Sorry I missed the live. Great discussion on the Negro League stats. I agree that Newcombe should be a Hall of Famer. Watched him pitch in 1955 as a 7 year old against my Cardinals in which the Dodgers won 9 to 1.
There may be an argument for keeping the stats separate, but saying the Negro Leagues must’ve had watered down talent because Blacks made up a smaller portion of the population isn’t one of them. MLB had 16 teams during a time when the combined Negro Leagues had between 8-12 teams. Fewer teams equal a greater concentration of talent. The top players of the post integration era are predominantly Black players despite still coming from a minority group portion of the population. Mays, Aaron, and Bonds are usually in most peoples top 5 greatest of all time and often the other 2 are pre-integration white players like Ruth or Cobb. In the modern game, Dominican players represent almost 15% of the league despite coming from an island with roughly the same population as Ohio. Clearly there have been periods where certain minorities have had more talent than others, so claiming that because their population was smaller meant they must’ve had less talent makes no sense.
You may have misinterpreted or I may have not conveyed my point. African Americans were 10% of the population. Whites around 90%. Proportionately, that means there would have to be 9 times more white teams for it to be proportionate. That's simple math. I do get your point about a disproportionate amount of outstanding African-American players in the immediate decades following integration. McCovey, Banks, Frank Robinson, et al should also be included in the discussion of that era.
