truthseekersjournal
Dear Shadow Ball: Which team was the best in the history of the Negro Leagues? Coach Al Davis, Rensselaer, NY.
Dear Al: I will answer your inquiry from two perspectives – franchise history and single season.
BEST CAREER BODY OF WORK – Of 142 franchises listed in the Seamheads Negro League Database, these three on display below are clearly the best in Negro League history.
W L % RSg RAg Series/Pennants/HoFers
Homestead Grays 1047 575 .645 6.4 4.7 3 9 16
Kansas City Monarchs 1378 830 .624 5.6 4.2 2 10 15
Chicago American Giants 1562 1326 .541 4.9 4.6 2 6 16
The categories above are Wins, Losses, Winning Percentage, Runs Scored per game, Runs Allowed per game, World Series won, Pennants won, and Hall of Famers on team’s roster over the years. Eight separate categories and, as indicated in bold, all eight categories found one of these three franchises at the top. Given Homestead had the best winning percentage, margin of victory, World Series titles, number of Hall of Famers and was 2nd to KC in pennants, the Homestead Grays nose out the Monarchs for the all-time top spot.
BEST SEASON – With only one season instead of 37 years (in the case of the Chicago American Giants) to inspect the differences in greatness between various annual league champions becomes more difficult and less defensible as an opinion. Nonetheless, the show must go on. I found 49 pennant winners in the Seamheads database … which I further reduced by eliminating World Series losers, teams demonstrably worse than other teams in a given season, removing duplicate franchise representatives leaving reducing to less than ten before finally, listing the below three teams as the three best:
W L % RSg RAg Hall of Famers
1943 Homestead Grays 82-26 .759 7.4 4.1 6
1929 Kansas City Monarchs 65-17 .793 6.8 3.7 3
1925 Hilldale Daisies 58-21 .734 6.3 4.4 3
Among teams not making the cut were the 1920 Chicago American Giants, 1928-1931 St Louis Stars, 1932-36 Pittsburgh Crawfords, 1945 Cleveland Buckeyes, 1946 Newark Eagles as well as other Grays & Monarchs teams.
This, in the end, I found the Homestead Grays the best franchise and the 1943 Grays as the best team.
Last week’s Shadow Ball Significa question – Last issue’s question was intended to be tricky. What Georgia native struck the initial home run by an African American in Yankee Stadium? I hoped to induce a quick “Josh Gibson” from a few early entrants banking on Gibson’s pre-eminent status as a Georgia native and as a legendary home run hitter. Alas, I couldn’t get that knuckler past Will Clark, Hackensack, NJ, who correctly posted the pride of Kingston, Georgia, Rap Dixon as the slugger who on July 5, 1930 in his first at bat in the House that Ruth built changed the name to the House that Dixon rehabbed with a 1st inning round tripper. Congrats Will!
The Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week: Who was the first African American signed to a contract by the Boston Red Sox organization?
Ted Knorr is a Negro League baseball historian, longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Negro League Committee, and founder of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference and several local Negro League Commemorative Nights in central Pennsylvania. You can send questions for Knorr on Negro League topics as well as your answers to the week’s Significa question to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com or Shadow Ball, 3904 N Druid Hills Rd, Ste 179, Decatur, GA 30033
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