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“Negro Leagues Get Recognized–100 Years Too Late”

 

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Better late than never.

This year was the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues in baseball.

The names ring familiar to fans, though we never saw the teams, and only have access to grainy black and white movies, old newspaper box scores, and Ken Burns documentary ‘Baseball’.

 

But the Commissioner’s office is now celebrating the accomplishments of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Indianapolis Clowns, Brooklyn Brown Dodgers, Homestead Grays and so many more, but announcing the Negro Leagues are now recognized as a Major League.

 

Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Buck O’Neil, Smokey Joe Williams and so many more, who rode buses, played games infront of black fans, will now have their statistics added to Baseball History and maybe even the Hall of Fame.

 

100-years too late, for virtually all those players are gone…but a retroactive move to salute their greatness.

 

An interesting Washington Post column on what just happened and what it means.

 

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For decades, baseball historians and fans have accepted it as gospel that Willie Mays collected 3,283 hits in his career, Bob Feller threw the only Opening Day no-hitter in baseball history and the top three batting averages of all time belonged to Ty Cobb (.366), Rogers Hornsby (.358) and “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (.356). To suggest otherwise was to provoke a bar fight — or at the very least a peaceful consulting of Google.

But on Wednesday, in a monumental change for the sport, Major League Baseball announced it was elevating the 1920-48 Negro Leagues to major league status, a move that not only seeks to right a cosmic wrong that has shadowed the game for a century — the segregation of baseball that famously ended when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 — but also forces a wholesale recalibration of its record book.
The “long overdue recognition,” as MLB called it in a news release, will add the names of some 3,400 Negro Leaguers from seven distinct leagues in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, along with all their accumulated statistics, to its official records. That means Negro League stars such as Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston and James “Cool Papa” Bell — all of whom were inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in the 1970s — will gain an additional designation denied to them during their lives: big leaguers.
Kevin B. Blackistone: Baseball is honoring the Negro Leagues. It needs to explain why they existed.
“The Negro Leagues was a major league,” Bell, who died in 1991, told Gannett News Service in 1987. “They wouldn’t let us play in the white leagues, and we [were] great ballplayers in the Negro Leagues, so how can you say we [weren’t] major league?”
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“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in the statement. “We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record.”
The move was the result of years of study by researchers from the Seamheads Negro League Database — who pored over newspaper clippings, scorebooks and other historical records to compile statistics — as well as research by the Baseball Hall of Fame, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., and other entities.
“In the minds of baseball fans worldwide,” Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum, said in a statement, “this serves as historical validation for those who had been shunned from the Major Leagues and had the foresight and courage to create their own league that helped change the game and our country too.”
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In effect, the move reverses the decision of MLB’s Special Baseball Records Committee — a five-person, all-White group commissioned in 1969 to codify the historical standards that define the major leagues — which bestowed big league status on six leagues (including the Union Association, which played its only season in 1884) but never even considered including the Negro Leagues.
“It is MLB’s view,” the league’s statement on Wednesday said, “that the Committee’s 1969 omission of the Negro Leagues from consideration was clearly an error that demands today’s designation.”
Wednesday’s announcement came near the end of a tumultuous year for MLB, in which, in addition to navigating a season amid a global pandemic, the sport, along with much of American society, grappled with significant issues regarding race and social justice. Teams and players sat out games this summer to protest police brutality, and earlier this week the Cleveland Indians announced plans to change their name after 105 years, following years of protests and pressure from Native American groups and others.
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“The issues of inclusion and exclusion that the commissioner addressed today are really dramatic ones,” John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, said in a telephone interview. “We’re not merely focusing on stars like Gibson and Charleston but more than 3,400 men who seemingly had insignificant careers and who are now joined with their white peers in the record books. It’s big for a major institution [such as MLB] to admit publicly to a mistake and go about correcting it.”
