Dick Allen in 1975.
I'm a rookie and we're workin' our way up north from spring training. We leave Clearwater and the Pittsburgh Pirates leave Fort Myers and we play each other all the way up. And then we get to Asheville, North Carolina. Before the game, the Pirates manager, Danny Murtaugh, gets in the middle of a big argument. Now, Danny was the kind of guy who usually just sat in the dugout chewin' his tobacco. Every once in a while, he'd spit. That was Danny Murtaugh. That was all he had to do. But this argument was really ragin', right out where we could all see what was goin' on. It was between Danny and this guy from the Chamber of Commerce. I can still see tobacco juice flyin' out of Danny's mouth and goin' all over this guy's shirt. What Danny had done was, he'd penciled-in an all-minority lineup. And the guy from the Chamber of Commerce was out there to tell him he couldn't do that. At first Danny said that he didn't know it was an all-black lineup till they told him. But he didn't want to change it, and that's when the tobacco juice started flyin'.
Anyway, he did change the lineup. The Pirates played eight blacks that day. Danny put Bill Mazeroski back in at second base. Maz had a bad ankle, and he wanted to rest him. So Danny gave Maz one at-bat, and then Maz came out. So it was all black anyway. That was 1963. Now flash forward to 1971. Pirates-Phillies again, only this time it was during a pennant race. Same Murtaugh, same deal. Not long ago, I got an invitation to an exhibit commemorating it. Here's how the invitation started out: On September 1, 1971, the Pittsburgh Pirates manager, Danny Murtaugh, prepared to oppose the Philadelphia Phillies by listing the following names on his lineup card.
1B: Al Oliver
2B: Rennie Stennett
SS: Jackie Hernandez
3B: Dave Cash
Catcher: Manny Sanguillen
Outfield: Willie Stargell, Gene Clines, Roberto Clemente
Pitcher: Doc Ellis
That's an all-minority lineup. First time it was ever done in the big leagues. Those guys turned out to be the Lumber Company. They put some wood on your ass. They put more wood on your ass than Howdy Doody had. Won them a World Series that year, too, am I not correct?