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93-601: The Brooklyn Royal Giants were a professional Negro league baseball team based in Brooklyn , New York . Formed in 1905 by John Wilson Connor (1875–1926), owner of the Brooklyn Royal Cafe, the team initially played against white semi-pro teams. They were one of the prominent independent teams prior to World War I before organized league play began. In 1907, the Brooklyn Royal Giants joined

186-706: A brain tumor . After regaining consciousness, he refused the option of surgical removal and lived the next four years with recurring headaches. In 1944, Gibson was hospitalized in Washington, D.C., at Gallinger Hospital for mental observation. On January 20, 1947, Gibson died of a stroke at 35 years old in Pittsburgh . He was buried at the Allegheny Cemetery in the Lawrenceville neighborhood of Pittsburgh, where he lay in an unmarked grave until

279-523: A no-win situation : They could not protect their own interests without seeming to interfere with the advancement of players to the majors. By 1948, the Dodgers, along with Veeck's Cleveland Indians , had integrated. The Negro leagues also "integrated" around the same time, as Eddie Klep pitched for the Cleveland Buckeyes during the 1946 season, becoming the first white American to play in

372-686: A baseball career. In the summer of 1930, the 18-year-old Gibson was picked up by the Memphis Red Sox for a game in Scranton, Pennsylvania . Despite going 2 for 4, Red Sox manager Candy Jim Taylor was not impressed by Gibson and said afterward that he would never be a catcher. He was then recruited by Cumberland Posey , owner of the Homestead Grays , which were the preeminent Negro league team in Pittsburgh; Gibson debuted with

465-420: A black player." In some ways Blackball thrived under segregation , with the few black teams of the day playing not only each other but white teams as well. "Black teams earned the bulk of their income playing white independent 'semipro' clubs." Baseball featuring African American players became professionalized by the 1870s. The first known professional black baseball player was Bud Fowler , who appeared in

558-654: A handful of games with a Chelsea, Massachusetts club in April 1878 and then pitched for the Lynn, Massachusetts team in the International Association . Moses Fleetwood Walker and his brother, Welday Wilberforce Walker , were the first two recognizably black players in the major leagues. They both played for the 1884 Toledo Blue Stockings in the American Association , which was considered

651-579: A lack of a place to play. Leland bought the Giants in 1905 and merged it with his Unions (despite the fact that not a single Giant player ended up on the roster), and named them the Leland Giants . The Philadelphia Giants , owned by Walter Schlichter , a white businessman, rose to prominence in 1903 when they lost to the Cuban X-Giants in their version of the "Colored Championship". Leading

744-695: A lot of the black players at the time was that Jack was not the best player. The best was Josh Gibson. I think that's one of the reasons why Josh died so early — he was heartbroken." In 1972, Gibson and Buck Leonard became the second and third players, behind Satchel Paige , inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame based on their careers in the Negro leagues. Gibson's Hall of Fame plaque claims "almost 800" home runs for his career, although this number cannot be substantiated. Although validation of statistics continues to prove difficult for Negro league players,

837-705: A major league at the time. Then in 1886 second baseman Frank Grant joined the Buffalo Bisons of the International League , the strongest minor league, and hit .340, third highest in the league. Several other black American players joined the International League the following season, including pitchers George Stovey and Robert Higgins, but 1888 was the last season blacks were permitted in that or any other high minor league. The first nationally known black professional baseball team

930-588: A small plaque was placed in 1975. Larry Doby , who broke the American League color barrier in July, felt that Gibson was the best black player in 1945 and 1946; over even Jackie Robinson , who became the first black player in modern Major League history in April 1947 playing in the National League . Doby said in an interview later, "One of the things that was disappointing and disheartening to

1023-707: A year later. While Foster was out of the picture, the owners of the National League elected William C. Hueston as new league president. In 1927, Ed Bolden suffered a similar fate as Foster, by committing himself to a hospital because the pressure was too great. The Eastern League folded shortly after that, marking the end of the World Series between the NNL and the ECL. After the Eastern League folded following

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1116-437: Is important to distinguish between records against all competition and records in league games only. For example, against all levels of competition, Gibson hit 69 home runs in 1934; the same year, in 52 league games, he hit 11 home runs. 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,

