Adding Negro Leagues' Stats: A Mistake By Major League Baseball?
ALSO: LOUSY TEAMS COULD REACH PLAYOFFS ANYWAY
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
After going 71-91 to end in the NL Central cellar in 2023, St. Louis is looking to avoid its first back-to-back last-place finishes since the 1907 and 1908 seasons . . .
With Clayton Kershaw (shoulder), Walker Buehler (hip), and Yoshinobu Yamamoto (rotator cuff) all on the IL, the current Dodgers rotation consists of Tyler Glasnow, James Paxton, Bobby Miller, Gavin Stone, and aptly-named rookie Landon Knack . . .
Even without star catcher J.T. Realmuto, the Philadelphia juggernaut continues, even including the first 1-3-5 triple play since 1929 (pitcher to first baseman to third baseman).
Likely All-Star right-fielder Fernando Tatis, Jr. is out awhile with a “stress reaction” initially thought to be a quad strain . . .
Milwaukee rookie Jackson Churio, 20, hit his first inside-the-park homer at American Family Field Wednesday.
Leading Off
Adding Negro Leagues Records To MLB Books –- What Could Go Wrong?
By W.H. Johnson
The recent decision, and attendant actions, by MLB to ratify seven of the Negro Leagues as major leagues, and to incorporate the statistics from those leagues into the canon of MLB records, has generated a great deal of positive press from around the baseball community.
The group of Negro League analysts charged with the effort of parsing and accepting those numbers involved some of the finest historians in the field, including Larry Lester, Leslie Heaphy, Gary Ashwill and others. There were some non-scholars empaneled as well, but the expertise of the task force was, and is, undeniable.
That stipulated, amending the major-league records to incorporate the figures that are, in some cases, over a century old, is not contention-free.
Indeed, the well-intended movement may ultimately diminish the memory and perceived value of those black players and teams that were so profoundly inspirational during the first half of the 20th century and who collectively made the sacrifices of Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby and other early barrier-busters possible.
Before proceeding, a disclaimer: I am a historian of the Negro Leagues and their players, and have written about them, presented papers about them at historical conferences, and contributed to multiple books about the teams and their times for SABR and others.
The sacrifices of the black players in terms of simply surviving in the early 20th century, much less excelling at a sport as profoundly challenging as baseball, are almost too much to comprehend. They were remarkable men [and a few women] who did extraordinary things in a world that no longer exists. They remain inspirational beyond description.
That noted, the well-intentioned efforts by MLB may eventually result in the death of our memory of those players and their efforts.
First, as to the box scores from which the MLB committee drew its final conclusions, historian Neil Lanctot –- in his seminal, scholarly Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of an American Institution –- is quite clear in various instances in describing the accuracy of the statistics used.
“The compilation of accurate standings and statistics [of Negro Leagues baseball] was nearly impossible…”
“Some owners continued to be lax in reporting statistics and scores…”
“Both leagues, however, would undertake positive steps during 1944 to correct a chronic weakness in black baseball: the lack of accurate player statistics. Unlike the comprehensive records available from Organized Baseball, black leagues had never succeeded in generating accurate records…the lack of an official scorer presented the greatest obstacle, as leagues relied on team-submitted box scores…resulting is predictably erratic compliance.”
In the 1940s, “league officials continued to compile and publish occasional statistics based on what little data they had available…”
To illustrate the point, go try to find a box score for Game 5 of the 1947 Negro World Series. It was the championship series for the year, certainly one of the more important games played in 1947 outside of the East-West games, yet no box score has ever been found. Those hits, errors, and stolen bases never happened.
The imperative for statistical record-keeping was simply not as large an end in the Negro Leagues as it was in the highly scrutinized “white” baseball world.
So, irrespective of any opinion on whether the leagues were ‘major’ or not [they were, absolutely, major leagues and their stars rival any in the longstanding baseball constellation], the numbers are necessarily incomplete.
This false parity with the longer-term records will, eventually and inevitably, lead future generations to conflate the two sets of numbers as equivalent. Thus Josh Gibson’s 16-year career will be reduced to 166 homers and 733 RBIs.
In the sweep of a keystroke, Gibson’s bottom-line power numbers put his career roughly on par with that of Kurt Suzuki.
No shade at Suzuki, but Gibson’s reputation as a slugger borders on baseball immortality. It just is not supported by the newly-accepted statistics.
As MLB historian John Thorn, among others, has noted: the only remaining victim of the segregated era is all of us. Not only were we collectively denied the highest form of baseball imaginable, but we’re still left to wonder about how to rack-and-stack the various leagues and players all across the color line.
The work of MLB to fuse Negro Leagues statistics into the larger baseball story is admirable.
Those leagues, and other teams from the pre-1920 period, not only could compete with accepted big-league teams, but often did so with inarguable on-field excellence.
Trying to bolt the incomplete records of those latter players into some sort of Frankenstein-ian record book for the sake of the appearance of equality, though, may well be a step in the wrong direction.
At no point during the collective life of the Negro Leagues were numbers ever the defining characteristics of any player.
