I’ve heard and read often since this week’s overdue inclusion of Negro Leagues statistics into Major League Baseball’s official record books that many people are just now discovering Josh Gibson.
Better late than never.
But I’d encourage folks to not stop there.
Hopefully, the culmination of a three-year research project and the records update that happened this week because of it will promote a more thorough appreciation of what some of baseball’s greatest players accomplished on fields across America before Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947.
Thanks to the work of the Negro League Statistical Review Committee, more than 2,300 Negro Leagues players are now recognized and represented in MLB records.
Move over, Ty Cobb. Slide down, Babe Ruth. Make room, Ted Williams.
People are also reading…
One thing we know for sure:
Williams would have cheered this.
“I hope that someday the names of Satchel Page and Josh Gibson in some way can be added as a symbol, the great Negro players that are not here, only because they were not given a chance,†Williams said during his 1966 National Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech.
Finally, in 1971, Paige became the first of 37 Negro Leagues greats welcomed to Cooperstown. Finally, now, they are in baseball’s official record books.
New old names are where they belonged all along. They are creating conversations and challenging perceptions. Good.
While it always has been and always will be hard to accurately compare and contrast different eras of baseball, it is now and always will be true that any version of a sport that doesn’t give everyone talented enough to play it a chance to do so is not being played at the highest level possible — period. It’s why many baseball writers consider post-integration stats to be the most relevant. But that didn’t do much for Negro Leagues greats who were left out. This week’s change will helpfully lead to their accomplishments being included instead of overlooked or, even worse, entirely ignored.
Late, great slugging catcher Gibson, who unfortunately died months before Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier, is now considered, officially, MLB’s all-time leader in batting average (.372), slugging percentage (.718) and on-base plus slugging percentage, or OPS (1.177). The star of the Homestead Grays would probably object to his stated home run total. Believed to hit more than 800, the verification process that excluded barnstorming games limited him to just 174.
Again, this process isn’t perfect. It can’t be. And it’s ongoing, it should be mentioned, as more records are researched. But it is progress.
For those brand new to any and all Negro Leagues names, here’s a friendly challenge: Don’t stop with just Gibson. Keep going.
Paige, who made his American League debut at the age of 42 in 1948 and later played for the ºüÀêÊÓƵ Browns, now sits in third place for lowest single-season ERA. He flummoxed hitters with a 1.01 ERA while making 16 starts for the Negro American League’s Kansas City Monarchs in 1944. That season can now be found ahead of Bob Gibson’s historic 1.12 ERA in 1968.
Grays first baseman Buck Leonard, who was often called “The Black Lou Gehrig,†can now be found in the top 10 of both career batting average (.345, eighth) and on-base percentage (.452, fifth). Gehrig, though, ranks 17th (.340 average) and seventh (.447 on-base percentage) in those same categories.
Maybe Gehrig was really the white Buck Leonard? Better yet, maybe Walter Fenner “Buck†Leonard should just be called by his name and known as one one of the game’s best batters.
How about this one? After all the fact-checking and researching, the historians verified 4,829 at-bats for ºüÀêÊÓƵ Stars legend James “Cool Papa†Bell. They found 10 strikeouts.
Oscar Charleston (.363), Jud Wilson (.350) and Turkey Stearnes (.348) now crack the top 10 all time in batting average.
Even career numbers for Willie Mays (10 hits added from the 1948 Birmingham Black Barons), Minnie Minoso (150 hits added from the New York Cubans from 1946 to 1948) and, yes, even Robinson (49 hits added from the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs) have been updated to account for their Negro Leagues careers.
As for Paige, he picked up 97 wins. In terms of the official major league records, his career no longer starts absurdly with his age-41 season. It shows the full scope of his historically long marathon, one that started in the Negro Leagues at the age of 21 and finished in the American League at the age of 59. How’s that for a fuller picture?
I’m thankful to have first learned of these names and their stories during summer trips to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum during summers visiting my aunt in Kansas City. She made sure I knew about Buck O’Neil and the chapter of baseball history too often ignored.
It’s never too late to start learning something new, and hopefully this week’s change to baseball’s record books becomes an invitation for all of us to keep going.