Svrluga: Baseball is finally addressing its racist past, but its work can’t end there
As a practical matter, the change — once MLB and the Elias Sports Bureau conduct a review process to determine “the full scope of this designation’s ramifications on statistics and records” — is likely to upend segments of the sport’s cherished record book.
Mays, whose 3,283 career hits across a 22-year, Hall of Fame careerrank 12th on the all-time list, could gain as many as 17 extra hits from the 1948 season, which he spent with the Birmingham Black Barons of the Negro American League. (Because 10 of those 1948 hits came in the playoffs, Mays’s career total might gain only an additional seven, depending on the results of the review process.)
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Feller’s legendary Opening Day no-hitter in 1940 — long considered the only one of its kind in the sport’s history — will share that designation with Leon Day of the Negro National League’s Newark Eagles, who no-hit the Philadelphia Stars on Opening Day in 1946.
“He would have loved this. It would have meant the world to him,” Day’s widow, Geraldine, said in a telephone interview from her home in Catonsville, Md. Leon Day died in 1995 at age 78, four months before his induction into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Since Negro League seasons were typically much shorter than MLB seasons, the sport’s career records for “counting” stats — such as Barry Bonds’s 762 home runs and Pete Rose’s 4,256 hits — are largely safe, if only because top Negro Leaguers are credited with having played between 1,000 and 1,600 career games, as opposed to, say, Rose’s 3,562.
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For example, Gibson, who spent much of his career in Washington playing for the Homestead Grays and is considered the Negro Leagues’ most prolific slugger, is credited on his Hall of Fame plaque with hitting “almost 800 home runs.” Many of them, however, were on barnstorming tours and are not part of the official record, as determined by the Seamheads researchers, who credit him with only 238 in Negro League play — still most among Negro leaguers.
The all-time MLB rankings for “rate” statistics, such as batting average, on the other hand, could see a wholesale rewriting. Gibson’s career batting average of .365, for example, would rank second only to Cobb’s .366 and — along with Jud Wilson’s .359, Charleston’s .350 and Turkey Stearns’s .348 — would push Babe Ruth’s .342 out of the top 10. Gibson’s career slugging percentage of .690 would edge out Ruth’s .6897 as the highest in major league history.
Single-season stats also would be affected, with Gibson’s .441 batting average in 1943 supplanting Hugh Duffy’s .440 for the 1897 Boston Beaneaters of the National League as the highest in a single season in history. Ted Williams, who hit .406 for the Boston Red Sox in 1941, would lose his status as the last player to hit .400 in a single season.
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Although most Negro League seasons featured between 50 and 70 games, MLB’s treatment of its own 2020 records as legitimate — despite playing a season that lasted just 60 games because of the coronavirus pandemic — proved to be illustrative in demonstrating the legitimacy of Negro League stats.
MLB is expected to use the same criteria to determine eligibility for single-season records as it currently uses for batting titles, with players required to have amassed 3.1 plate appearances per team game to qualify. A similar factor, one inning pitched per team game, is used for pitchers to determine eligibility for the ERA title.
Day’s .705 career winning percentage as a pitcher could put him in the top 10 all-time in the major leagues, just ahead of current Los Angeles Dodgers superstar Clayton Kershaw (.697).
“He didn’t talk much about himself or how good he was,” Day’s widow, Geraldine, said. “Other people talked about him like that, but he didn’t think words mattered that much. But he would be proud of this.”

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“Padres-Waiting & Watching”

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The month of December has reached the midway point of the calendar.

A month removed from the World Series.  No winter meetings, no blockbuster trades, no big free agent signings.

And no sign either as to what the next baseball season is going to look like.

MLB and the Union are having dialogue about a trimmed back 2021 season with the reality the pandemic is worse now than it has ever been.

Owners are talking about not opening spring training cmaps in February.  The season won’t start the last week of March.  Now they are dropping hints it might not start till May.

That would mean spring training camps would be padlocked till April.  And who knows what the fallout for the minor leagues, who did not play last year, might be like this year too.

If owners are mumbling about 80-game seasons, or 120-game seasons, then no business is going to take place for awhile yet.

