Larry Lester has spent much of his life codifying and contextualizing the Negro Leagues. “We are drowning in information but thirsting for knowledge,” his business card says, and his work in adding statistics to the official MLB record will help educate fans.
“I think it’s important that people learn about these great ballplayers who played during Apartheid baseball and what they contributed to the game,” Lester said on Tuesday — and the revamped leaderboards offer a fresh opportunity to do that. Here are nine takeaways from the flood of data newly certified by MLB.
Mule Suttles: top 5 slugger
It’s no surprise, perhaps, that Josh Gibson now ranks first in career slugging, at .718. Gibson, after all, was the second Negro Leaguer elected to the Hall of Fame (in 1972, a year after Satchel Paige). The next three on the career slugging list are Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig — also fairly predictable. But the fifth spot now goes to Suttles, who somehow didn’t get his plaque in Cooperstown until 2006. Suttles checks in at .620, just ahead of fellow Negro Leaguers Turkey Stearnes and Oscar Charleston — and his .877 mark in 1926 ranks second on the single-season list behind Gibson’s outrageous .974 figure in 1937.
Jud Wilson: top 5 hitter
Like Suttles, Jud Wilson was not inducted into the Hall until 2006, when a special committee selected 17 new inductees from the segregated era. His gaudiest stats had come with the Baltimore Black Sox in the 1920s, but he nearly played until the integration era, lasting until age 49 in 1945. Wilson’s career .350 average settles in at fifth, after the much more celebrated quartet of Josh Gibson, Ty Cobb, Oscar Charleston and Rogers Hornsby.
Satchel Paige was ageless
The top 10 list for single-season ERA gets one new entrant — Satchel Paige, whose epic showmanship should never obscure his talent. Paige is believed to have turned 38 during the 1944 season, when he posted a 1.01 ERA, which now ranks third all-time. But Paige, who achieved the mark for the Kansas City Monarchs, was famously coy about his age. Appearing on “The Dick Cavett Show” in March 1970, he declared, “My next birthday, I’ll be a little over 65.”
Baseball legend Satchel Paige tries to explain how old he really is! (The Dick Cavett Show – March 1970) #MLB #History pic.twitter.com/aqOnLZQILZ
— Baseball by BSmile (@BSmile) September 25, 2019
Charlie “Chino” Smith surprised even MLB
The elevation of little Charlie “Chino” Smith to second on the career single-season batting list was not something that John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, saw coming. “The guy batted .451 in 1929 and had (246) at-bats,” Thorn said. “Why had I, of all people, never heard of him?” Smith died less than three years later, at age 30. (Thorn’s research indicates that cancer was the cause, though sources differ.) Smith, who was said to be just 5-foot-6, has no statistics on Baseball-Reference after that 1929 season. Said Thorn: “There’s no greater what-if story than a guy who hits .451 and then kind of disappears.”
Get to know Dave Brown (if you can!)
There’s one new addition to the career ERA leaderboard, and he’s not in the Hall of Fame: Dave Brown, who had a 2.24 ERA across 711 innings from 1920 to 1925 for the Chicago American Giants and the New York Lincoln Giants. But the stats barely begin to tell Brown’s mysterious life story, which involves contract jumping, a murder accusation, the possible use of “Lefty Wilson” as an alias — and then, it seems, a long, quiet life that stretched all the way to 1985.
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Balance on the batting average leaderboard
There’s symmetry on the batting average leaderboard now, with five players from the Negro Leagues and five from the AL/NL, but the specter of segregation hovers over all the names. The highest batting average for a player who played his entire career in integrated leagues: Tony Gwynn’s .338.
Minnie Miñoso clears 2,000 hits, but…
The new data also impacts the statistics of players much better known for their time in the American and National Leagues. With 150 hits as a member of the New York Cubans from 1946-48, Minnie Miñoso officially climbs over the 2,000 threshold for his Hall of Fame career. While Miñoso batted .313 in the Negro Leagues, though, the new data can’t quite push his career average over .300. Miñoso hit .300 in his long American League career, but one poor National League season — .196 with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1962 — puts him at .299 overall.
Minnie Miñoso of the Chicago White Sox poses before a game. (Ron Vesely / MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Barry Bonds is still incredible
Bonds’ .444 career on-base percentage drops from fifth to eighth all-time – yet seeing his name among the new top 10 only reinforces his greatness. Everybody else in the top 10 played in segregated leagues – including the leader, Ted Williams, for the first five of his 19 seasons. Stated another way, Bonds is the only player in the top 10 born after World War I. And while steroids obviously cloud Bonds’ legacy, MLB has always sanctioned all of his records. (Then again, there’s really no other choice, because MLB and the union didn’t bother to have a testing program until 2003.)
Why Baseball-Reference.com still lists Ty Cobb atop the career batting average list
While baseball-reference.com is the leading website for statistics, MLB keeps its own official records that sometimes differ from those on the site. Such is the case with Josh Gibson’s career numbers; MLB has him with a .372 average in 2,255 at-bats, and BR has him at .373 in 2,168 at-bats. But Gibson does not qualify for the BR career leaderboard, which uses a blanket 3,000 plate appearance minimum. MLB, however, has different minimums: 1,800 total at-bats (or 600 innings pitched) in the Negro Leagues; OR 5,000 total at-bats (or 2,000 IP) in the AL/NL; OR 5,000 total at-bats (or 2,000 IP) between AL/NL plus Negro Leagues. MLB arrived at 1,800 at-bats for the Negro Leagues minimum by taking 600 games (10 seasons of a 60-game schedule) and multiplying by 3.1.
(Top photo of Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson before a game in 1941: Mark Rucker / Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)
