The Pittsburgh Lineup Card (Ep17)

On September 1, 1971, something unusual happened at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. The game that night – between the Pittsburgh Pirates and their home-state rivals, the Philadelphia Phillies – started at 8:05pm when Dock Ellis, the Pirates’ pitcher, strode to the mound. From where he stood, he could have looked from the outfield to the infield to the catcher and noticed that every one of his starting teammates was Black or Latino, including superstars Roberto Clemente and Willie Stargell. Twenty-four years after Jackie Robinson first took to the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and Major League Baseball began racially integrating, the Pirates were the first team who fielded a starting roster consisting of players who would have been kept from playing in the MLB based on their skin color. Oddly enough, the historic nature of the lineup was scarcely noticed at the time. But as time went on, it became clear that it was a pretty big deal. Timestamps for major events/discussions: [02:33] – Why were Black players, in effect, banned from baseball? [05:26] – Jackie Robinson debuts [07:13] – Quotas to limit players of color on a team [10:01] – Introducing Roberto Clemente [13:40] – Branch Rickey moves from the Dodgers to the Pirates [20:50] – The 1960 World Series [25:43] – Baseball and the Pirates in the 1960s [29:12] – Introducing Dock Ellis [31:34] – Baseball and the Pirates in 1971 [36:23] – Pittsburgh in 1971 [39:05] – The game – September 1, 1971 [52:52] – The 1971 World Series [54:35] – The economics of baseball in the 1970s [1:00:22] – Books and films that inspired this episode Total run time: 1:03:11 Sources that inspired this episode: • The book Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball’s Last Hero, by David Maraniss, Simon & Schuster, 2006 • The book The Team That Changed Baseball: Roberto Clemente and the 1971 Pittsburgh Pirates, by Bruce Markusen, Westholme Publishing, 2006 • The documentary Clemente, directed by David Altrogge, 2024 • The film No No – A Dockumentary, directed and produced by Jeffrey Radice, 2014 Calls to action: • Follow us on Instagram to learn when new episodes drop or to be a part of our chat community IG: pennsylmaniapod • Join our email list to receive news on the podcast by emailing us at producer@pennsylmania.com • Provide feedback on this episode, or give us ideas for new episodes, by emailing us at producer@pennsylmania.com Link to website: www.pennsylmania.com