Just because they weren’t allowed doesn’t mean they should be put on the leaderboard because of guilt. Yes some of them probably definitely would have been in the mlb but that’s not to say their stats would have stayed the same it’s a what if you can’t have Josh Gibson there above everyone when he didn’t compete against them it’s not legitimate. There are better ways to recognize the black players than to try an alter history
@@Dr.Frankensteen exactly ichiro should be hit leader then it makes no sense if you incorporate those stats then you must incorporate all the leagues around the world then
I love it when folks say Negro leaguers didn't play against the best players when they immediately dominated 11 of 14 MVP's from 1949 - 1962. Dominated in the Barnstorming events 33 games over .500.
I haven't looked it up, but wouldn't we have some idea of how Negro League compared to MLB by comparing stats of players that moved from Negro League to MLB during the Jackie Robinson years?
Negro leagues in exhibitions were 30 games above .500 vs MLB. Like 9 players from negro leagues won the MVP from 1942 to the mid 1960’s. Also, let’s be real, integrating a league wasn’t fun back then players were subjected to treatment due to segregation that may have impacted their play.
The only pushback that's at all legit is that the record books were notoriously inaccurate in the NGL. But the benefits of doing this are far more than any negative. Putting these stats up there bring them to a whole new generation, and it IS important that people understand how we got where we are today. So even if we can't really know if .372 is his legit average, we can at least know that Gibson was an exceptional ballplayer. And one of the more tragic figures in baseball history, having died young and right around the time Jackie got signed by Brooklyn. Had he lived, he almost certainly would have been one of those brought in by other teams in the years right after Jackie. So anyone seriously complaining, tell them to kick rocks.
No it's legitimate to say that even if the books were accurate, they never posted those numbers in MLB so the chances of them being close to the same are very slim. If you include their numbers, you have to include Nippon as well as official MLB stats which makes Ichiro the All time leading hitter in MLB history as well has double the homeruns, nearly double the RBIs, etc.
@@Stacey_-bf2mbput astericks next to everyone who didn't play against a player with pigment in his skin. They're is a reason they instantly became some of the best players in baseball taking 11 of 14 mvps from 49-62
I have to agree. The MLB has to recognize the Negro Leagues, it's 100% the right decision to do so. What I don't like it's the constant assumption that only the MLB stats during segregation are wrong or inflated, as if not one player from the MLB at that time could've competed with Negro League players. Both leagues have inflated stats, because while the best white players never played against the best Negro League players, the best Negro League players, through no fault of their own, also never played against the best white players. You can't have that argument be only one way. Buck O'Neill always spoke about Babe Ruth hitting moonshots in "Barnstorming" exhibition games against Negro League teams, so there were great players in the MLB as well. Regardless, all of us as fans of this game were robbed of what could have been, having the best of the best compete in one great league, because of the ignorance of racism. The Negro Leagues and its players should 100% be recognized and honored.
