Negro League Players Who Should Have Hall Of Fame Plaques
As we all know, Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s infamous color barrier in April of 1947, becoming the first African-American MLB player in the 20th century. Before that, black men were not permitted to play in the Major Leagues. Instead, they formed their own leagues, the Negro Leagues. There were many exhibition matches between the two organizations, and the Negro Leaguers often won. In 1971, the Veterans’ Committee started electing Negro League players, and in 2006, 16 former NLB players were inducted into Cooperstown. The Negro League statistics were mostly uncounted, and many, many players were therefore excluded from baseball’s highest honor, the Hall of Fame. This week, MLB officially recognized NLB statistics as official, prompting me to write this article. Here are the best of the best Negro Leaguers not in Cooperstown.
Theodore Trent, pitcher, 1927-1939
George Scales, third baseman, second baseman, first baseman, 1921-1946
Walter Cannady, shortstop, second baseman, third baseman, 1922-1945
Buck O’Neil, first baseman, 1937-1949
Dick Lundy, shortstop, 1916-1937
Newt Allen, second baseman, 1922-1944
Bill Byrd, pitcher, outfielder, 1933-1948
Larry Brown, catcher, 1923-1947
Burnis "Wild Bill" Wright, outfielder, 1932-1945
Ted Strong, outfielder, 1937-1950
Rap Dixon, outfielder, 1922-1937
Lennie Pearson, first baseman, outfielder, third baseman, 1937-1948
George Carr, first baseman, outfielder, 1920-1934
Heavy Johnson, outfielder, catcher, 1920-1932
Chaney White, outfielder, 1923-1936
Roy Parnell, outfielder, pitcher, 1927-1943
Alex “Alec” Radcliff, third baseman, 1928-1946
John Beckwith, shortstop, 1919-1935
You may have heard of some players and not of others. O’Neil and Trent are the most famous of the group. The great injustice that formed the color barrier needs to be completely righted, and recognizing and acknowledging the forgotten stars of the NLB is certainly a step in the right direction.
In my opinion, the hall has elected enough negro leaguers. Almost all left are hall-of-very gooders, not hall of famers. I'm okay, I guess, with most of your candidates. My objections:
ReplyDeleteTrent was great for 3 years, but outside of that was average.
Newt Allen was just average at the plate: a .286 average, and a 105 OPS+
Donaldson, from what I see on Seamheads, was not very impressive.
Double Duty was just average on the mound, and below average at the plate. NOT a hall of famer, pardon my vehemence. If you admit players to the hall that aren't deserving, then you devalue the honor of election.
Have you read Joe Posnanski's book on Buck O'Neil and the negro leagues? I found it highly enjoyable. Posnanski is probably my 2nd or 3rd baseball writer. I give the book 5 stars. You should try to find it at your library. It was at mine. Failing that, there's inter-library loan when inter-library loaning comes back.
Not to be blunt, but I have done my research. I like a lot of their numbers, even though a lot of years are missing. I mean, how can you knock Allen for a stat that was available for a minority of his career and was thought up 70 or so years after he quit? Buck O'Neil had a list of players that he thought were Hall of Fame snubs, and his list is similar to mine. His is probably more accurate, as he saw them all, but he really likes Double Duty Radcliffe. Others have advocated for these men as well, and based on their statistics and, more heavily, what others have said about these players, these are the cream of the crop.
ReplyDeleteI have looked more into each player, and here are my observations now:
ReplyDeleteNewt Allen would fall into my "I guess I'd be okay with him in the hall group", as he was rated a very good fielder both by contemporaries and by advanced statistics. I'd still like to see Davey Lopes in the hall first, but whatever.
Theodore Trent was well-acclaimed enough that I guess he's okay too.
If your John Donaldson was John Wesley Donaldson, I looked him and realized he was indeed a great pitcher.
I still do not think that Double Duty was a hall of famer.
I disagree with something you said, though. "I mean, how can you knock Allen for a stat that was available for a minority of his career and was thought up 70 or so years after he quit?"
I'm not sure which statistic you're talking about, batting average or OPS+, so I'll just reply to both of them. How else am I going to rate players from 80 years ago then with the statistics? Who cares if they were compiled 80 years after the event? He created his batting statistics in 1927, and they have been partially compiled now. What's wrong with using his batting average to argue? I'm sorry, but I'm really not sure why you don't like me using his batting average in the argument.
I know that you dislike all new-fangled statistics such as WAR, OPS+, and the others. WAR has questionable variables which can throw the equation off, as I have admitted before. OPS+, however, is just based on OBP and SLG. The formula for OPS+ is 100* (obp/lg obp + slg/lg slg-1). So an OPS+ of 100 is average. You can see that OPS+ is just comparing a players on-base percentage and slugging percentage to the league average, which is pretty harmless.
One can't rely solely an advanced statistics, but I think it is just as dangerous to ignore them entirely. Maybe you're not doing that, and I'm just putting words into your mouth.
I'm looking forward to seeing you again so we can argue better. Arguing over the internet is better than nothing, but arguing in person is funner. ( I like arguing)
Here is the link to a really neat article that I found. It prompted me to publish this post right away. https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/mlb-is-finally-recognizing-negro-leagues-stats-but-josh-gibson-wont-become-baseballs-official-home-run-king/#:~:text=Earlier%20this%20week%2C%20Major%20League,as%20%22Major%20League%22%20status.
ReplyDelete