David Hunter
A lot of people have three immediate thoughts when the phrase, “Negro League Baseball,” is mentioned.
1: They think of the ballplayers such as SP Satchel Paige, C Josh Gibson, or CF Oscar Charleston.
2: They think of the separation of quality ballplayers who were forced into their own major and minor leagues due to skin color and wonder what could have been during the 1900’s, 1910’s, 1920’s, and 1930’s.
3: They think of 2B Jackie Robinson finally breaking through the color barrier with the Los Angeles Dodgers under then General Manager, Branch Rickey.
Negro League Baseball was not just confined to blacks in the United States back then but also incorporated all minorities that had a trace of a dark complexion, including the advent of standout leagues developed in Cuba, Mexico, and the Dominican Republic. This trail helped blaze the foundations for the Dominican Professional Baseball League, Cuban League, and the Mexican League.
Players would often bounce around from league to league during a season, if not team to team in a league. A large part of this was due to pay structure but it helped players develop their own reputations all over the world as players would often leave their Negro League to play in Cuba or Mexico during the winters and summers.
Many were as known, at least in America, for their barnstorming series against major league teams. The barnstorming era reached its peak during the 1920s and early 1930s and should be largely credited with helping the reputations of many NLB players reach the mainstream masses. A great read titled, “Satch, Dizzy, & Rapid Robert” by Timothy Gay gives a fascinating historical account of most of the series during the 20’s and 30’s into the 1940’s.
Player Quality
A lot of questions remain as to how good the majority of Negro League players were. Many who played their entire careers in NLB have said the teams and players were usually of AAA caliber such as C Buck Leonard, “… I would say that we would have been a good Triple-A team (1945 Homestead Grays) for this reason – we didn’t have the replacements that the major-league teams have.” Along those same lines, 3B Judy Johnson also mentions the issue of depth as a factor in not being major league level, “The Hilldale Club that played in the (Negro) World Series in 1924 would have belonged in Triple A because there were a couple of positions where men would have had to be replaced.”
Another factor in trying to gauge the quality of play in most Negro Leagues was the various schedule alignments, which often broke down at 60-80 games over the course of a season. Even then, it wasn’t guaranteed that a player would play the entire duration as some shifted teams and even jumped entire leagues mid-season.
As a result of this and sketchy, if not outright lost results and statistics, the compilation of statistics varies from book to book and website to website. There are a host of sites that are trying to properly compile statistics as completely as they can with the two main sites being: Baseball-Reference’s NLB Section and Seamhead’s NLB Section.
With that said, there are also several great books worth seeking out. The best or most lauded is considered, “Only The Ball Was White” by Robert Peterson. Although it was initially published in 1970, it remains one of the absolute must-reads for insight into the history and development of NLB and even baseball itself.
Trying to compare the quality of competition between the NLB and MLB is near impossible in the 1920’s and 1930’s due to the issue of segregation. Even using the basis of the Blacks vs. Whites exhibition contests can prove inexact as the ‘All-Star’ teams of whites often included secondary backup major league players, minor league players, or players who had left the game years before as stand-ins. What we can do is try to get a glimpse of the players who gradually filtered into the major leagues during the 1940’s and if possible, the early 1950’s. As a note, it is generally accepted that the pitching was, overall, better in the Major Leagues again mostly due to the depth.
All statistics will be from Baseball-Reference.com for now. I must emphasize that these stats are incomplete (and that is being generous).
Jackie Robinson
1945 at NAL: .414/.460/.569 in 58 AB. He hit 1 HR with 2 SB and 4 Doubles. [Negro American League]
1947 at MLB: .297/.383/.427 in 590 AB. He hit 12 HR with 29 SB and 31 Doubles.
1948 at MLB: .296/.367/.453 in 574 AB. He hit 12 HR with 22 SB and 38 Doubles.
His batting average dropped sharply just from Triple A to MLB. He hit .291 at home in 1947 (hitting .303 on the road) but in 1948 he hit .309 at home and .285 on the road. It is clear he had some power but his BA likely would have been greatly inflated over the course of a full NLB season.
Larry Doby He would shortly follow in Jackie Robinson’s footsteps, being signed by the Cleveland Indians during the 1947 season and playing sparingly.
1946 at NNL: .322/.380/.509 in 171 AB. He hit 4 HR with 5 SB and 8 Doubles. [Negro National League]
1948 at MLB: .301/.384/.490 in 439 AB. He hit 14 HR with 9 SB and 23 Doubles.
1949 at MLB: .280/.389/.468 in 547 AB. He hit 24 HR with 10 SB and 25 Doubles.
Doby is in an interesting case as he showed he could hit for a good average but his best trait was his innate power, constantly hitting 20-30 HRs over the course of any given season. As the 1950’s went on, he settled into hitting anywhere from .263 to .276 with some higher seasons sprinkled in.
