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Joshua Gibson was born in Buena Vista, Georgia on
December 21, 1911. He is remembered as the Negro League's all time
greatest slugger.
The first African Americans to play
professional baseball were the brothers Welday and Moses Walker in
1884. This acceptance was short lived, however. Segregated baseball
was to last from 1885 until 1947 when Jackie Robinson finally broke
the color barrier.
Between 1920 and the late 1940s there
were four principal Negro Leagues. They were the Negro National
League (1920 to 1931 and 1933 to 1948), the Eastern
Colored League (1923 to 1928), the Negro American League
(1937 to 1960) and the Negro Southern League (1932 to
1933).
Josh's professional career began in the
summer of 1930 with the Homestead Grays of the Negro
National League. The legend says that Josh Gibson hit 75
home runs the following season in 1931. He did not! His highest Home
Run totals were 22 in 1933 and again in 1943. I noted that even the Encyclopedia
Africana credits him with these inflated totals, (lifetime
batting average of 379 and 823 homeruns). (His actual
lifetime stats are much lower - 292 Home Runs - This figure does not
include HRs against semi-pro teams.) It should be remembered,
however that the Negro League schedule was much shorter than the White
professional baseball schedule.
For instance: In 1943 he hit 19
homeruns with Washington. He accomplished that feat in only 29 games
and 88 at-bats. If we average that out to a typical American or
National league player's 550 at-bats per season, it comes to 106 home
runs. There is no doubt in my mind that if Josh Gibson had been
allowed to play in the white leagues, he would have broken Babe Ruth's
record years before Roger Maris accomplished the feat. Given the
opportunity, he might have set a home run record that even Mark
McGuire couldn't break.
Josh played in the Mexican League in
1940 and 1941. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1943, but
refused to have surgery. He died four years later on January 20, 1947
in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Josh was inducted into the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1972.
Sources:
Encyclopedia
Britannica
Encyclopedia
Africana
National
Baseball Hall of Fame
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