sport news Tampa Bay Rays make baseball history in Toronto by fielding MLB's first ... trends now
The Tampa Bay Rays made baseball history on Thursday in Toronto by fielding MLB's first ever all-Latino lineup in a matinee game against the Blue Jays.
What's more, the momentous occasion took place on the 21st annual Roberto Clemente Day, which celebrates the life of the Puerto Rican hero and Pittsburgh Pirates legend, who tragically died in a plane crash a half century ago.
Thursday's Rays lineup included Cuba's Yandy Diaz and Randy Arozarena, the Domincan Republic's Wander Franco, Manuel Margot and Jose Siri, Colombia's Harold Ramirez, Venezuela's David Peralta and Rene Pinto, and Mexico's Isaac Paredes.
While Tampa's lineup was entirely Latino, their battery included pitcher and Baltimore native Shane McClanahan.
Diaz celebrated the occasion by homering in the second inning, while his fellow Cuban, Arozarena, doubled in the frame. Tampa held a 4-0 lead after two innings.
Thursday's Rays lineup included Cuba's Yandy Diaz (pictured) and Randy Arozarena, the Domincan Republic's Wander Franco, Manuel Margot and Jose Siri, Colombia's Harold Ramirez, Venezuela's David Peralta and Rene Pinto, and Mexico's Isaac Paredes
Yandy Diaz homers in the second inning, while wearing Clemente's famed No. 21
While Tampa's lineup was entirely Latino, their battery included pitcher and Baltimore native Shane McClanahan (pictured)
The momentous occasion took place on the 21st annual Roberto Clemente Day, which celebrates the life of the Puerto Rican hero and Pittsburgh Pirates legend (pictured), who tragically died in a plane crash a half century ago
Clemente was famously killed in December of 1972, when the plane he had chartered to take emergency supplies to earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua crashed into the Caribbean. The Hall of Famer, who died with exactly 3,000 hits, was a member of the 1971 Pirates, who fielded baseball's first ever all-black-and-Latino lineup on September 1 of that season.
That Pirates team would go on to beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series in October of 1971.
The fact all nine players — Clemente, Rennie Stennett, Gene Clines, Willie Stargell, Manny Sanguillen, Dave Cash, Al Oliver, Jackie Hernandez and Dock Ellis — were black or of Latin descent didn't even really occur to them until afterward.
Oliver has always found it curious as to why it hasn't been celebrated the way Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in 1947 is. Yet in recent years, he's come to take it as a compliment of sorts, a nod to the color-blind approach Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh took to his job.
'We didn't take the field, you know, to make history,' Oliver said Wednesday night while honoring the 50th anniversary of a 10-7 win over Philadelphia. 'But as it turned out, it was history. And the thing that I feel great about it was that it proved the unity that we had on our team and proved that we had a manager that really (wasn't) concerned about race.'
Yandy Diaz celebrates his home run with teammates in the dugout against the Toronto Blue Jays in the second inning during their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on September 15
Pittsburgh Pirates Al Oliver (center) is grabbed by teammates Willie Stargell (left) and Roberto Clemente (right) after his three-run-homer which gave the Pirates a 9-5 victory over the San Francisco Giants and the National League Pennant
Oliver, a seven-time All-Star during his 18-year career, figures the sea of black and brown faces with the gold 'P' on their caps was simply the byproduct of the way general manager Joe Brown went about constructing a team.
'[He said] ''What we did, we signed players because they can play, not the church they went to,'' said