Owners say they want players and their staffs to recevie vacccines before they report to the Cactus League or the Grapefruit Circuit.

No one knows whether there will be fans in the stands to start the season, though Dr. Anthony Fauci, the MVP of infectious disease research, says he does not envision fans in stadiums till late summer.

That means another 3M loss in likely local revenues for the Padres and every other team.  Does that mean another 100M plus loss for the Padres and so many other teams for a second year in a row.

And because of all that uncertainty about start times, camps, medical situations, it means free agency is stalled too.

Who knows where Trevor Bauer or George Springer winds up, and more importantly, who knows for how much money.

The Padres are covered from a roster standpoint, because they have so many good young pitchers knocking at the big league door.  They don’t have to go into the market place looking for talent.

We started the off season with 147–free agents.  Then when players started getting non-tendered, the free agent list grew to 197-players, without contracts, without teams, and without knowledge of where they might be hitting home runs this year.

A ton could wind up on 1-year short contracts, and a hope they re-enter the free agent market next year.

Interesting to see if the Padres can buy-low on someone on a one year deal that makes a difference in the standings.

 

The clock is ticking on one player they were to bid on…Japanese free agent right-hander Tomo Sugano of the Yomiuri Giants, who is (31Y), and has a (101-50) career record in that country.  The 30-day window has opened for a team to sign him.. He’s a middle of the rotation guy and might fit their needs and their budget.

 

The Masahiro Tanaka-Yankees situation bears watching, as New York has yet to make an offer to retain him, despite a (78-46) career record, but his price tag might be a bit too high.

 

Are there trades in the offing, sure, but the Padres don’t seem interested in giving up anymore of their young arms, considering they have already dealt away Cal Quantrill and Eric Later in past deals.

And while the business paralysis of the game continues, so does the possible structure of the game stay set in cement.

No idea on the DH-rule for next year, though it seems a positive addition to the game.  No idea on expanded playoffs and more revenue for clubs, though that seems a go-to idea to help the players and owners wipe out the 3B in losses from last year.

Mid-December, and I don’t think the Hot Stove League lamp ever got lit.  And I doubt we can hear anyone say ‘pitchers and catchers’ report.

AJ Preller and Jayce Tingler…like you and me…waiting to see what happens next in baseball’s battle with the virus and then its union.

Waiting and watching.

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“My Old Time Favorite-Needs New Name”

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I cannot believe they are doing it again, after doing what they did a year ago.

I grew hating the New York Yankees.  I was the only kid I knew living on Long Island that hated the Yankees.

You know the Yankees of the Bronx Bomber era.  The M&M Boys, Mantle and Maris, Whitey and Yogi, and of course Casey.

I was a Cleveland Indians fan, probably because they were a very good 2nd place team, all those years..  Or maybe it was because of the logo, Chief Wahoo.

In the era of being politically correct, everything has to change.  Nicknames, monuments, statues, names of churches, boulevards, universities and more.

First they took away the Chief Wahoo brand, the smiling Indian.  I remember growing up seeing a huge neon light atop old Municipal Stadium,  It was the smiling face of the Chief, looking down onto Lakeshore Drive.

Now they have taken away the name of the team, “Indians”, the one that has been part of the heart-and-soul of Cleveland fans since 1915.

Now we see where ownership takes the team’s name.  A full year to decide, indicating they will launch the 2022 season with a new name.

Why did this happen?  Where do they go next?

The New York Times takes a look:

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Baseball teams have been named for animals, local landmarks and a brand of handgun. Several of them have been identified by the color of their socks. There is one named after a mountain range and another that references dodging the trolleys of a city the team left more than 60 years ago.

The strangest name in baseball history might be for the team that was named after its best player. That team — the Cleveland Naps — was forced to adopt a new name when Napoleon Lajoie left the club after the 1914 season. With the help of local sportswriters, the team became the Cleveland Indians.

