With the start of Baseball season upon us !!! My Top Five this week is in honor of the greatest Negro League Players of all time !! My top list is always open to a friendly debate.So if you have a top 5 feel free to drop yours in the comment section!
1) Satchel Paige
The rubber-armed Paige, who Joe DiMaggio called “the best and fastest pitcher I’ve ever faced,”
is
estimated to have won as many as 600 games during his 30-year Negro
League and barnstorming career. During that career he played for many
teams, including the Chattanooga Black Lookouts, Birmingham Black
Barons, Cleveland Cubs, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Kansas City Monarchs, New
York Black Yankees, Satchel Paige’s All-Stars, Philadelphia Stars,
Cleveland Indians, St. Louis Browns, and Kansas City A’s.
One can only imagine the big-league records Satch would have set had
only the owners let this baseball marvel play in his prime. Ted Williams
and Robin Roberts, two Hall of Famers, said that Gibson and Paige were
as talented as any players they had ever seen.
2) Josh Gibson
In 1933, he hit .467 with 55 home runs in 137 games against all
levels of competition. His lifetime batting average is said to be higher
than .350, with other sources putting it as high as .384, the best in
Negro league history.
Gibson’s Hall of Fame plaque states he hit “almost 800 home runs in
league and independent baseball during his 17-year career.” (This figure
includes vs. semi-pro competition and in exhibition games.) His
lifetime batting average, according to the Hall’s official data, was
.359. It was reported that he won nine home run titles and four batting
championships playing for the Crawfords and the Grays. It is also
believed that Gibson hit a home run in a Negro league game at Yankee
Stadium that struck two feet from the top of the wall circling the
center field bleachers, about 580 feet (180 m) from home plate. Although
it has never been conclusively proven, Chicago American Giants
infielder Jack Marshall said Gibson slugged one over the third deck next
to the left field bullpen in 1934 for the only fair ball hit out of
Yankee Stadium. Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith once said that
Gibson hit more home runs into Griffith Stadium’s distant left field
bleachers than the entire American League.
3) Oscar Charleston
An intense, focused, and intelligent man, Charleston was among the
most renowned players of his time, a tremendous power and contact hitter
and one of the finest defensive center fielders of all-time. His career
batting average was .348, and he regularly finished among league
leaders in both home runs and stolen bases. He was also known for his
combative nature, getting into many brawls, including at least one
memorable fight with an array of Cuban soldiers.
In 1932, Charleston became player-manager of the Pittsburgh Crawfords
and presided over what some baseball historians consider the best Negro
league team ever. His roster included Hall of Famers Josh
Gibson,Satchel Paige, and Judy Johnson. The team went 99-36, and
Charleston himself batted .363.
A powerful hitter, Oscar won at least four batting titles and several
home-run crowns. He is among the top five Negro Leaguers in batting
average (.339) and home runs, as well as the all-time leader in stolen
bases. (Negro League records are sketchy and incomplete.) Writer/analyst
Bill James named Charleston the fourth-greatest player of all time.
4) Walter “Buck” Leonard
He began his Negro league career in 1933 with the Brooklyn Royal
Giants, then moved to the legendary Homestead Grays in 1934, the team he
played for until his retirement in 1950. The Grays of the late 1930s
through the mid-1940s are considered one of the greatest teams of any
race ever assembled. The team won nine league pennants in a row during
that time.
Leonard batted fourth in their lineup behind Josh Gibson. He led the
Negro leagues in batting average in 1948 with a mark of .395, and
usually either led the league in home runs or finished second in homers
to teammate Gibson. Since Gibson was known as the “Black Babe Ruth” and
Leonard was a first baseman, Buck Leonard was inevitably called the
“Black Lou Gehrig.” Together, the pair was colloquially known as the
“Thunder Twins” or “Dynamite Twins”. In fact, Negro league star Monte
Irvin said that if Leonard had been allowed in the major leagues,
baseball fans “might have called Lou Gehrig the white Buck Leonard. He
was that good. The Monarchs disbanded after 1950
5) Monte Irvin
Proved how great he was in the major leagues with the Giants, but
before that dominated the Negro leagues for over a decade. “Mr. Murder”
hit for both average and power, and provided a potent bat in a Newark
Eagles lineup, starring on the 1942 club that also included legends
Willie Wells, Biz Mackey, and Mule Suttles. He was considered one of the
Negro League’s greatest hitters and won the 1946 batting title. Over
his career, he played for the Newark Eagles, New York Giants, and the
Chicago Cubs.
