Photo: Megan Ellis / Unsplash
By Charles Collier
Back in December of 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) Commissioner Manfred announced that “MLB is officially elevating the Negro Leagues to MLB status. Culminating the centennial celebration of the founding of the Negro Leagues, MLB is proud to highlight the contributions of the pioneers who played from 1920-1948.” From that point on, a team of Negro League experts – the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee – had the challenging task of gathering data.
On May 28, 2024, MLB announced that the task was completed. Former Negro League players and their families are ecstatic about the news. As a result of the announcement, Josh Gibson who played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburg Crawfords became the all-time leader in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS. Gibson’s great grandson Sean Gibson is beaming with pride. “Now when you look at the leaderboards, the single-season records and all-time records,” Sean told MLB Network Radio, “you see Josh on top of most of the leaderboards. “It’s a great day for Josh Gibson.”
Josh Gibson, James “Cool “Papa” Bell, and Satchel Paige are three of the most exciting players in Negro League history.
It’s rumored that Satchel Paige threw as many as 50 no-hitters. Although the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee (NLSR) committee couldn’t verify the exact number of no-hitters he threw. Most agree that Paige was on par with Nolan Ryan, Pedro Martinez, Doc Gooden, Greg Maddux and Clayton Kershaw and the other elite pitchers in MLB history.
James “Cool Papa” Bell was one of the fastest players to ever play the game. According to Bell’s good friend Satchel Paige, “Bell was so fast he could walk into his bedroom, turn off the light, get in bed and pull up the covers before it got dark.” Legend has it that Bell was so fast he stole two bases on one pitch and he scored from first base on a bunt. “Not only did he have great speed, but he’s also perhaps the greatest baserunner this game has ever seen,” Negro League Museum President Bob Kendrick said.
St. Louis speed demon Lou Brock had a conversation with Cool Papa and had this to say: “Lou said Cool Papa started telling him some things about baserunner that he had never heard before. And he says, ‘Cool Papa, I don’t remember seeing that in the book’ And Cool Papa said, ‘It ain’t in the book.’”
On June 20, 2024, a regular season game between the between the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants will be held at Rickwood Field – the former home of the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro Leagues and the oldest ballpark in the United States. They will be wearing the uniforms of the St. Louis Stars and San Francisco Sealions. The baseball world will be focused on this game. Fans are looking forward to Willie Mays making an appearance on the field he played on 75 years ago. Mays began his professional career with the Black Barons before becoming a superstar in the Major Leagues. What a great moment that would be for baseball.
It will especially be special for former Negro League players who were not allowed to compete because of the color of their skin! Hopefully the bringing together of league statistics will go some way to bringing us all together after many years of discrimination. As the great Martin Luther King Jr. said, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish as fools.”