Dear Shadow Ball: How many players have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, based on their play in the Negro Leagues? – Curious Curt, International Falls, MN

Dear Curious Curt: Thanks for that question … there are 28 players, listed below with position and year inducted), inducted into the Hall of Fame based on their performance in the Negro Leagues.

Satchel Paige, P, 1971             Ray Dandridge, 3b, 1987                   Andy Cooper, p, 2006

Josh Gibson, c, 1972               Leon Day, 1995                                  Pete Hill, of, 2006

Buck Leonard, 1b, 1972         Willie Foster. P, 1996                          Biz Mackey, c, 2006

Monte Irvin, OF, 1973            Willie Wells, ss, 1997                          Jose Mendez, p, 2006

Cool Papa Bell, OF, 1974       Bullet Joe Rogan, p, 1998                   Louis Santop, c, 2006

Judy Johnson, 3b, 1975          Mule Suttles, 1b, 2006                        Smokey Joe Williams, p, 1999

Oscar Charleston, OF, 1976    Turkey Stearnes, of, 2000                   Ben Taylor, ib, 2006

Martin Dihigo, 2b, 1977         John Henry Lloyd, ss, 1977                Cristobal Torriente, of, 2006

John Henry Lloyd, ss, 1977    Hilton Smith, p, 2001                         Jud Wilson, 3b, 2006

Ray Brown, p, 2006

The real question, for me at least, is “are 28 Negro League player inductees sufficient to accurately  tell the story of Negro League baseball in the first half of the twentieth century?” To answer that we need to add some context.

CONTEXTUAL BACKGROUND

1. On December 16, 2020, Major League Baseball announced that it was correcting a longtime oversight in the game’s history by officially recognizing seven specific Negro Leagues operating between 1920-1948  as  “Major Leagues”.
2. Since April 15, 1947 (the day Major League Baseball integrated)  42% of all Hall of Fame players debuting have been players of color (i.e., would have been Negro Leaguers prior to that date)l
3. In his 1994 baseball documentary, Ken Burns states that Black baseball stars defeated White Major League stars at least 309(70%)  times in 438 games … this, of course, is “oral history” but all 7 compilations of games between “so called” Negro League and “so called” Major League teams give the Negro Leaguers the edge with an average winning percentage of 58%.
4. Many Major League baseball players had been effusive in their assessment and praise of Negro League players prior to the integration of the game including Hall of Famers Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, John McGraw, Joe  DiMaggio, Dizzy Dean, Bob Feller, Charlie Gehringer, Rogers Hornsby, and Leo Durocher.
5. (This would be interesting but not probative but for the above four bullets) Between 1920-1948 the slash lines for both the two Major Leagues and the seven Negro Leagues are virtually identical. A slash line includes batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. The seven Negro Leagues slash line was  .272, .335, .376 while the two Major Leagues (AL & NL) was  .276, .340, .389.
6. It must be noted that – while there are 28 players in the Hall for play in the Negro Leagues – there are 125 players in the Hall who earned induction for play in the Major Leagues during baseball’s segregated era prior to 1947.

Given the above bullet points I hope it is obvious to all of us that the current ratio of Major League Hall of Famers prior to 1947 to Negro League Hall of Famers from that same period does not match the record, opinion and honors captured in the above bullets. Clearly, 28 does not do a good job of educating the public. How many Negro Leaguers should there be inducted in Cooperstown? I will close by sharing my opinion and will defend it later in this series if reader interest warrants. In my opinion there should be somewhere between 60 to 80 Negro League players inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown.

Last week’s Shadowball Significa Question

“Who was the first 20^th century player to break the color barrier and get into the major leagues, two bonus questions, what year, what team? A third bonus question, how long did he play in the majors? David Nivens, parts unknown, provided the following: When I was kid, my baseball coach told me that Jackie Robinson was the first black player to enter the Major Leagues in 1947 with the Brooklyn Dodgers. He played 10 years in the Major Leagues. Thank you, David I very much appreciated your participation, and your including your father’s assistance; my dad provided me that same information when I was a kid.

The Shadowball Significa Question of the Week

What was the name of Atlanta’s most prolific franchise (in terms of years in the league) in the Negro Leagues?

Ted Knorr is a Negro Leagues history expert and longtime SABR member, known for his trivia wins and founding the Jerry Malloy Conference and Commemorative Nights. You can send questions to shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com or Shadow Ball, 3904 N Druid Hills Rd, Ste 179, Decatur, GA 30033

Please consider supporting open, independent journalism – no contribution is too small!