1209-711: Is now at the top of the leaderboard in many categories. Based on the research of historical accounts performed for the Special Committee on the Negro Leagues, Gibson hit 224 homers in 2,375 at-bats against top black teams, two in 56 at-bats against white major-league pitchers, and 44 in 450 at-bats in the Mexican League. John Holway lists Gibson with the same home run totals and a .351 career average, plus 21-for-56 against white major-league pitchers. According to Holway, Gibson ranks third all-time in

1302-770: The All Cubans , the Cuban Stars (West) , the Cuban Stars (East) , and the New York Cubans . Some of them included white Cuban players, and some were Negro league players. The few players on the white minor league teams were constantly dodging verbal and physical abuse from both competitors and fans. The Compromise of 1877 removed the few remaining obstacles from the South enacting Jim Crow laws , allowing legal discrimination against blacks. On July 14, 1887, Cap Anson 's Chicago White Stockings were scheduled to play

1395-669: The Chicago American Giants to appeal to a larger fan base. During the same year, J. L. Wilkinson started the All Nations traveling team. The All Nations team would eventually become one of the best-known and popular teams of the Negro leagues, the Kansas City Monarchs . On April 6, 1917, the United States entered World War I. Manpower needed by the defense plants and industry accelerated

1488-678: The Eastern Colored League . The Giants played their home games while part of the Eastern Colored League at Dexter Park in Queens . The Giants played a pair of games against teams featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. On October 11, 1926, the Giants took on a squad featuring Babe Ruth in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. The Giants won this game 3-1. Following this, in 1928, the Giants played a combined team of

1581-673: The Mexican League for Azules de Veracruz . Gibson served as the first manager of the Cangrejeros de Santurce , one of the most historic franchises of the Puerto Rico Baseball League . Gibson was known as a spectacular power hitter who, by some accounts, hit close to 800 career home runs . (In the Negro League statistical records, his career home run total was 166 and MLB.com recognizes 174.) He

1674-741: The Middle States League was formed and it admitted two all-black teams to its otherwise all-white league, the Cuban Giants and their arch-rivals, the New York Gorhams . Despite the animosity between the two clubs, they managed to form a traveling team, the Colored All Americans. This enabled them to make money barnstorming while fulfilling their league obligations. In 1890, the Giants returned to their independent, barnstorming identity, and by 1892, they were

1767-538: The National Association of Colored Baseball Clubs of the United States and Cuba . The league lasted three seasons and included the teams Philadelphia Giants , Cuban X-Giants , Cuban Stars of Havana , and the Cuban Giants of New York. During the 1920s, under the ownership of Nat Strong , a white New York City booking agent, the team fell into somewhat of a decline, and did very poorly while in

1860-523: The National Colored Base Ball League , was organized strictly as a minor league but failed in 1887 after only two weeks owing to low attendance. After several decades of mostly independent play by a variety of teams, the first Negro National League was formed in 1920 by Rube Foster . Ultimately, seven Negro major leagues existed at various times over the next thirty years. After integration of organized baseball began in

1953-655: The Quinn-Ives Act banning discrimination in hiring. At the same time, NYC Mayor La Guardia formed the Mayor's Commission on Baseball to study integration of the major leagues. All this led to Rickey announcing the signing of Robinson much earlier than he would have liked. On October 23, 1945, Montreal Royals president Hector Racine announced that, "We are signing this boy." Early in 1946, Rickey signed four more black players, Campanella, Newcombe, John Wright and Roy Partlow , this time with much less fanfare. After

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2046-672: The 1920s or 1930s, the term " Negro " came into use which led to references to "Negro" leagues or teams. The black World Series was referred to as the Colored World Series from 1924 to 1927, and the Negro World Series from 1942 to 1948. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People petitioned the public to recognize a capital "N" in negro as a matter of respect for black people. By 1930, essentially every major US outlet had adopted "Negro" as

2139-642: The 1922 season, and two more after the 1923 season. Foster replaced the defunct teams, sometimes promoting whole teams from the Negro Southern League into the NNL. Finally Foster and Bolden met and agreed to an annual World Series beginning in 1924 . Although this was a strong beginning to the Negro Leagues , throughout the 1920's the leagues were very unorganized, having teams play uneven numbers of games. Teams would skip official games for non-league matchups which would be more lucrative for

2232-563: The 1927 season, a new eastern league, the American Negro League , was formed to replace it. The makeup of the new ANL was nearly the same as the Eastern League, the exception being that the Homestead Grays joined in place of the now-defunct Brooklyn Royal Giants. The ANL lasted just one season. In the face of harder economic times, the Negro National League folded after the 1931 season. Some of its teams joined

