Many historical player head shots courtesy of David Davis. You know their stories, like how Paige once told his outfielders to sit down while he struck out the side. Silas Simmons played in the pre-Negro League era, and he passed away just a decade ago. While there are roughly 130 players alive from the Negro Leagues, according to baseball historian Larry Lester, only those four players are alive from that 1920-1948 window. After spotting the Black newspaper The Chicago Defender in his universitys library stacks and knowing its historical importance, he dove into the reels for the 1920 season and was surprised to see incredibly thorough coverage and box scores for the Negro National League.\n\nFrom there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. Do you have a sports website? Paige, now 65 and a Kansas City resident, is by far the best known of these old stars. He was known to be a great hitter, but I don't think it was fully appreciated how pivotal he was to the Monarchs' defense.. Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. It's just that you rarely get where are they nows on the guys who played 3-4 forgettable seasons,whether they were in 1930s or 1990s. But before Paige there was baseball's serial pay disparity. Just a humbling reminder that Jim Crow laws and segregation was less than a generation ago. If baseball (rightfully) believes that recognizing those players is important (and it is) then why not fully recognize them? A lot of the earlier versions of Negro league statistics only gave you batting averages, home runs, pitchers' won-lost records, basic stuff," Ashwill said. Or write about sports? Of course, Josh Gibson and some of the other big names have passed on, but a lot of the legendary stars are still alive and well and living in well, why dont we call the roll of some of the more familiar names, men like . Players he signed as a scout with Chicago then the Royals included Lou Brock, Oscar Gamble, Lee Smith and Joe Carter. It wouldn't even cost baseball that much money particularly since salaries of Negro League players began to increase in the 1940s as their play became so good they were practically impossible to ignore, and as Jackie Robinson started his trek towards history. Paige was the first Negro League player inducted . **For the best user experience, we recommend disabling the Reddit redesign. January 29, 2007 - Ralph "Big Cat" Johnson passes away. Register now to join us on March 10-12, 2023, in Phoenix, AZ. Major leagueplayersreceived from $300 to $2,000 a month and about $15 a day for meals. Forbes is 88 and worries about being one of the last left to tell this story. He says his greatest thrill was a home-run he hit in the 1940 classic in Chicago. The Encyclopedia and various books and projects over the years printed stats for a selection of Negro League stars," Ashwill explained -- picking and choosing what information to present, and often excluding players who appeared in fewer than 10 games. DOUG TRIBOU, BYLINE: In 1920, owners of independent Black baseball teams from the Midwest gathered in Kansas City, Mo. I have always been drawn to blank spaces on maps, blank spaces in record books, Ashwill said. Baseball needs to retroactivelypay the newly recognized Negro League players and their surviving families. In 1924, the first year of the Colored World Series, the share of the winners, the Kansas City Monarchs, was $307.96, says Lester. Bell, who regularly went from 1st base to 3rd on sacrifice bunts, enjoyed his peak years with the St. Louis Stars and Pittsburgh Crawfords in the early 1930s. Buck lives in Rocky Mount, N.C., where he owns a realty agency. From there, he started collecting box scores and compiling statistics pretty much right away, Ashwill said. Hardball historians, however, are out there keeping the Negro Leagues alive. The second annual Honorary Negro League Game is a fundraiser for the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. List of living major league players from the 1940s, List of living members of World Series-winning teams, List of living major league players from the 1950s, https://www.baseball-reference.com/bpv/index.php?title=List_of_living_major_league_players_from_the_1940s&oldid=1264856, Scores from any date in Major League history, Minor, Foreign, College, & Black Baseball, Frequently Asked Questions about MLB and Baseball. The league ended in like 1950 so a 20 yr old then would be 86/7 this year. Not even 60 years old. FORBES: And I just wonder if I'm worthy of representing, speaking about the Negro League because when I got involved, things was easier for me than it was for the one before me. He began his professional career in the Negro Leagues in the 1920s after being discharged from reform school in Alabama. "Going into the late 1930s and the early 1940s, we see player salaries jump to an average of $300 to $400 each month with the stars like Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige getting about $600-$700 a month. Wells, 66, is a New York City resident. Though there is more information on the Negro Leagues just a click away than ever before, there is still plenty of work to be done. List of Negro league baseball players (M-R) This list consists of players who have appeared in Negro league baseball . Ted says shortstop John Henry Lloyd was the greatest ballplayer he ever saw. As protests over racial injustice in the U.S. continue, Major League Baseball is marking the anniversary of the Negro Leagues. At 5'3", she hit .273 and pitched to a 33-8 record for the Indianapolis Clowns from 1953 to 1955. Josh Gibson holds the all-time home run record with 238 and Smokey Joe Williams struck out 1,571 batters in his 25-year career. Dan Bankhead Sam Bankhead Bob Boyd Ray Brown Willard Brown Bill Byrd Roy Campanella Buster Clarkson Jimmie Crutchfield Ray Dandridge Leon Day Larry Doby Luke Easter Wilmer Fields Josh Gibson Junior Gilliam Sammy Hughes Monte Irvin The list does not include Negro league players who only played in the minor leagues and White Hispanic players who played in both the Negro Leagues and MLB prior to full integration (ex. Allens best baseball memory is an unassisted triple play he made in the early 1930s. