Quote:
Originally Posted by Ocotillo
The other thing is that Negro League stats are shoddy, incomplete for obvious reasons.
Take for example John Henry "Pop" Lloyd. Babe Ruth apparently called him the greatest player he ever saw. But nobody knows for sure because Monte Irvin revealed that info in a radio interview he heard.
That's what makes the Negro Leagues so fascinating is there is a mythology, folklore surrounding these players and that's OK. That's not necessarily a bad thing.
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The folklore and mythology is amazing. The fact is, they announced this in 2020 after Floyd. It was a reactionary move. You could honor them without adding stats from seven separate leagues.
And then they even chose an arbitrary cutoff of 1948. Hank Aaron played briefly for a Negro League team in the 50s but those stats aren't included.
It was two different levels of ball. Bill James calculated the Negro Leagues to be at AA-AAA level. Folks rag on the white players of the time for not facing all the best talent but then say hey the Negro Leaguers are easily as good despite facing at best 1/5 of the best talent of the era.
Baseball Fever has a great thread on the topic: https://www.baseball-fever.com/forum...rd-books/page2
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