2325-842: The Bustin' Babes (Ruth's barnstorming squad) and the Larrupin' Lous (Gehrig's barnstorming squad) in Asbury Park, New Jersey. The Giants returned to independent play in 1928 and rebuilt the roster, but the quality of the rebuilt team never matched that of the early years. By the mid-1930s, the quality was no better than that of a minor league team, and in the early 1940s it had fallen to a semi-professional status. The team disbanded in 1942 . Negro league baseball The Negro leagues were United States professional baseball leagues comprising teams of African Americans . The term may be used broadly to include professional black teams outside

2418-665: The Detroit Wolves were about to collapse, and instead of letting the team go, Posey kept pumping money into it. By June the Wolves had disintegrated and all the rest of the teams, except for the Grays, were beyond help, so Posey had to terminate the league. Across town from Posey, Gus Greenlee , a reputed gangster and numbers runner , had just purchased the Pittsburgh Crawfords . Greenlee's main interest in baseball

2511-417: The Eastern Colored League as an alternative to Foster's Negro National League, which started with six teams: Atlantic City Bacharach Giants, Baltimore Black Sox , Brooklyn Royal Giants, New York Cuban Stars, Hilldale, and New York Lincoln Giants . The National League was having trouble maintaining continuity among its franchises: three teams folded and had to be replaced after the 1921 season, two others after

2604-697: The Genuine Cuban Giants, the renamed Cuban Giants, the Columbia Giants , the Brooklyn Royal Giants , and so on. The early "Cuban" teams were all composed of African Americans rather than Cubans; the purpose was to increase their acceptance with white patrons, as Cuba was on very friendly terms with the United States during those years. Beginning in 1899 several Cuban baseball teams played in North America, including

2697-537: The Giants' home games for almost a month and threatened to become a huge embarrassment for the league. On March 2, 1920, the Negro Southern League was founded in Atlanta, Georgia. In 1921, the Negro Southern League joined Foster's National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs . As a dues-paying member of the association, it received the same protection from raiding parties as any team in

2790-663: The Gorhams, Bud Fowler caught on with a team out of Findlay, Ohio . While his team was playing in Adrian, Michigan , Fowler was persuaded by two white local businessmen, L. W. Hoch and Rolla Taylor to help them start a team financed by the Page Woven Wire Fence Company, the Page Fence Giants . The Page Fence Giants went on to become a powerhouse team that had no home field. Barnstorming through

2883-472: The Grays on July 31, 1930. On August 11, Gibson's wife, pregnant with twins, went into premature labor and died while giving birth to a twin son, Josh Gibson Jr. , and daughter, Helen, named after her mother. Helen's parents raised the children. The Negro leagues generally found it more profitable to schedule relatively few league games and allow the teams to earn extra money through barnstorming against semi-professional and other non-league teams. Thus, it

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2976-617: The Hall's official data, his lifetime batting average 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 left the stadium. There is no published or film account to support this claim. Washington Senators owner Clark Griffith once said that Gibson hit more home runs into Griffith Stadium 's distant left field bleachers than

3069-631: The Jamaica Monitor Club, Albany Bachelors , Philadelphia Excelsiors and Chicago Uniques started playing each other and any other team that would play against them. By the end of the 1860s, the black baseball mecca was Philadelphia , which had an African-American population of 22,000. Two former cricket players, James H. Francis and Francis Wood, formed the Pythian Base Ball Club . They played in Camden, New Jersey , at

3162-747: The Josh Gibson Foundation and sold at auction to benefit the Foundation. Most of the statues that were originally located at Legacy Square in PNC Park, including Gibson's, are now displayed at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. In 2009, a statue of Gibson was installed inside the center field gate of Nationals Park along with ones of Frank Howard and Walter Johnson . He

3255-577: The Leland Giants' name. Leland took the players and started a new team named the Chicago Giants, while Foster took the Leland Giants and started to encroach on Nat Strong's territory. As early as 1910, Foster started talking about reviving the concept of an all-black league. The one thing he was insistent upon was that black teams should be owned by black men. This put him in direct competition with Strong. After 1910, Foster renamed his team

