OPINION:
A few years back, a group of elderly baseball players, all members of the Negro League Baseball Players Association, were trying to generate some income for their colleagues and, while they were at it, perhaps a little sliver of justice.
They were in the early days of selling licensed Negro Leagues apparel. Among the items they hoped to sell were hats and jerseys from the New York Black Yankees, a Negro Leagues team that operated from 1932 to 1948 and played many of their home games at Yankee Stadium.
The New York Yankees — the multi-million-dollar New York Yankees — warned that if the Negro Leagues players went forward with the idea, they would find themselves in court.
Mind you, now, this was 50 years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier that kept Black players out of baseball. Yet here was a major league team shooting itself in the foot instead of seizing an opportunity to help players who were forced to create their own version of the game because of racism.
I wish those Black men were around this week to see, finally, Major League Baseball’s overdue acknowledgment of those players whose accomplishments on the field too often were seen as more myth than reality. The records of more than 2,300 Negro Leagues players are being incorporated into the MLB record books.
“Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
Josh Gibson’s historic feats on the baseball diamond were real, with or without the MLB’s seal of approval. But there is something decidedly satisfying about knowing the Hall of Fame Negro League catcher is now the all-time major league batting champion, with a .372 career average, surpassing the previous record holder, Ty Cobb. Gibson also now has the greatest single-season batting average in baseball history, with a .466 average
Gibson is also now the career leader in slugging percentage, with a .718 figure, and OPS, with a 1.177 number. The man he replaced in the top spot in those categories? Yankees icon Babe Ruth. Take that, George Steinbrenner.
The official acknowledgment of Gibson as one of the greatest hitters in the history of the game should be celebrated by Washington fans. He accomplished much of this while playing for the Homestead Grays in the 1930s and 1940s. The Grays played many of their home games in the District at Griffith Stadium. Pay closer attention next time to that Gibson statue when you walk through the home plate entrance to Nationals Park.
In fact, Washington baseball history got a big boost with the introduction of Negro League statistics into the record books. Gibson was hardly the only legend to take his rightful place among the all-time greats
Third baseman Buck Leonard, who played for the Grays from 1934 to 1950, is now fifth on the all-time list of on-base percentage, at .452, and eighth in batting average, with a .345 figure.
Jud Wilson, who spent seven seasons with the Grays and finished his career here in Washington, is now fifth all-time in batting average at .350 and 10th in on base percentage at .434.
These numbers and how they impact the official history of the game will likely be welcomed by some and debated by others. The love of baseball, more than any other sport, is rooted in statistics and the record books. There will be confusion about how this came to pass and arguments about the validity of the numbers.
It will require faith in the work of the 17-person committee, appointed by MLB in December 2020, to come up with what they believed was a fair measurement to validate the Negro League numbers — a difficult task. I know from experience as the author of “The Negro League Baseball Encyclopedia,” records from those games are spotty and incomplete, and it required a commitment for these researchers to uncover the numbers they felt were worthy of recognition.
Also, teams from the Negro Leagues often played only about 60 games per season against other Negro Leagues competition, with the rest of the games barnstorming against local semi-pro teams. That limitation held back the willingness to officially recognize Negro Leagues numbers. But, of all things, the 2020 shortened COVID-19 season opened the door for consideration.
“The condensed 60-game season for the 2020 calendar year for the National League and American League prompted us to think that maybe the shortened Negro League seasons could come under the MLB umbrella, after all,” said John Thorn, baseball’s official historian.
This was the standard the committee came up with — 3.1 plate appearances or one inning pitched per scheduled game, the same measurement that has been used for baseball records. But, according to mlb.com, because of the inconsistencies of Negro Leagues team schedules (or the available data), the minimum qualifier for each league and season is based upon the average number of games played by each team, multiplied by 3.1 plate appearances for hitters and one inning for pitchers. Those values are subject to change as more data is discovered.
As for career leaderboards, mlb.com reported the current standard for career MLB leaders is 5,000 at-bats and 2,000 innings pitched, which roughly equates to 10 full qualifying seasons (5,020 at-bats and 1,620 innings). For Negro Leagues players, this standard has been set at 1,800 at-bats and 600 innings — roughly the equivalent of 10 seasons’ worth of 60-game seasons.
There will likely be some outcry from fans who consider baseball’s record books sacred. For them, this is like adding new books to the New Testament. But in measurements of sacrilege, keeping black players out of the game for more than 50 years is a far greater sin than the nuances of validating batting averages.
If you want to celebrate this small measure of justice, you can buy New York Black Yankees jerseys now.
⦁ You can hear Thom Loverro on The Kevin Sheehan Show podcast.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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