Satchel Paige was other-worldly, competing in the de-segregated 1948 World Series in his early 40s. Josh Gibson was the Black Babe Ruth or was Ruth the White Josh Gibson? Cannonball Redding was as fast as Lefty Grove. Or was he? We’ll never be able to answer such questions, and that is one of the most important takeaways from the entire debate.
The segregated era in baseball mirrored the segregated era in the United States. It is all part of our history, for better or for worse, and trying to paper over it will eventually cause us to forget.
We will forget not just the human indecency of segregation, but also the absolute greatness of the Gibson, Paige, Oscar Charleston, Cool Papa Bell, and so many others.
The cost would be enormous.
IBWAA member W.H. “Bill” Johnson has contributed to SABR’s Biography Project, written extensively on baseball history, and presented papers at related conferences. Bill and his wife Chris currently reside in the Florida panhandle. He can be contacted on Twitter: @BaseballStoic
Cleaning Up
The Sky is Falling: NL Clubs With Losing Records Could Reach Playoffs
By Dan Schlossberg
With the season half over, how do nine of the 15 National League teams have losing records? And how can MLB cope with the obvious embarrassment if any of them reach the playoffs?
Seven sub-.500 clubs were within 3 1/2 games of a playoff spot when the season entered the last week of June, leaving only the hapless Rockies and Marlins with zero chance to land postseason spots.
That is precisely the problem with expanded playoffs.
What if one or more of these losing teams suddenly gets hot and makes it to the World Series?
As stated many times before in this space, anything that compromises the integrity of the World Series is bad for baseball.
Since its creation in 1903, the Fall Classic has lived up to its name. Except, of course, in the three seasons (including 2023) when wild-card teams won pennants by winning the playoffs.
That also happened in 2002 (Giants-Angels) and 2014 (Giants-Royals).
Seven wild cards have actually won a World Series (Florida in 1997 and 2003, Boston in 2004, St. Louis in 2011, San Francisco in 2014, Washington in 2019, and Texas in 2023).
From a historian’s perspective, that is bad news.
Wild-card teams are not championship teams. All of them are johnny-come-latelys, teams that failed to prevail over the 162-game schedule.
NONE OF THEM FINISHED IN FIRST PLACE.
Why even play 162 games if the world champion excels only part of the time?
The Miami Marlins, for example, have never won a National League East title but have won two world championships.
Boo, hiss.
When wild-cards win the last round, they distort the century-long history of the best teams reaching and perhaps winning it.
Although Major League Baseball claims the introduction of the wild card was designed to keep fans interested after football season starts in the fall, that is not exactly accurate.
It was created as a revenue-grab, pure and simple, because teams needed the extra television revenue to meet payrolls that have rocketed through the stratosphere.
Beyond that, it has almost killed the most exciting time of the season — the trade deadline — because way too many teams think they can make playoff runs no matter how poorly they’ve played over the first four months.
Thank you, Marvin Miller.
Sorry, guys, but I’m not wild about the wild-card.
Baseball likes to stage Turn Back The Clock games on weekends, with teams wearing irregular uniforms — often of City Connect or Negro Leagues vintage — and starting at irregular times (4:00 EDT kills dinner plans and date night for millions).
Why not have a real Turn Back the Clock program and restore the old World Series, with the winners of both leagues — the first-place finishers of the 162-game season — going directly to the World Series without passing GO or collecting $200?
Say what?
I didn’t think so.
HtP weekend editor Dan Schlossberg of Fair Lawn, NJ is a baseball historian who considers himself a baseball purist. He believes that changing the game is not necessarily improving it. Dan’s email is ballauthor@gmail.com.
Timeless Trivia: All Rise For This Judge
“I love center field. You’ve got a great view from there. When they were talking to me about getting Alex Verdugo and Juan Soto, I said wherever I need to play, whether it’s left field, right field, center field, second base, DH, whatever I’ve got to do, I’ll do it so those guys can feel comfortable and come in and play their game.”
— Yankees slugger Aaron Judge
The 6-7, 282-pound Judge leads the majors in home runs, RBIs, and OPS while trailing only Soto in on-base percentage . . .
With Giancarlo Stanton sidelined with another hamstring issue, Judge will see more time as a DH and therefore get a rest from playing defense in the heat of summer . . .
The towering right-handed hitter says he won’t participate in this year’s Home Run Derby at the Texas All-Star Game even though he won it as a rookie in 2017 . . .
With Shohei Ohtani, his main competition, now in the National League, Judge could have a clear path to his second MVP award, with Soto his main challenger.
Know Your Editors
HERE’S THE PITCH is published daily except Sundays and holidays. Benjamin Chase [gopherben@gmail.com] handles Monday and Tuesday editions, Elizabeth Muratore [nymfan97@gmail.com] does Wednesday and Thursday, and Dan Schlossberg [ballauthor@gmail.com] edits the weekend editions on Friday and Saturday. Readers are encouraged to contribute comments, articles, and letters to the editor. HTP reserves the right to edit for brevity, clarity, and good taste.