3348-479: The Leland Giants, he demanded that he be put in charge of not only the on-field activities but the bookings as well. Foster immediately turned the Giants into the team to beat. He indoctrinated them to take the extra base, to play hit and run on nearly every pitch, and to rattle the opposing pitcher by taking them deep into the count. He studied the mechanics of his pitchers and could spot the smallest flaw, turning his average pitchers into learned craftsmen. Foster also

3441-596: The Midwest, they would play all comers. Their success became the prototype for black baseball for years to come. After the 1898 season, the Page Fence Giants were forced to fold because of finances. Alvin H. Garrett , a black businessman in Chicago, and John W. Patterson , the left fielder for the Page Fence Giants, reformed the team under the name the Columbia Giants . In 1901, the Giants folded because of

3534-578: The Negro National League. Foster then admitted John Connors' Atlantic City Bacharach Giants as an associate member to move further into Nat Strong 's territory. Connors, wanting to return the favor of helping him against Strong, raided Ed Bolden 's Hilldale Daisies team. Bolden saw little choice but to team up with Foster's nemesis, Nat Strong. Within days of calling a truce with Strong, Bolden made an about-face and signed up as an associate member of Foster's Negro National League. On December 16, 1922, Bolden once again shifted sides and, with Strong, formed

3627-431: The Negro leagues in average among players with 2,000+ at-bats (trailing Jud Wilson by three points and John Beckwith by one). Holway lists him as being second to Mule Suttles in homers, though the all-time leader in HR/AB by a considerable margin — with a homer every 10.6 at-bats to one every 13.6 for runner-up Suttles. Recent investigations into Negro league statistics, using box scores from newspapers from across

3720-460: The Negro leagues were compiled as part of a statistical study sponsored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and supervised by Larry Lester and Dick Clark, in which a research team collected statistics from thousands of boxscores of league-sanctioned games. The first results from this study were the statistics for Negro league Hall of Famers elected prior to 2006, which were published in Shades of Glory by Lawrence D. Hogan. These statistics include

3813-418: The Negro leagues. These moves came despite strong opposition from the owners; Rickey was the only one of the 16 owners to support integrating the sport in January 1947. Chandler's decision to overrule them may have been a factor in his ouster in 1951 in favor of Ford C. Frick . Some proposals were floated to bring the Negro leagues into "organized baseball" as developmental leagues for black players, but that

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3906-441: The Newark Giants of the International League, which had Fleet Walker and George Stovey on its roster. After Anson marched his team onto the field in military style as was his custom, he declared that his team would not play unless Walker and Stovey were barred from the field. Newark capitulated, and later that same day, league owners voted to refuse future contracts to blacks, citing the "hazards" imposed by such athletes. In 1888,

3999-464: The United States, have led to the estimate that, although as many as two-thirds of Negro league team games were played against inferior competition (as traveling exhibition games), Gibson still hit between 150 and 200 home runs in official Negro league games. Though this number appears very conservative next to the claims of "almost 800" home runs. This research also credits Gibson with a rate of one home run every 15.9 at-bats, which compares favorably with

4092-424: The accepted term for black people. By about 1970, the term "Negro" had fallen into disfavor, but by then the Negro leagues were mere historic artifacts. Because black people were not being accepted into the major and minor baseball leagues due to racism which established the color line , they formed their own teams and had made professional teams by the 1880s. The first known baseball game between two black teams

4185-641: The best in Negro league history. In 2021, it was announced by Major League Baseball that the Negro Leagues (1920–1948) would formally be recognized as a major league. Ongoing research by Baseball Reference tabulated that Gibson led his league three times in batting average and once for all major leagues, most notably hitting .417 in 1937. He also led six times in on-base percentage and slugging percentage eight times. Gibson's Hall of Fame plaque claims he hit "almost 800 home runs in league and independent baseball during his 17-year career." This figure includes both semi-pro competition and exhibition games. According to

4278-412: The city's two Negro league baseball teams was introduced in 2006. Located by the stadium's left field entrance and named Legacy Square, the display featured statues of seven players who competed for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords , including Gibson. In 2015, without any public announcement, the Pirates removed all seven statues from the Legacy Square area. Ultimately, they were donated to

4371-484: The color line. His list was eventually narrowed down to three: Roy Campanella , Don Newcombe and Jackie Robinson . On August 28, 1945, Jackie Robinson met with Rickey in Brooklyn, where Rickey gave Robinson a "test" by berating him and shouting racial epithets that Robinson would hear from day one in the white game. Having passed the test, Robinson signed the contract which stipulated that from then on, Robinson had no "written or moral obligations" to any other club. By

