is worth visiting to discover interesting tidbits of Pirate history. Tidbits such as Luke Walker, the winning pitcher in the Sept. 1, game, was the Pirate starter against the Baltimore Orioles in the 1971 World Series which happened to be first night game in Series history. Another tidbit is that the Pirates were the first team to use a tarp to cover the infield. A fun site indeed.
Well fellow surfers that was the easiest surf so far as Bruce Markusen wrote a complete article about the first all black line-up and covered all the bases in his article. Believe it or not, September 1st marks the 33rd anniversary of the all black line-up.
It will be interesting to see if the line-up gets any mention in your local sports page that day.
Until next time and remember keep on surfing........
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