Late Pirates manager Danny Murtaugh on Gold Days Era ballot for Baseball Hall of Fame

The Pittsburgh Pirates celebrated the 50th anniversary of their 1971 World Series champions, the first team in major league history to field an all-Black starting lineup.

Now, the manager who made out that lineup card is on a Hall of Fame ballot.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced Friday that the late Danny Murtaugh is one of 10 people on the Golden Days Era ballot, which considers candidates whose primary contributions came from 1950-69.

In 12 full seasons as Pirates manager, Murtaugh had nine winning seasons, claimed four National League East titles, two NL pennants and World Series championships in 1960 and ‘71. The Pirates fielded the first all-Black lineup in MLB history on Sept. 1, 1971, on their way to winning the NL pennant and beating the Baltimore Orioles for the world championship. Murtaugh died of a stroke in 1976 at age 59. His No. 40 was retired by the Pirates in 1977.

Murtaugh is joined on the ballot by Maury Wills, a seven-time All-Star shortstop who won 1962 NL MVP honors with the Los Angeles Dodgers and spent the 1967 and ’68 seasons with the Pirates. The other Golden Days Era finalists are Wampum’s Dick Allen, Ken Boyer, Gil Hodges, Jim Kaat, Roger Maris, Minnie Miñoso, Tony Oliva and Billy Pierce. Allen and Oliva both received 11 votes last year (68.8%), falling one vote shy of election.

The Early Baseball Era ballot, which features contributors prior to 1950, includes posthumous candidates Bill Dahlen, John Donaldson, Bud Fowler, Vic Harris, Grant “Home Run” Johnson, Lefty O’Doul, Buck O’Neil, Dick “Cannonball” Redding, Allie Reynolds and George “Tubby” Scales.

Harris and Scales both have Pittsburgh ties.

Harris had a .305 batting average in 18 seasons in the Negro Leagues, mostly as a left fielder for the Homestead Grays. He later managed the Grays, winning seven Negro National League pennants and the 1948 World Series.

Scales spent 20 seasons in the Negro Leagues as an infielder, batting .319 with a .421 on-base percentage, including stints with the Grays in 1929 and 1935. He managed for six seasons in the Negro Leagues and 12 seasons in the Puerto Rican Winter League, leading the Santurce Cangrejeros to the Caribbean World Series title in 1951.

The committees will both meet at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla., and the results of the vote will be announced live on MLB Network’s “MLB Tonight” at 8 p.m. Dec. 5.

Any candidate who receives votes on 75% (12) of the ballots cast by either 16-member committee will earn election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and will be inducted in Cooperstown on July 24, 2022, along with any electees from the 2022 Baseball Writers’ Association of America vote, which will be announced Jan. 25.