Artie Wilson ready to tackle the streaking cameraman
Credit oregonsportshall.org
Artie Wilson Another NLB player who would follow in the footsteps of others as the doors finally opened. He too was initially signed by the Cleveland Indians before landing with the New York Giants briefly in the course of playing for 3 teams in 1951. He’d spend the rest of his career bouncing around at the then quasi-major league Pacific Coast League.
1948 at NAL: .428/.484/.572 in 138 AB. He hit 0 HR with 5 SB and 6 Doubles.
1951 In 22 AB, he hit .182 with the New York Giants at the MLB level.
1952 at PCL: .316/.354/.366 in 683 AB. He hit 1 HR with 25 SB and 15 Doubles.
1953 at PCL: .322/.380/.422 in 638 AB. He hit 2 HR with 9 SB and 23 Doubles.
Hank Thompson A player who was young and lit up the Negro American League in 1947 & 1948 prior to his signing with the St. Louis Browns in 1947 before landing a long-term role with the New York Giants.
1947 at NAL: .411/.484/.750 in 56 AB. He hit 4 HR with 2 SB and 3 Doubles.
1947 at MLB: .256/.341/.295 in 78 AB. He hit 0 HR with 2 SB and 1 Double.
1948 at NAL: .325/.409/.558 in 77 AB. He hit 3 HR with 2 SB and 7 Doubles.
1949 at MLB: .280/.377/.444 in 275 AB. He hit 9 HR with 5 SB and 10 Doubles.
Interestingly, his batting averages took a heavy hit but Thompson too showed innate power, usually hitting for 17+ HRs a year at the MLB level. On the flip side, he wasn’t close to hitting even .325 as he struggled to hit .265 in a given year outside of 1949 (.280), 1950 (.289), and a fluke-ish 1953 where he hit .302 on the season in just 388 AB.
We get a glimpse that although the power may have been for real, the ability to hit for a high average was partially inflated at the NLB level. Made even more starkly given his .256 BA in the same year he was hitting .411.
Willard Brown A mainstay in the NLB fixture, he also would get snatched up by the St. Louis Browns in 1947 during his NLB season but only played a partial season at the MLB level while being 32 years old.
1946 at NAL: .255/.275/.443 in 106 AB. He hit 2 HR with 8 SB and 6 Doubles.
1947 at NAL: .368/.410/.702 in 57 AB. He hit 2 HR with 0 SB and 3 Doubles.
1947 at MLB: .179/.179/.269 in 67 AB. He hit 1 HR with 2 SB and 3 Doubles.
1948 at NAL: .360/.402/.547 in 86 AB. He hit 3 HR with 4 SB and 5 Doubles.
Satchel Paige practicing his infamous invisi-ball pitch
credit to Discover Black Heritage
The Pitchers
Satchel Paige was the obvious superstar pitcher of his day and for a while, the face of Negro League Baseball to fans. One of the things that separated him from his contemporaries was his ability to strike out fellow hitters as much of NLB pitching was a throwback to the early 1900s where getting the ball over the plate to induce outs was favored over striking out batters.
1928: 126 IP with 108 K.
1929: 160.1 IP with 167 K.
1932: 103 IP with 77 K.
1934: 141 IP with 135 K.
Ray Brown was a star pitcher for the Homestead Grays during the 1930’s and 1940’s yet he usually hovered around 2.5 to 3.5 strikeouts per 9 innings on average. From 1940 – 1942 he threw 464 innings and struck out only 164 hitters.
Breaking down the Negro National League by yearly strikeout leaders during its heyday. MLB comparables in red.
1922: “Bullet” Joe Rogan – 91 K in 134.1 IP
1922: Lou North – 84 K in 149.2 IP
1923: “Bullet” Joe Rogan – 146 K in 239.2 IP
1923: Walter Johnson – 130 K in 261 IP (at age 35)
1924: “Bullet” Joe Rogan – 115 K in 204 IP
1924: Bob Shawkey – 114 K in 207.2 IP
1925: “Bullet” Joe Rogan – 102 K in 171.1 IP
1925: Lefty Grove – 116 K in 197 IP
1926: Bill Foster – 134 K in 226.1 IP
1926: Tommy Thomas – 127 K in 249 IP
1927: “Bullet” Joe Rogan – 102 K in 146.2 IP
1927: Garland Braxton – 96 K in 155.1 IP
1928: Bill Foster – 136 K in 231 IP
1928: Pat Malone – 155 K in 250.2 IP
1929: Satchel Paige – 167 K in 160.1 IP
1929: Bump Hadley – 98 K in 195.1 IP
1930: Bill Foster – 139 K in 162.2 IP
1930: Hank Johnson – 115 K in 175.1 IP
1931: Bill Foster – 64 K in 79 IP
1931: Stew Bolen – 55 K in 98.2 IP
Small Sample Size
Any good sabermetric fan will tell you that small sample sizes can drastically alter perceptions of players, and this is one of the driving forces behind how hard it is to properly value NLB players even to their league mates.