After years of criticism, Cleveland has agreed to drop the name, which many view as racist, and will begin searching for a new one — a process that has happened relatively few times since team names became standardized in the early part of the 20th century. Name changes, it should be noted, can take a while to get right, as evidenced by the N.F.L.’s Washington Football Team, which is temporarily going with a generic designation after dropping its own racist name.

How Cleveland and Washington navigate their changes could provide a blueprint for other teams as the push to eliminate offensive names in sports grows stronger. It could eventually affect teams like the Atlanta Braves and the N.F.L.’s Kansas City Chiefs, and perhaps even less obvious examples, like the N.B.A.’s Golden State Warriors.
Cleveland Makes Name Removal Official, Saying It Is ‘Moving Forward’
Dec. 14, 2020

Cleveland’s Baseball Team Will Drop Its Indians Team Name
Dec. 13, 2020

Much of the early enthusiasm in Cleveland’s search for a name has focused on having the club renamed the Spiders, the current favorite, according to multiple oddsmakers. While that name has some baseball history in Cleveland — not particularly good history, but history — it has no connection to the current Cleveland club. The Spiders were a National League team from 1889 to 1899. They lost the 1892 championship to Boston and, when last seen, set a mark for baseball futility by going 20-134 before disbanding. A minor league club also used the name in 1915 before bolting for greener pastures in Toledo.

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The current Cleveland team, on the other hand, was one of the American League’s original franchises in 1901. If the club wanted to reference a name of the team’s past, it would have four to choose from: the Blues, the Bronchos (also spelled “Broncos”), the Molly Maguires and the aforementioned Naps.

It might be hard to imagine a team renaming itself the Boston Big Papis or the Los Angeles Trouts, but that was exactly what Cleveland did for Lajoie’s first full season with the club in 1903. Lajoie, a Hall of Famer regarded as one of the best hitters in major league history, largely justified the unusual honor. He hit .339 in 13 seasons with the club, collecting multiple batting titles. He is still the franchise’s career leader in wins above replacement.

The Naps nickname stuck around even after a 1912 effort by the team to change its official designation to the Molly Maguires — itself an unusual sports name, as it referenced a group of Irish labor rights activists. But after a last-place finish in 1914, Lajoie demanded a trade and was sent back to his previous club, the Philadelphia Athletics, necessitating a name change for Cleveland.
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Major League Baseball hasn’t had a team change its name entirely without moving cities since the 1965 season when the Houston Colt .45s became the Houston Astros. Credit…Houston Colt .45s, via Associated Press
The team’s search for a new name has often been credited to a newspaper contest, though academic studies have made the claim of a fan contest or a reference to Louis Sockalexis (a Native American player for the Spiders) to be specious. In reality, a committee that consisted of local sportswriters and team representatives decided on the name, with some Cleveland newspapers reporting at the time that it was temporary. It stuck.

Cleveland’s being in the market for one again also shines a light on how rarely a name change happens, at least in baseball. Recent name changes have included the Tampa Bay Rays dropping “Devil” from their name in 2008, and the Expos being renamed the Nationals after a move to Washington in 2005.

To find an established team that changed its name without changing cities, you would have to go back to the 1965 season, when the Houston Colt .45s became the Houston Astros. It would be easy to assume it was the association with a firearm that inspired the change — similar to Washington’s N.B.A. franchise changing its name from the Bullets to the Wizards — but the change to the Astros appeared to be more about capitalizing on the space craze at the time, and honoring the team’s exciting new domed stadium, while also addressing the fact that the Colt firearms company had objected to the team’s souvenirs.

“We think it is in keeping with the situation in which we are the space capital of the world,” Roy Hofheinz, the club’s president at the time, had said. “The name was taken from the stars and indicates we are on the ascendancy.”