4464-513: The end of Negro National League. Just as Negro league baseball seemed to be at its lowest point and was about to fade into history, along came Cumberland Posey and his Homestead Grays. Posey, Charlie Walker, John Roesnik, George Rossiter, John Drew, Lloyd Thompson, and L.R. Williams got together in January 1932 and founded the East–West League . Eight cities were included in the new league: "Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Cleveland, Newark, New York, and Washington, D.C.". By May 1932,

4557-442: The entire American League . A 2020 article published by the Society for American Baseball Research provides the supporting details for his homers in major league parks. The true statistical achievements of Negro league players may be impossible to know as the Negro leagues did not compile complete statistics or game summaries. As of May 28, 2024, Negro league statistics have been integrated into Major League Baseball, and Gibson

4650-436: The highest career batting average at .372. During the formative years of black baseball, the term " colored " was the established usage when referring to African-Americans. References to black baseball prior to the 1930s are usually to "colored" leagues or teams, such as the Southern League of Colored Base Ballists (1886), the National Colored Base Ball League (1887) and the Eastern Colored League (1923), among others. By

4743-694: The highest career batting average at .372. Gibson was born in Buena Vista, Georgia , to Mark and Nancy (née Woodlock) Gibson and had a younger brother, fellow Negro leaguer Jerry , and sister. In 1923, Gibson moved to Pittsburgh , and his father found work at the Carnegie-Illinois Steel Company. Entering sixth grade in Pittsburgh, Gibson prepared to become an electrician, attending Allegheny Pre-Vocational School and Conroy Pre-Vocational School. His first experience playing baseball for an organized team came at age 16 when he played third base for an amateur team sponsored by Gimbels department store where he found work as an elevator operator . Shortly thereafter, he

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4836-416: The highest-ranking of five players to have played all or most of their careers in the Negro leagues. (The others were Satchel Paige , Buck Leonard , Cool Papa Bell and Oscar Charleston .) He was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team in the same year. At PNC Park , home of Pittsburgh's Major League Baseball (MLB) franchise, the Pittsburgh Pirates , an exhibit honoring

4929-410: The idea to duplicate the Major League Baseball All-Star Game , except, unlike the big league method in which the sportswriters chose the players, the fans voted for the participants. The first game, known as the East–West All-Star Game , was held September 10, 1933, at Comiskey Park in Chicago before a crowd of 20,000. With the Japanese Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States

5022-426: The inclusion of this clause, precedent was set that would raze the Negro leagues as a functional commercial enterprise. To throw off the press and keep his intentions hidden, Rickey got heavily involved in Gus Greenlee 's newest foray into black baseball, the United States League . Greenlee started the league in 1945 as a way to get back at the owners of the Negro National League teams for throwing him out. Rickey saw

5115-407: The integration of the major leagues in 1947, marked by the appearance of Jackie Robinson with the Brooklyn Dodgers that April, interest in Negro league baseball waned. Black players who were regarded as prospects were signed by major league teams, often without regard for any contracts that might have been signed with Negro league clubs. Negro league owners who complained about this practice were in

5208-399: The lack of verifiable figures has led to various amusing tall tales about players such as Gibson. An example of such: in the bottom of the ninth at Pittsburgh, down a run, with a runner on base and two outs, Gibson hits one high and deep, so far into the twilight sky that it disappears, apparently winning the game. The next day, the same two teams are playing again, now in Washington. Just as

5301-449: The landing of the Federal Street Ferry, because it was difficult to get permits for black baseball games in the city. Octavius Catto , the promoter of the Pythians, decided to apply for membership in the National Association of Base Ball Players , normally a matter of sending delegates to the annual convention; beyond that, a formality. At the end of the 1867 season, "the National Association of Baseball Players voted to exclude any club with

5394-443: The late 1940s, the quality of the Negro leagues slowly deteriorated; the Negro American League 's 1951 season is generally considered the last Negro league season, although the last professional club, the Indianapolis Clowns , operated as a humorous sideshow rather than competitively from the mid-1960s to the 1980s. In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced that based on recent decades of historical research, it classified