In 1923, the Kansas City Monarchs were an absolute dynamo in the Negro National League. Allen “Hurley” McNair hit .332, Oscar “Heavy” Johnson hit .405, and Dobie Moore hit .366! Yet none of those players are in the Hall of Fame while Oscar Charleston (.364) and Cristobal Torriente (.387) are.
Oscar Charleston deciding hitting with two bats will confound the pitcher
Credit Negro League Baseball Museum
Oscar Charleston played on a team that had another player who hit .300, two teammates hit .296, and another hit .294. Torriente was on a team that also featured John Beckwith and Dave Malarcher hitting .304 each.
Let’s jump to another year at random, 1927 known for the Murderer’s Row lineup in New York at the time but let’s check in with the Negro National League during that period of time.
Roy Parnell, owner of a career .321 BA and not in the HOF, hit .436 for the Birmingham Black Barons in 1927, .313 in 1928, and .357 in 1936. Mule Suttles, a Hall of Famer who played in the same league, owns a career .329 BA and hit .340, .313, .391, .361, and .349 in a meaningful sample of at-bats from 1924 – 1928 (excluding his 67 AB in 1927).
Walter Davis was in his late 30’s but from 1927 – 1930 he hit: .417, .322, .302, and .329 in 230+ AB a season. Another, Ed “Huck” Rile was in his prime from 1926 – 1930: .318, .403, .350, .301, and .313 in 210+ AB almost every year.
Given the small samples in just one league, nevermind comparing a player with 100 AB to another with 55-65 AB, it is really hard to compare NLB players statistically to one another let alone comparing say the Negro National League with the Eastern Colored League.
Babe Ruth showing his impression of a top
Credit makefive.com
Let’s try and compare Babe Ruth from 1925 – 1930 using comparable “half” splits (1st or 2nd Half will be used dependent upon comparable AB first). I’ll try to use 1st Half where possible to better reflect the ‘full’ season stretch.
1925: .299 with 17 HR in 234 AB.
1926: .376 with 26 HR in 245 AB.
1927: .350 with 31 HR in 260 AB.
1928: .326 with 22 HR in 264 AB.
1929: .353 with 18 HR in 218 AB.
1930: .373 with 32 HR in 252 AB.
1931: .305 with 11 HR in 203 AB.
1932: .332 with 13 HR in 316 AB.
1934: .343 with 19 HR in 335 AB.
1936: .419 with 18 HR in 179 AB.
1938: .333 with 10 HR in 165 AB.
1942: .404 with 19 HR in 319 AB.
Those numbers would make Babe Ruth one of the “best” players to ever play baseball and yet he was able to prove that in the Majors, against arguably better and deeper pitching, in far more at bats. By comparison, let us look at C Josh Gibson who was a contemporary in the early 1930’s and highlight him in red against Ruth’s half splits above. Note that the ‘year’ will often include the year after as well except for 1931.
It is pretty clear that Josh Gibson was a prolific hitter but not necessarily on the same level as Babe Ruth. He probably would have had a career similar to that of Ruth’s teammate, Lou Gehrig, who consistently hit around .340 – .360 with the ability to hit 40 – 47 HR a season regularly.
A far more interesting (and arguably more adequate) comparison to Babe Ruth may have actually been Norman “Turkey” Stearnes. He routinely hit 16 – 19 HR a year with a BA well over .350 in multiple seasons and in 240+ AB a year including a career best 23 HR in 314 AB during the 1928 Season.
I personally don’t think any of them would have challenged Ruth’s 50+ home runs in a single season but I think Mule Suttles, Turkey Stearnes, and Josh Gibson all could have been similar to Lou Gehrig in routinely hitting 40 – 46 HR a year with a peak around 49 or 50.
To give credit to how astonishing Ruth’s ability was, from age 31 – 37 he hit: 47, 60, 54, 46, 49, 46, and 41 home runs.
Final Thoughts
I think there was talent in the Negro Leagues and quite a few players would have absolutely been MVP caliber players in the Majors. With that said, I generally equate the overall talent levels to be around AAA level maybe even bordering AA level. The stars, such as Paige and “Pop” Lloyd and Gibson and Charleston, among others, tend to cloud the fact that there were also good players who largely played in advantageous leagues with questionable overall talent especially on the pitcher’s mound.
Part of the issue may be the inaccuracy/incompleteness of statistics and the style of play in most Negro Leagues. For every true superstar player, there were probably myths that boosted some profiles, and probably 2-3 players who would have struggled at the major league level.
Credit to ESPN for main image