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The Washington Football Team has taken some criticism for the generic name it adopted this season after dropping a racist name.Credit…Rick Scuteri/Associated Press

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Washington’s N.B.A. team changed from the Bullets to the Wizards before the 1997-98 season. Many feel the change was rushed.Credit…Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
In all, baseball will be left with 11 teams playing under their original name as major league teams, including the Detroit Tigers, who began play in the A.L. in 1901 and are the longest-serving major league team that has never had any other home city or nickname. (The Chicago White Sox, who began play in the A.L. the same year, were briefly known as the Chicago White Stockings.) Each of the other 19 active teams has had at least one change. One of the more interesting reasons for a change belongs to the Cincinnati Reds, who went by the Redlegs in the 1950s to distance themselves from any connection to communism.

There is no timeline for when Cleveland will rename its team. The Indians name will be used in 2021, allowing the franchise time to avoid rushing into an unpopular name change, like the one done by the N.B.A.’s Wizards.

Be it Spiders, Blues, Bronchos, Molly Maguires or some other name, the team has an opportunity to make a positive out of something that has been painful for many years. And while a return to the Naps is highly unlikely, the team could always nod to it by naming itself after one of the team’s many stars, like Jose Ramirez or Shane Bieber.
The Cleveland Biebers? Probably not.

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“Sounding off on an NFL Sunday”

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Here-there-everywhere around the NFL.

CHARGERS….I thought it would end in typical fashion with former Chargers kicker Young Koo coming off the bench to kick a game winning field goal for the Atlanta Falcons.  But thanks to Matt Ryan self-destructing at QB, throwing 3-picks as the Falcons were heading for scores, the Bolts got the ball back, and Michael Badgley hit a game winning field goal with (:03) left to give the Bolts the win.  What an uncommon feeling, a last second win, despite alot of screwups.

CHARGERS II….Anthony Lynn took over operation of special teams this week,but not much progress.  Some end to the first half…A 3rd down and 1-run call at the 8-yard line, with no timeout left.  Run the ball-get the first down-hurry to the line of scrimmage to spike the ball..but instead, here came the field goal unit on after they wasted time at the line of scrimmage….got the kick off but flags everywhere.  Illegal procedure and 14-players on the field when the ball was snapped.  It’s the Chargers way.  Luckily it was not fatal.

CHARGERS III….A win is in a win, but the four wins this year, all struggles, have come against the worst teams in the league.  The victories over the Bengals, Jaguars, Jets and Falcons were against teams that are a combined (7-42-1).

CHIEFS..That was some start for Patrick Mahomes…two interceptions, a fumbled snap and then a 30-yard quarterback sack.  KC actually trailed Miami, but then rallied in Mahomes fashion…393-yards passing and 2-TDs and an eventual blowout win…No one can cover TE-Travis Kelce-a tight end leading the league in yardage receiving.

RAIDERS…Bad losses and the most important time of the season…Now David Carr is throwing interceptions after a near perfect season…Just don’t understand the pass distribution and not getting the ball to rookie speed burner Henry Rugg and Nelson Agholor more…and the defense is awful…bunch of young athletes, with no pass rush and few turnovers..and a new Def Coord-coming on board after the Sunday night firing of Paul Guenther.

BRONCOS…Drew Lock throws 4-TDs against a bad Carolina team, but the talent level problems are really deep in Denver.

STEELERS…They look like a tired football team and Ben Roethlisberger isn’t as sharp as he has been in the past….you wonder if there are more problems with his surgically repaired elbow, or if the knee issue is a bigger concern.

BILLS…What a great season Josh Allen is having at quarterback, and he’s doing that without much of a run game….Can Buffalo go deep into postseason?

JETS…What a disaster the team has become…(0-13)…cannot get 200-yards a game on offense…Sam Darnold has no help…and Adam Gase will be out of a job soon…they are so talent deficient.

PACKERS…Everyone asked how Aaron Rodgers, so headstrong, would work with incoming head coach Matt LaFleur?    A two year record (23-6)…that’s how.

SAINTS…They were (8-0) without Drew Brees over the last two seasons, but then Taysom Hill turned the ball over multiple times on Sunday, blemishing that record…Brees could be back in two weeks.

