What the Negro Leagues' Statistical Integration Really Means

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4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 4 June 2024

⏱️ 28 minutes

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Summary

For years, names like Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Satchel Paige were well known as legends in the Negro Leagues, but unrecognized in the record books alongside their white contemporaries. Last week that changed, as a nearly quarter-century long endeavor to collect and verify decades of statistics was unveiled for the first time. The news seems to have been met with every emotion under the sun: confusion, anger, disdain, but not joy. And part of that is because many are confused as to what’s actually happening. This story was never about Josh Gibson unseating Ty Cobb as the single season batting average leader. It was about presenting the statistics of major professional baseball leagues as evidence to support the legends that played. So Today, our host Clinton Yates sits on the other side of the table and joins our very own Alex Hyacinthe to break down what this process undertook, and what this really means for baseball. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This is our American history.
0:04.0	It's messy and it's imperfect and there's no exact right way to write these wrongs,
0:10.0	but this is a step and an acknowledgement that when we've talked about the best baseball players of the early 20th century,
0:17.0	we've really just been talking about the best white baseball players.
0:21.0	Because for Babe Ruth, there was Josh Gibson.
0:24.4	And for Rogers Hornsby, there was Cool Papa Bell.
0:27.3	And for Bob Feller, there was Satchel Paige.
0:30.2	So this should be a moment of great celebration. But of course, set your watch to it,
0:35.2	there are folks who are going to be angry and are voicing that anger and they can't really
0:39.4	quite tell you why they're angry, but what they know is they are angry.
0:44.6	Before we even really get started, I want to do to you what you did to our friend Ryan
0:50.0	McGee a week or so ago because when he was talking about moonshine
0:54.1	caves being found at a racing track in North Carolina you made very clear to
1:00.2	point out that it was insane that he had videos and press clippings from 2001 or 2010 or whatever.
1:07.2	But as we're sitting here talking about effectively big picture, the integration of Negro League statistics
1:15.6	into the Major League Baseball record books.
1:17.8	You just mentioned something to me that I didn't know about.
1:21.6	Tell the audience what that is. Headline Baseball Hall of Fame to receive
1:26.8	funds from Major League Baseball to implement African American Baseball history study. You know when that headline is from Alexander,
1:34.8	July 20th in the year 2000.
1:38.6	Let me read to you, Gateline, Cooperstown, New York.
1:46.7	The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum today announced that it has been granted
	...

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