Expert: Tom Schott - 8/1/2007

Question
Tom -- records & benchmarks are very much in the news these days w/Glavine, Bonds & ARod.  My question is this -- when it comes to the standard baseball benchmarks of 300+ wins, 3,000+ hits & 500+ home runs -- what Negro leaguers are believed to belong in these elite clubs?  Who are they & by best accounts what kinds of #'s did they amass?

Thanks so much for your time!

Jim

Answer
Jim,

I wish I could be of more assistance here, but we're really limited in this regard. First of all, the stats for the Negro Leagues are not complete, despite the efforts of many people to gather them. Second, the NegLg seasons were only 80 to 100 games a year, fewer during the Depression years and the 1940s. So none of the NegLg stars approached MLB benchmarks. The Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia (last edition was in 1996) has stats for 100+ of the best NegLg players. And the ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia (2006) has information also. The best players from the Negro Leagues are in the Hall of Fame; these guys would be the benchmark players. See: http://tinyurl.com/ywlsb9 for this. I've included a couple of other helpful URLs also. Good luck.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4466635 (NPR radio interview with guys working on stats)
http://www.baseball-fever.com/archive/index.php/t-28930.html (some more sources)