EAGLES…Some debut for rookie QB-Jalen Hurts…  had a (167-passing-107-rushing day) in the Eagles first win in awhile….This team is plahing without 5-of its top 6-offensive lineman, and no DeSean Jackson, Alshon jeffries and often injured Zach Ertz.

TEXANS…Deshaun Watson against the world…how do you like those odds each Sunday.  What a wretched team and if you follow the stories-what a wretched front office.  Wasting that career.

MIAMI….Tua Tagovailoa an place.  So very impressed with his accuaracy.  Lost in all the conversation, how tough the Dolphins defense has become under second year coach Brian Flores.  Real progress.

DETROIT…Wonder where the Lions are going to go to hire a quality GM and Coach.  From Matt Millen thru Matt Patricia, what a mess.

CAROLINA…Just wondering how former Chargers exec Marty Hurney retains his GM job with the Panthers thru all this losing over the years.

CINCINNATI…That record is now (2-10-1).  If Paul Brown were alive  he’d fire Mike Brown, who runs the once proud team.

JACKSONVILLE…The GM is gone, coach Doug Marrone will be gone soon.  Too bad they cannot fire the owner Shad Khan….so many good players they had stockpiled thru the draft and free agency, are playing for other teams this season, and doing well.

WASHINGTON…They are in lst place thanks to QB-Alex Smith’s comeback, but also because of a loaded defensive front.  Chase Young, Josh Allen, Ryan Kerrigan, a real bunch of warriors.

ATLANTA…What a waste, the talent of veteran QB-Matt Ryan and virtually nothing else around him on offense and a very young defense.  Career and roster going in the wrong direction.

PATRIOTS….They may be smart, this coaching staff, but the roster lacks game breakers…In this day and age of offense, their starting QB has 5-touchdown passes heading to weekend 15-of the schedule.  He doesn’t have a heavy duty running back, no big time receivers, and each week is a struggle with an anemic offense.

BROWNS..A real deal.  Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt have over 1500-yards combined rushing…then you let Baker Mayfield thrown.  it took them a long time with all those losses…to put all the draft picks in place…they are dangerous now.

DALLAS…Wait till next year, that’s about all Jerry Jones can do.  The injuries wrecked the offensive front, then Dak Prescott went down.  What did you expect Mike McCarthy could do about that.

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“Baseball–Waiting Game”

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It was supposed to be a typical week at the Winter Baseball Meetings.

Then the Pandemic threw a knockdown pitch baseball could not get up from.

No meetings…no free agent signings…no blockbuster trades.

A different time.  No Scott Boras holding a massive press briefing for those of us in the media, sales pitching all his big money clients, telling baseball how it should run their business.

Whereas the first week of December was always about the Yankees signing a big free agent like Gerrit Cole, or blockbuster trades like the Wil Myers-Matt Kemp-James Shields deals of a couple of years ago, none of that has happened.

But we have things to look forward to, beyond Christmas.

Where does the top arm, Trevor Bauer-Reds, wind up and for how much.
Is there another payday coming for Cubs front line starter Jon Lester.
Will George Springer leave the very good Houston Astros.
Does AL hitting star DJ LeMaheiu stay with the Yankees or go to the Mets
Is there a payday out there for Phillies catcher JT Realmuto.
What becomes of Dodgers passion play 3rd baseman Justin Turner.

When the winter meetings started there were 197-unsigned free agents on the market.  A week later there are still 197-unsigned free agents.

Agents have real issues to deal with.  Not just the flood of players on the market, but the reality the budgets of teams are likely compressed badly by the loss of 3B-in revenues.

Look for alot of players to sign 1-year deals, bet on themselves, and bet on the baseball economy to bounce back.

So many teams have so many holes to fill.  Most everyone is behind the clock in fixing what is wrong with their team.  Alot of teams wonder how much more they can squeeze out of money left in their checking accounts.

And the name players…sitting there playing the waiting game.

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