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David Schoenfeld is a senior writer at ESPN
When Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and the slow integration of black players into the American and National Leagues began – emphasis on slowness, with the Phillies becoming the last NL team to integrate in 1957 and the Red Sox the last AL team in 1957. 1959- -The wave of talent coming out of the Negro Leagues was extraordinary.
Roy Campanella would become a teammate of Robinson in 1948 and would win three NL MVP Awards. Don Newcomb joined Brooklyn in 1949 and won the Most Valuable Player Award and the Cy Young Award in 1955. Larry Doby became the first black player in the American League in 1947. Minnie Minoso made his debut in 1949, Willie Mays in 1951, and Ernie Banks in 1953. Henry Aaron in 1954. Eventually, teams bypassed the Negro League Pipeline and signed young players themselves. By the end of the 1950s, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Billy Williams, and Bob Gibson had reached the majors. This wave included several Hall of Famers and many of the game’s legendary stars.
It stands to reason, then, that the Negro Leagues would have players of similar stature before Robinson arrived in 1947. As Bill James once wrote, referring to Robinson, Campanella, Mays, Banks, and Aaron, “If those leagues could produce five players like this In seven years, what about the previous forty?
This is just one reason why it is important to recognize the statistical accomplishments of players who performed in the Negro Leagues as a permanent, official part of the MLB database — even though that means new records and new names at the top of the all-time list. Professional and seasonal leaderboards. This is not without some controversy. Some argue that comparing stats from different leagues is a step too far to identify those players who never had the opportunity to play in the integrated major leagues. (I note that the National League and American League were separate leagues until 1997, other than meeting in the World Series.) Some will point out that the fewer “official” games in a Negro League season lead to sample size issues when compared to numbers aggregated over a longer season.
As MLB said in its press release, “Negro League statistics may be viewed separately
As the statement said: “New stars and the stories behind them will emerge.”
While I was scrolling through social media, I saw a poster that said: “Never heard of Josh Gibson.” Now he has.
In fact, starting with Gibson, here are some of the all-time greats to recognize with our MLB Negro Leagues statistical update.
Josh Gibson
With a .372 batting average in the Negro Leagues, Gibson now eclipses Ty Cobb and his .367 average as the all-time career leader. (For clarity, the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee considers results from official league games only and not the many unofficial games to be played by Negro league teams.) Gibson’s . 466 average in 1943 also became the new single-season record. Will the previous record holder be replaced at the top? Hugh Duffy hit .440 in 1894 for Boston in the National League.
The interesting lesson here is that stories about Gibson always mention him as the greatest baseball player in Negro league history. His incredible power credits include legends about him being the only player to ever hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium or run a 600-foot home run or the great Buck O’Neill saying he only heard three players make a certain sound while batting: Gibson, Babe Ruth and Bo Jackson.
Gibson He was Tremendous home run hitter: In his 12 full seasons in the Negro Leagues, he led the league in home runs 11 times. But these records show that he was also a great average batsman, winning several batting titles. Gibson never got a chance to play in the integrated major leagues. He died of a stroke in January 1947 at the age of 35, just a few months before Robinson broke the color barrier. (Diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1943, Gibson played the final four seasons of his career suffering from recurring headaches.) Gibson didn’t walk as often as Ruth, Ted Williams, or Barry Bonds, but he was right there with them (except for his stomach). throughout his career) and can be considered the greatest right-handed hitter of all time and the greatest catcher.
Oscar Charleston
Rogers Hornsby was considered the modern record holder for single-season batting average, hitting .424 in 1924. Charleston has now beaten that at .434 in 1921 and .427 in 1925 while posting a career average of .363, ranking Third behind Gibson and Cobb. . Charleston was not as famous as Gibson and Satchel Paige, and once the Hall of Fame began electing Negro League players in the 1970s (Paige and Gibson were the first two elected), he was only the seventh chosen. However, if you polled Negro League experts, Charleston would be considered the best all-around player. He was a center fielder with speed and power, and led the league in home runs, average hits and stolen bases. O’Neal compared him to Willie Mays, but he was better.
Türkiye Stearns
It took Stearns until 2000 to be elected to the Hall of Fame, but he ranks up there with Gibson and Charleston as the best hitters in Negro League history with a .348 lifetime average and more home runs than Gibson (188 to 174 via the numbers on MLB.com , although Gibson was often there for every bat stroke). Stearnes was a left-handed hitting center fielder, not a big guy (listed at 5-foot-11 and 175 pounds), but an obvious five-tool player with many long-running home run stories. He was nicknamed Turkey either because of the way he would flap his arms while running or, according to an interview he did with Stearns, because he had a belly as a child. His best years came with the Detroit Stars from 1923 to 1931, but the team never won a pennant, which perhaps explains why he faded from memory and took so long to reach the Hall of Fame.
Suttles the Mule
Suttles, a big, powerful shortstop/left fielder, is credited with 183 home runs and a .337 average on MLB.com, placing him alongside Gibson and Stearns as the third major power hitter in the Negro Leagues. In his greatest season with the St. Louis Stars in 1926, he won the Triple Crown, hitting .425 with 32 home runs and 130 RBIs…in 94 games. According to Suttles’ SABR biography, research shows he played 126 games in the California Winter League from 1930 to 1940 — a powerhouse league with active major leaguers and major leaguers in the minors. Playing black teams that played against white teams in the league, Suttles hit .378 with 64 home runs.
Buck Leonard
A first baseman, Leonard was nicknamed “Black Lou Gehrig” — in fact, Leonard said he modeled his swing after Gehrig — and finished with a lifetime average of .345, which puts him eighth on the all-time list, by a bit. Higher than Gehrig’s .340 mark. An agile, respected player who was a gifted defensive starter, Leonard did not join the Homestead Grays — where he teamed with Gibson to deliver a lethal punch — until 1935, when he was 27 years old. He was still active when Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947. Bill Veeck reportedly approached him about playing for the St. Louis Browns, but Leonard was in his 40s by then — he was too old, he said, to play for the St. Louis Browns. From experiencing it.
Beige bag
Well, we hope you know about the great Bag, who is considered the greatest pitcher in Negro League history. His 1.01 ERA for the Kansas City Monarchs in 16 starts in 1944 now ranks third on the official all-time list — behind Tim Keefe’s 0.86 for the Troy Trojans in 1880 and Dutch Leonard’s 0.96 for the Red Sox in 1914. Of course, by then Paige was of age 37 years old and probably past his peak in the late 1920s and early 1930s. How good was it? Well, Paige was the only Negro League legend who got a chance to play after integration. In five seasons with the Cleveland Indians and Browns, where he pitched mostly in relief and relied more on scrap and guile than his fastball, Paige posted a 3.31 ERA, good for an adjusted ERA+ of 124 — higher than Hall of Famers Juan Marichal, and Mike Mussina , Bob Feller or Don Drysdale, to name a few.
This is just a starting point. Go look for Bullet Joe Rogan, John Henry “Pop” Lloyd, Cool Papa Bell, Martin Dihigo (possibly the best two-way player of all time before Shohei Ohtani) and Chino Smith (who hit .451 in 1929 but would die at his age). (30 after contracting yellow fever while playing in Cuba), Willard Brown, Smokey Joe Williams, Willie Wills and many others. These players are part of a rich and vital part of baseball history, of American history. Stats, leaderboards and records are just a small part of that.