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. A great 3rd baseman, Dandridge compiled a .455 batting average in 3 Negro All-Star games. Apocryphal stories surround Paige, who was born July 7, 1906 in Mobile, Ala. We already knew they were equals, of course, it's just official now. One of two players in history to win the Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP in his career (Verlander being the other). All rights reserved. Just this month, and nearly 80 years after Suttles career ended, Ashwill was able to add two more home runs to his tally, bringing his total to 32.\n\nBasically, our earlier version of the 1926 Negro National League relied heavily on the Black weekly newspapers for games played in St. Louis -- in this case the Chicago Defender (which was distributed nationally) and the St. Louis Argus, Ashwill wrote. That means numbers are always changing here and there. They played primarily before the organized Negro leagues. They played most of their careers in the organized Negro leagues after the Great Depression. pic.twitter.com/qiMXrVD4RB. Ray Dandridge: Fifty-eight year old Ray Dandridge lives in Newark, N.J., and is a scout for the San Francisco Giants. . Some defensive statistics Copyright Sports Info Solutions, 2010-2023. A high average hitter and an excellent first baseman, Buck played in 12 All-Star games. But more interesting, in my opinion, are some of the larger patterns we've found. The other is that sources like the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia -- which basically set the standard for baseball statistics when it was released in 1969 -- wasn't all that invested in featuring Negro League records. Hank Aaron and Willie Mays also began their careers in the Negro Leagues. You can't really settle on a few sacred numbers the way you can for MLB records.. We have tools and resources that can help you use sports data. Negro League Players Who Made the Major Leagues Player Negro League Team Major League Team Debut Year Jackie Robinson Kansas City Monarchs Brooklyn Dodgers 1947 Larry Doby Newark Eagles Cleveland Indians 1947 Hank Thompson Kansas City Monarchs St. Louis Browns 1947 Willard Brown Kansas City Monarchs St. Louis Browns 1947 . The Book: Playing the Percentages in Baseball. A version of this story was first published in November, 2020, a few weeks before MLB announced that Negro League stats were being made part of the official record. A lifetime .312 hitter, Ray remembers 1950 as a banner year when he was selected as MVP in the Triple-A American Association, while playing with the Minneapolis Millers. List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball. The numbers do not do justice to his legend. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? I heard about it, but I hadn't experienced it. Jimmie Crutchfield: A slender outfielder, Jimmie signed with the great Pittsburgh Crawfords when he was only 19 years old. Larry Doby debuted with the Cleveland Indians on July 5. During his long career, Frank played on 7 pennant-winners with the Kansas City Monarchs. "Going forward, in the 1930s following the Great Depression, salaries of Black players were about the same amount as the 1920s," Lester said. He jumped to the Lincoln Giants of the Eastern Colored League in 1923 and pitched with them for 2 years. And I really do mean today. He continued his research with others like Kevin Johnson, Dan Hirsch, and Scott Simkus. Buck O'Neil, Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. The complete list is divided into four pages to reduce the size: The players below are some of the most notable of those who played Negro league baseball, beginning with the codification of baseball's color line barring African American players (about 1892), past the re-integration in 1946 of the sport, up until the Negro leagues finally expired about 1962. Watch our How-To Videos to Become a Stathead, Subscribe to Stathead and get access to more data than you can imagine. TRIBOU: Bob Kendrick heads the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum there. An additional 35 or so players played on a Negro league team after 1950. This List of Negro league baseball players who played in Major League Baseball is largely based on the research compiled by the Center for Negro League Baseball Research. Ray Brown, , 1932 Pittsburgh Crawfords, Created a hundred years ago, the leagues showcased Black baseball players, players who couldn't play on the major teams because of the color of their skin. Remembered as one of the few hurlers Josh Gibson had trouble hitting against, Lee writes that Martin Dihigo was the greatest player he ever saw. Our statistics are based on box scores and game stories found in contemporary newspapers, as well as the small number of scorebooks and filled-in scorecards that can be tracked down, Ashwill wrote.

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