RIP Dock Ellis

I think, and maybe Buckweaver can verify this, but Doc was the pitcher on the first MLB team to field an entirely black starting lineup.

Eh, I just googled it...

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


Sept. 1st, 1971

 

Here's the game where he hit everybody:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT197405010.shtml

He hit Rose, Morgan and Driessen and walked Perez while trying to hit him. He was removed from the game then.

 

Excellent. Thank you for digging that up.

 

NO peaking: Can you name the manager?

 

Danny Murtaugh (spell)?

 

It has always kind of amazed me that, given the propensity of some athletes to try anything to help perfromance, that no one else has ever copped to using LSD in competition. I had a friend in college - a terrific athlete - who regularly dosed during games. While his perfromance was often erratic, I'll never forget the time he buried two fifty foot jump shots, one at the end of the half and the other at the end of the game - or the time he scored a goal in soccer and as he ran down the field in celebration he did a running flip - something he had never done before.

He's a medical doctor now.

 

There is a difference between black and hispanic. If you are just saying they are "black" because they were all brown-skinned, that's a different story.
Incidentally, the guy at the top of that list, Rennie Stennett, could hit his ass off. Never was the same after breaking his ankle.
Gene Clines would've won a batting title, I think in '75, but didn't have enough at bats to qualify.

 

Drip, I think that is why it is not talked about too much.

Rennie had seven, count em, seven hits in one game.

 

You don't have to sell me on Rennie. I was ALWAYS a big fan of his.

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/stennre01.shtml

That 1977 season he had was insane.

 

Oh, it's talked about enough in circles that talk about 1971 baseball.

And Drip's right about it not being the first "all-black" lineup. It is the first all-black and Latino lineup, though, which is significant. Not as significant as a dozen other firsts achieved by minority players, but significant nonetheless.

 

Good stuff.
Oh and the year that I was referring to with Gene Clines was 1972.