I went to hear Buck O'Neal speak at Wright State, and I even got to talk to him.
I think we must remember USA was so racist that only whites could play in MLB. To combine the stats would make it seem there was no color barrier, and there was.
I think we need to remember Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947, and what he went through. The worst city Jackie Robinson had to play in was the deepest South city at that time, Cincinnati. No city treated Jackie Robinson worse than Cincinnati on the boarder of Kentucky & Indiana. The death threats and police on top of Crosley Field when he played here. That needs to be remembered.
Yes the Negro Leagues had games, but I've read Negro League books, and the stats are vague. Buck O'Neil said there were other things to the Negro Leagues. He said their All-Star Game was bigger than their World Series. He said due to segregation the blacks had their own banks and businesses. In the Great Depression the Negro Leagues made more money than white baseball teams per Buck O'Neil. So the Kansas City Monarchs were maybe making more money than the struggling Cincinnati Reds.
Buck O'Neil said The Negro All-Star Game was played in Chicago Comiskey Park with many seats, and they sold it out every year. People wanted to see what the Negro Leagues had. He said white and black political leaders, entertainers, the richest of the rich, and your average fans sold out the huge ballpark. He said this was a time when MLB envied Negro Leagues for drawing bigger crowds than they did. So at the Negro All-Star Game men and women were decked out in the finest clothes. Buck O'Neil said we showed them the best of the best of The Negro League and showed them we played great baseball, we put on a show, the crowd loved it.
Perhaps instead of trying to merge records, just perhaps WE as a nation must remember how deep the racism in USA was and is. We can not wipe out what happened by combining a few stats. In the words of Howard Cossell, TELL IT LIKE IT IS. That whites did keep MLB whites only up until 1947. That Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Soon followed by Roy Campanella, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Frank Robinson, Bob Gibson and many others. Those names are the only stats needed to show how good the players were not allowed to play in Whites Only MLB.
I think it is more fair to remember Buck O'Neil and post the Negro League All-Star Games more, who played in them, the sell out attendance. Yes, tell of the great players in the Negro Leagues, but always make it clear that the Negro Leagues was because MLB was WHITES ONLY JIM CROW ERA. Let us not rewrite history. WE must live with the injustices in USA History. Liberals may think they are doing blacks a favor by hiding what happened, but they are only sugar coating the truth and rewriting history.
USA must remember slavery. USA must remember MLB as WHITES ONLY until 1947. Heck, I went to a Reds game in 1970, and Sparky Anderson rested some players and started a team of all black players, and my dad said Cincinnati was not going to put up with that. So to think it all ended in 1947 is nonsense also. Wilt Chamberlain was going to play for Dayton Flyers in 1950s until he was not allowed to stay at a Dayton Hotel. In late 60's Bill Russell and others refused to play an All-Star Game over a Hotel of Whites Only, and that city saw All-Star Game moved to another city. A Super Bowl was moved from Arizona over Martin Luther King Day. These things MUST be remembered as they were, not sugar coated.
I understand the white liberal intent of wanting to combine the stats as if JIM CROW never existed in MLB, BUT IT DID, and I think we need to accept the racism as it was. I say post the stats of the Negro Leagues separate and show off The Negro All Star Game that Buck O'Neil said was so Fine and Grand. Show off how great the Negro Leagues were. PRINT THAT.
and the Buck O'Neil story. " Jackie wasn't the best of the Negro Leagues, but he was The One. We pulled into a southern gas station with 3 big buses. We asked if we could get some food and wash up, and the man said no. Now we was use to that. This young player named Jackie Robinson wasn't. He told us not to buy our gas there, and to buy it somewhere else....now that southern white man could see those 3 busses pulling out. The most gas he might sell all week and these were hard times on money....That white man said, well, I think you could get some food and use the bathroom....and Jackie knew that. Jackie showed us the POWER of our MONEY. ..Jackie was smart, so it made sense that Jackie was The One in 1947 ".........Instead of rewriting history stats, I say TELL THAT. TELL IT LIKE IT IS.
a side note. Someone mentioned Hank Aaron homers. Please look at all time hit list. I think you will find Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, Hank Aaron. Show me another home run hitter that did that.....Pete loved stats, but I say they are not exact. You have the dead ball era, the large mound era., the relief pitchers era, No 30 game winner since 1968. No .400 hitter since before World War II. THE GAME CHANGES. Stats don't compare well. Then you have the last man to hit .400 Ted Williams. He probably would have set homer record and hit record, but he was more needed in World War II and Korea. In World War II he was a fighter pilot who flew more hard missions than anybody. Then he learned how to fly jets and was a jet fighter pilot with John Glenn in Jet next to him in Korea. He just felt World War II and Korea was a little more important than Baseball. So did the Military and he was too good of a fighter pilot to give up. PUT THAT IN YOUR STATS BOOKS. It blows this whole thing of stats out of the water, as does The Negro Leagues. Stats are OK, I think Pete Rose makes too much of them. Even Pete admits THE GAME CHANGES, such as closers and relievers now. Willie Mays never played in a band box. Homers were harder to hit in The Polo Grounds or Candlestick Park winds. In a good park, Say Hey might have broke all records. The Astrodome was one of worst hitters parks ever, and Jim Wynn, Rusty Staub, Lee May stats suffer for it. Hank Aaron at end got to play in Atlanta LAUNCHING PAD and fences shorter than players, and so he moved ahead of Willie in THE STICK....Lets not forget Steroid Era.
I can see the motive for combining the stats, but I think in all fairness to Buck O'Neill and The Negro Leagues, Let us keep the stats separate to show THE JIM CROW ERA of BASEBALL. The whites refused to play with the blacks, and THAT in itself is a STAT we must remember. To say Buck O'Neill got to play in White MLB is a lie, it never happened. Instead of rewriting history of USA on Racism, perhaps the real goal should be to do better going forward. It wasn't just baseball of USA in that era, the movies of that era are very racist. It wasn't just baseball.
1968 Bengal Fan
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