5487-461: The league, took a five percent cut of all gate receipts. On May 2, 1920, the Indianapolis ABCs beat Charles "Joe" Green's Chicago Giants (4–2) in the first game played in the inaugural season of the Negro National League, played at Washington Park in Indianapolis. However, because of the Chicago Race Riot of 1919 , the National Guard still occupied the Giants' home field, Schorling's Park (formerly South Side Park). This forced Foster to cancel all

5580-402: The league. The reserve clause would have tied the players to their clubs from season to season but the NCBBL failed. One month into the season, the Resolutes folded. A week later, only three teams were left. Because the original Cuban Giants were a popular and business success, many similarly named teams came into existence—including the Cuban X-Giants , a splinter and a powerhouse around 1900;

5673-438: The leagues and it may be used narrowly for the seven relatively successful leagues beginning in 1920 that are sometimes termed "Negro Major Leagues". In the late 19th century, the baseball color line developed, excluding African Americans from play in Major League Baseball and its affiliated minor leagues (collectively known as organized baseball ). The first professional baseball league consisting of all-black teams,

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5766-437: The migration of blacks from the South to the North. This meant a larger and more affluent fan base with more money to spend. By the end of the war in 1919, Foster was again ready to start a Negro baseball league. On February 13 and 14, 1920, talks were held in Kansas City, Missouri , that established the Negro National League and its governing body the National Association of Colored Professional Base Ball Clubs . The league

5859-627: The moribund Philadelphia Phillies and stock them with Negro league stars. However, when Landis got wind of his plans, he and National League president Ford Frick scuttled it in favor of another bid by William D. Cox . After Landis's death in 1944, Happy Chandler was named his successor. Chandler was open to integrating the game, even at the risk of losing his job as Commissioner. He later said in his biography that he could not, in good conscience, tell black players they could not play baseball with whites when they had fought for their country [although they had fought in segregated units]. In March 1945,

5952-401: The new league was the same as the old league Negro National League which had disbanded a year earlier in 1932. The members of the new league were the Pittsburgh Crawfords, the Columbus Blue Birds , the Indianapolis ABCs, the Baltimore Black Sox, the Brooklyn Royal Giants, Cole's American Giants (formerly the Chicago American Giants ), and the Nashville Elite Giants. Greenlee also came up with

6045-403: The oft-cited "barnstorming" competitions. In nine of his seasons played in the Negro Leagues, he was selected to the East–West All-Star Game twelve times, which included double duty appearances in 1939 (playing at Comiskey Park and Yankee Stadium ), 1942 (Yankee Stadium and Griffith Stadium ), and 1946 (Griffith and Comiskey). In early 1943, Gibson fell into a coma and was diagnosed with

6138-423: The only Negro league then left, the Negro Southern League. Only strong independent clubs were able to survive the hard economic turn that affected the country, such as the Kansas City Monarchs . During this time, strong clubs would build teams that had potential to beat the teams in the major leagues with new players and tactics that many have never seen before. On March 26, 1932, the Chicago Defender announced

6231-410: The only black team in the East still in operation on a full-time basis. Also in 1888, Frank Leland got some of Chicago's black businessmen to sponsor the black amateur Union Base Ball Club . Through Chicago's city government, Leland obtained a permit and lease to play at the South Side Park , a 5,000-seat facility. Eventually, his team went pro and became the Chicago Unions . After his stint with

6324-411: The opportunity as a way to convince people that he was interested in cleaning up blackball, not integrating it. In midsummer 1945, Rickey, almost ready with his Robinson plan, pulled out of the league. The league folded after the end of the 1946 season. Pressured by civil rights groups, the Fair Employment Practices Act was passed by the New York State Legislature in 1945. This followed the passing of

6417-401: The owner of the league's Portland (Oregon) Rosebuds franchise. The WCBA disbanded after only two months. Judge Kenesaw M. Landis , the first Commissioner of Major League Baseball , was an intractable opponent of integrating the white majors. During his quarter-century tenure, he blocked all attempts at integrating the game. A popular story has it that in 1943 , Bill Veeck planned to buy

6510-434: The peak of his career. He was the first player since Oscar Charleston to win consecutive batting Triple Crowns (leading the league in home runs, runs batted in, batting average) and no batter has achieved the feat since. On May 28, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it had integrated Negro league statistics into its records, giving Gibson the highest single-season major league batting average at .466 (1943) and

6603-434: The pitcher-catcher battery was made up of the two most marketable icons in all of black baseball: Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson . In 1933, Greenlee, riding the popularity of his Crawfords, became the next man to start a Negro league. In February 1933, Greenlee and delegates from six other teams met at Greenlee's Crawford Grill to ratify the constitution of the National Organization of Professional Baseball Clubs . The name of

