No Crying In Baseball

In the 1989 film Field of Dreams, where a farmer constructs a baseball field in an Iowa cornfield so baseball ghosts can return and play the game, Shoeless Joe Jackson, played by Ray Liotta, tells Ray, the farmer played by Kevin Costner, that Ty Cobb wanted to come along and play but they “told him to stick it.”

Cobb was a violent person and being one of the best players in the game (still holding multiple records to this day), players and fans either loved or hated him. A biography released about Cobb shortly after his death embellished his violence, such as claiming he sharpened the cleats in his shoes to hurt opponents, along with accusations of racism, but the book was widely discredited later.

Cobb may not have been the nicest player, but his views on race may have actually been progressive for his time. He welcomed the integration of baseball and said Willie Mays was the “only player I’d pay money to see.” But being that he was extremely competitive with being the best, even to the point of being hostile to Babe Ruth and even his own teammates, he’d probably be upset that Negro League legend Josh Gibson just replaced him as the all-time batting leader.

From what I have read about Cobb, I don’t think he’d be upset about a black man replacing him. He’d just be upset at being replaced. Cobb had a lot of respect for baseball and he probably took it more seriously than most other players in his time. He had a lot of respect for the players, even the ones he hated, like Ruth…and even the player he beat up in a hotel room. I would expect that Cobb would acknowledge Gibson’s greatness while not liking the new decision by Major League Baseball.

Major League Baseball plans to officially incorporate Negro Leagues statistics into its record book and Josh Gibson is going to dominate it. Starting today, all the players from Negro Leagues in operation from 1920 to 1948 will be fully incorporated into MLB’s statistical record. Now, Josh Gibson is the MLB all-time batting leader.

Gibson’s batting average of .372 is higher than Ty Cobb’s .367. Gibson’s baseball career was cut short by a stroke at age 35 in 1947. He was a star for the Homestead Grays that played in Pittsburgh and Washington, DC from 1912 to 1950. I still think the Washington Nationals should have gone with the name Washington Grays.

Gibson also has a higher slugging percentage than Babe Ruth. The record book will now list the top three for on-base percentage as Ruth, Ted Williams, and Gibson.

This decision by MLB is right. Segregation is why there was a need for the Negro League. After Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1947 by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers, the Negro League was disbanded in 1951. Since so many great athletes were prohibited from playing in Major League Baseball because of their skin color, the quality of the Negro League was competitive with MLB…if not better.

Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell, Judy Johnson, Monte Irvin, Rube Foster, Ray Dandridge, Pop Lloyd, Willie Wells, Smokey Joe Robinson, Biz Mackey, Cumberland Posey, Mule Suttles, Bullet Joe Rogan, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and hundreds of others belonged in Major League Baseball. There are 35 players from the Negro League in the Baseball Hall of Fame. And you have to respect that Negro League players had much better names than MLB players.

MLB is doing the right thing by telling these Black all-stars, “Welcome to the show.”

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