The MLB All-Star Game that featured two Black starting pitchers – for the first and only time
By Frederic J. Frommer
Going into the 1971 All-Star Game, two pitchers appeared to be locks for starters. The American League’s best pitcher was twenty-one-year-old sensation Vida Blue of the Oakland A’s, who sported a 17-3 record and a 1.42 ERA. Over in the National League, Pittsburgh Pirate Dock Ellis was nearly as dominant, at 14-3 with a 2.11 ERA.
But Ellis, twenty-six, had his doubts that baseball would feature two Black pitchers in its summer showcase.
“Ain’t no way they gonna start two brothers against each other in the All-Star Game,” he said a week before the game. “When it comes to black players,” Ellis added, “baseball is backwards and everyone knows it.”
Ellis was also convinced that NL manager “Sparky” Anderson, of the Cincinnati Reds didn’t like him (the Pirates and Reds had faced off in the previous year’s National League Championship Series). But Anderson wound up choosing Ellis over other NL stalwarts, such as New York Mets ace Tom Seaver, who would finish that season with an MLB-best 1.76 ERA.
In the AL, Baltimore Orioles manager Earl Weaver selected Blue as his starter over his own four aces (including Jim Palmer), each of whom would win at least 20 games in 1971.
Blue and Ellis were among the record 27 men of color in that ’71 Midsummer Classic—17 Black and 10 Latino players. Among them were several future Hall of Famers, including Frank Robinson, Reggie Jackson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, Willie Stargell, Willie McCovey, and Roberto Clemente.
In next Tuesday’s All-Star Game in Atlanta, the NL will feature five men of color among its nine hitters; while the AL lineup will have six.
The 1970s was a highwater mark for Black players; the numbers have been trending down for decades. Despite ticking a bit up this season, the percentage of African Americans on MLB rosters was still just 6.2 percent on Opening Day.
Back in ’71, Jackie Robinson cheered on Ellis for his blunt assessment of baseball.
“I read your comments in our paper the last few days and wanted you to know how much I appreciate your courage and honesty,” he wrote in a letter to Ellis. Robinson predicted Ellis would face consequences for speaking out, and “there will be times when you ask yourself if it's worth it all. I can only say, Dock, it is…”
And baseball was behind the times. There were still no Black managers, and the next year, Robinson called out the sport at a World Series ceremony MLB staged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of him breaking baseball’s color barrier. Suffering from diabetes and blind in one eye, Robinson made one last, poignant plea.
“I am extremely proud and pleased to be here this afternoon,” he said, “but must admit I am going to be tremendously more pleased and more proud when I look at that third base coaching line one day and see a Black face managing in baseball.” He died nine days later, at the age of fifty-three.
At the 1971 All-Star Game, neither starting pitcher lived up to expectations. Blue gave up three runs in three innings, while Ellis surrendered four in his three innings. Black hitters, however, excelled that night. Aaron hit a solo homer in the top of the third inning to extend the NL’s lead to 3-0. In the bottom of the inning, Jackson hit one of the most iconic homers in All-Star Game history, smashing a ball off the transformer on the roof of Tiger Stadium, to pull the AL within 3-2. Two batters later, Frank Robinson hit another two-run homer to give the AL a 4-3 lead.
The AL won 6-4, snapping an eight-game losing streak. It would be the league’s only All-Star Game victory in 20 years, from 1963 to 1982. (That’s quite a contrast to recent years, when the AL has dominated.)
“Last night’s All‐Star Game started as the Vida Blue story and wound up as the saga of the Reggie Jackson‐Frank Robinson mutual admiration society,” the New York Times reported in a July 1971 story. After seeing Robinson’s homer, Jackson said, “It made me think: ‘There’s the teacher. I’m the pupil.’”
Jackson was on to something. In October 1974, the Cleveland Indians (now the Guardians) named Frank Robinson their player-manager for the ’75 season – the sport’s first Black skipper.
“I thank the Lord that Jackie Robinson was the man he was in that position,” he said at a news conference, referring to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier in ‘47. “If he wasn’t, it would have set back the whole idea of signing more Black players. The one wish I could have is that Jackie Robinson could be here today to see this happen.”
Ellis finished 19-9 that season with a 3.06 ERA, but Blue had a truly transcendent season. He went 24-8, led the AL in both ERA (1.82) and shutouts (eight), and won the AL’s Cy Young Award and MVP. In August, he made the cover of Time, with the headline, “New Zip in the Old Game.” The magazine recounted how Oakland’s promotion-obsessed owner, Charlie Finley, offered him $2,000 to change his name to Vida True Blue. The pitcher declined.
“If Mr. Finley thinks it's such a great name, why doesn’t he call himself True O. Finley?” He said.
That summer, President Richard Nixon, a huge baseball fan, publicly took a swipe at the A’s for paying Blue a paltry $14,500 even as he was the best pitcher in baseball.
“You must be the most underpaid player in the game,” Nixon told Blue at a White House reception for the A's a few weeks after the All-Star Game. “Who is the lawyer for this club? I would hate to negotiate your contract next year.”