6696-535: The rates of the top nine home run hitters in Major League history. The commonly cited home run totals in excess of 800 are not indicative of his career total in "official" games because the Negro league season was much shorter than the Major League season, typically consisting of fewer than 60 games per year. The additional home runs cited were most likely accomplished in "unofficial" games against local and non-Negro league competition of varying strengths, including

6789-604: The same time, Nat Strong , a white businessman, started using his ownership of baseball fields in the New York City area to become the leading promoter of blackball on the East coast. Just about any game played in New York, Strong would get a cut. Strong eventually used his leverage to almost put the Brooklyn Royal Giants out of business, and then he bought the club and turned it into a barnstorming team. When Foster joined

6882-543: The season but never played a game, the Cincinnati Browns and Washington Capital Citys . The league, led by Walter S. Brown of Pittsburgh , applied for and was granted official minor league status and thus "protection" under the major league-led National Agreement . This move prevented any team in organized baseball from signing any of the NCBBL players, which also locked the players to their particular teams within

6975-466: The seven "major Negro leagues" as additional major leagues, adding them to the six historical "major league" designations it made in 1969, thus recognizing statistics and approximately 3,400 players who played from 1920 to 1948. On May 28, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it had integrated Negro league statistics into its records, which among other changes gives Josh Gibson the highest single-season major league batting average at .466 (1943) and

7068-569: The team. Players would jump from franchise to franchise, looking for the highest pay, causing imbalance within the leagues. 1925 saw the St. Louis Stars come of age in the Negro National League. They finished in second place during the second half of the year due in large part to their pitcher turned center fielder, Cool Papa Bell , and their shortstop, Willie Wells . A gas leak in his home nearly asphyxiated Rube Foster in 1926, and his increasingly erratic behavior led to him being committed to an asylum

7161-427: The teams have positioned themselves on the field, a ball falls out of the sky, and a Washington outfielder grabs it. The umpire yells to Gibson, "You're out! In Pittsburgh, yesterday!" The U.S. Postal Service issued a 33-cent U.S. commemorative postage stamp which features a painting of Gibson and includes his name. In 2000, he ranked 18th on The Sporting News ' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players,

7254-485: The way for the Cubans was a young pitcher by the name of Andrew "Rube" Foster . The following season, Schlichter, in the finest blackball tradition, hired Foster away from the Cubans and beat them in their 1904 rematch. Philadelphia remained on top of the blackball world until Foster left the team in 1907 to play and manage the Leland Giants (Frank Leland renamed his Chicago Union Giants the Leland Giants in 1905). Around

7347-500: The white majors created the Major League Committee on Baseball Integration . Its members included Joseph P. Rainey , Larry MacPhail and Branch Rickey . Because MacPhail, who was an outspoken critic of integration, kept stalling, the committee never met. Under the guise of starting an all-black league, Rickey sent scouts all around the United States, Mexico and Puerto Rico , looking for the perfect candidate to break

7440-582: The white majors were barely recognizable, while the Negro leagues reached their highest plateau. Millions of black Americans were working in war industries and, making good money, they packed league games in every city. Business was so good that promoter Abe Saperstein (famous for the Harlem Globetrotters ) started a new circuit, the Negro Midwest League , a minor league similar to the Negro Southern League. The Negro World Series

7533-405: Was able to turn around the business end of the team as well, by demanding and getting 40 percent of the gate instead of the 10 percent that Frank Leland was getting. By the end of the 1909, Foster demanded that Leland step back from all baseball operations or he (Foster) would leave. When Leland would not give up complete control, Foster quit, and in a heated court battle, got to keep the rights to

7626-647: Was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues . In 1972, he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame . Gibson played for the Homestead Grays from 1930 to 1931, moved to the Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1932 to 1936, and returned to the Grays from 1937 to 1939 and 1942 to 1946. In 1937, he played for Ciudad Trujillo in Trujillo 's Dominican League and from 1940 to 1941, he played in

7719-742: Was founded in 1885 when three clubs, the Keystone Athletics of Philadelphia, the Orions of Philadelphia, and the Manhattans of Washington, D.C., merged to form the Cuban Giants . The success of the Cubans led to the creation of the first recognized "Negro league" in 1887—the National Colored Base Ball League . It was organized strictly as a minor league and founded with six teams: Baltimore Lord Baltimores , Boston Resolutes , Louisville Fall City , New York Gorhams , Philadelphia Pythians , and Pittsburgh Keystones . Two more joined before

