Lucky Hall of Famer Number 60 - Larry Doby

It's hard to call any player from the Negro Leagues lucky. Despite Jackie Robinson having broken the color barrier before him, Doby still experienced his share of bigotry as the first black player in American League history in 1947. However, based on his baseball record alone, Doby can be considered lucky to have been chosen for the Hall of Fame. 

    While Major League Baseball declared the Negro Leagues Major Leagues in December of 2020, the quality of Negro League play is certainly questionable, and their records are very spotty. While Negro League statistics should not be ignored, they need to be taken with a grain of salt. 

    Even if we add Doby's existing Negro League numbers to his MLB totals, he nonetheless comes up short as a Hall of Fame candidate, in my opinion. His counting stats are still quite thin for an outfielder (1,697 hits, 1,080 runs, 1,099 RBI's) and he was finished at age 35. Considering Doby's high OPS+ and his historical significance as the first black player in the AL, I can live with his selection, but he is far from an ideal candidate. 

My opinion: Larry Doby is probably not a Hall of Famer. 

A New Idea For Negro Leaguers And The Hall Of Fame

    At his Hall of Fame induction in 1960, Ted Williams used the opportunity to speak on behalf of Negro League greats such as Satchel Paige, calling for them to be enshrined in Cooperstown. In 1971, the Hall of Fame honored his request, and have been electing Negro Leaguers ever since. 

    I am of a mixed opinion about Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame. On the one hand, one could argue that Negro League ball was basically the Major Leagues for blacks for almost 50 years. The best Negro Leaguers probably could have been big stars in the Majors, and some of them (like Willie Mays, Jackie Robinson, Larry Doby, Minnie Minoso, Jim Gilliam, and Monte Irvin) were. On the other hand, I object to Negro Leaguers in Cooperstown for two reasons. One, Negro Leaguers did not directly compete against Big Leaguers. That said, it's hard to tell how guys like Walter Cannady or Judy Johnson would have done in the real Majors. Two, Negro League statistics were not kept very well. Almost all of them are incomplete, and they are not as reliable as official MLB statistics with professional statkeepers. Martin Dihigo likely played more than 397 games in his NLB career, for example, and it is possible that the statisticians only kept track of his better seasons, and that some of his o-fers are missing from the record, thus bloating his rate stats. It is also quite possible that some Negro League greats are unrecognized on account of incomplete statkeeping. As it is, the Hall has inducted too many Negro League players without enough credibility. 

    That said, I generally wouldn't be comfortable with Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame except for certain exceptions, like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige, and others who had good Big League careers, like Minnie Minoso. However, Negro League greats deserve to be remembered. There should be another wing to the Hall of Fame specifically for Negro Leaguers. That way we can meaningfully compare them to each other like the shrine at Cooperstown does with MLB players. 

Negro League Players Who Should Have Hall Of Fame Plaques

 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.