7812-620: Was held on November 15, 1859, in New York City. The Henson Base Ball Club of Jamaica, Queens , defeated the Unknowns of Weeksville, Brooklyn , 54 to 43. Immediately after the end of the American Civil War in 1865 and during the Reconstruction period that followed, a black baseball scene formed in the East and Mid-Atlantic states. Comprising mainly ex-soldiers and promoted by some well-known black officers, teams such as

7905-453: Was initially composed of eight teams: Chicago American Giants, Chicago Giants , Cuban Stars, Dayton Marcos , Detroit Stars , Indianapolis ABCs , Kansas City Monarchs, and St. Louis Giants . Foster was named league president and controlled every aspect of the league, including which players played on which teams, when and where teams played, and what equipment was used (all of which had to be purchased from Foster). Foster, as booking agent of

7998-666: Was instrumental in the forming of the Josh Gibson Foundation. An opera based on Josh Gibson's life, The Summer King , by composer Daniel Sonenberg , premiered on April 29, 2017, in Pittsburgh. According to the Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia , Josh Gibson's Negro official league stats were as follows: Total years played: 16. Total games played: 501. Total career at bats: 1679. Total career hits: 607. Total career 2B hits: 89. Total career 3B hits: 35. Total career HR: 146. Total career SB: 11. Career batting average: .362. The first official statistics for

8091-400: Was known as the "black Babe Ruth "; in fact, some fans at the time who saw both Ruth and Gibson play called Ruth "the white Josh Gibson". Gibson never played in the American League or the National League because of the unwritten " gentleman's agreement " that prevented non-white players from participating. He stood 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and weighed 210 lb (95 kg) at

8184-549: Was named to the Washington Nationals Ring of Honor for his "significant contribution to the game of baseball in Washington, D.C." as part of the Homestead Grays on August 10, 2010. Ammon Field in Pittsburgh was renamed Josh Gibson Field in his honor and is the site of a Pennsylvania State Historical Marker. His son, Josh Gibson, Jr. , played baseball for the Homestead Grays . His son also

8277-516: Was recognized as contrary to the goal of full integration. And so, the Negro leagues, once among the largest and most prosperous black-owned business ventures, were allowed to fade into oblivion. First a trickle and then a flood of players signed with Major League Baseball teams. Most signed minor league contracts and many languished, shuttled from one bush league team to another despite their success at that level. Josh Gibson MLB records Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947)

8370-486: Was recruited by the Pittsburgh Crawfords , which in 1928 were still a semi-professional team. The Crawfords, controlled by Gus Greenlee , were the top black semi-professional team in the Pittsburgh area and would advance to fully professional, major Negro league status by 1931. In 1928, Gibson met Helen Mason, whom he married on March 7, 1929. When not playing baseball, Gibson continued to work at Gimbels after he had given up on his plans to become an electrician to pursue

8463-541: Was revived in 1942, this time pitting the winners of the eastern Negro National League and midwestern Negro American League . It continued through 1948 with the NNL winning four championships and the NAL three. In 1946, Saperstein partnered with Jesse Owens to form another Negro league, the West Coast Baseball Association (WCBA); Saperstein was league president and Owens was vice-president and

8556-633: Was thrust into World War II. Remembering World War I, black America vowed it would not be shut out of the beneficial effects of a major war effort: economic boom and social unification. Just like the major leagues, the Negro leagues saw many stars miss one or more seasons while fighting overseas. While many players were over 30 and considered "too old" for service, Monte Irvin , Larry Doby and Leon Day of Newark ; Ford Smith , Hank Thompson , Joe Greene , Willard Brown and Buck O'Neil of Kansas City ; Lyman Bostock of Birmingham ; and Lick Carlisle and Howard Easterling of Homestead all served. But

8649-474: Was to use it as a way to launder money from his numbers games. But, after learning about Posey's money-making machine in Homestead , he became obsessed with the sport and his Crawfords. On August 6, 1931, Satchel Paige made his first appearance as a Crawford. With Paige on his team, Greenlee took a huge risk by investing $ 100,000 in a new ballpark to be called Greenlee Field . On opening day, April 30, 1932,

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