Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame: The Case for Inducting 24 Overlooked Ballplayers by Steven Greenes (review)

In 2016, David Price, an African American pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, signed a seven-year contract worth $217 million. At the time, it was the largest total value ever given to a pitcher. Over a century prior to Price's contract, African American players played baseball to entertain guests in hotels (Greenes 4). Shortly after the Civil War, African American baseball clubs emerged as social clubs (4). Baseball has changed dramatically since the mid-twentieth century, when African Americans couldn't even stay in hotels with their white teammates. Regretfully, racism in baseball reflected the society in which players lived and played. Nowhere was this more evident than in the hallowed halls of the Baseball Hall of Fame.

In Negro Leaguers and the Hall of Fame, Steven Greenes dives into the numbers and statistics, looking for African American players who played over the last century and whose numbers should place them beside the likes of Babe Ruth, George Brett, and Sandy Koufax. The book opens with the history of the Hall of Fame voting for the Negro League players, and it oozes racism by any standard. In fact, Greenes describes one particular group that decided, "Admitting Negro Leaguers would lessen Hall of Fame standards" (10). Another way of keeping many African American players out of the Hall was to say they did not have the necessary ten years of play in the Negro Leagues. The lack of statistics available for the Negro Leagues made it nearly impossible for Black players to make it into Cooperstown.

Greenes continues with the history of the Hall by sharing what Bowie Kuhn, baseball's commissioner from 1969 to 1984, came up with to appease the baseball world. In 1971, Kuhn shared his thoughts on "a display, a separate room or wing, but no individual plaques" for African Americans based on their ability, statistics, and baseball service before 1947, when the modern major leagues were integrated. African Americans must have played 10 years in the Negro Leagues, and received 75% of the committee's votes (10). Announced in 1971, the Negro League Wing was part of a new exhibit to honor African American players, but it was made clear these players were not being elected to the Hall.

The criteria for determining eligibility to the Hall became a moving target. Ranging from what exactly constituted the Negro Leagues to emphasizing a player's character to asserting only the best players should be admitted, the standards were flexed and bent for many players, though not all for the better. Fortunately, as Greenes writes, wins above replacement (WAR) was determined to be a measure of the total contribution to a team. It is also commonly accepted as the most valuable objective indicator of whether or not a player belongs in the Hall. Greenes shares the players' WAR as he compares the statistics of Negro League players and those already in the Hall. In addition, he takes his comparisons further by including coaches, managers, executives, and pioneers of the game.

As of 2020, 333 players have been selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. Of those, 35 members played in the Negro Leagues. One of the issues with granting more African American players is that many of them played multiple positions. They would also "barnstorm" from city to city, playing against independent teams where little or no statistics were kept. Interestingly, when played head-to-head, Black teams won 60 percent of the games against White teams. Black teams also won thirteen of the sixteen California Winter League pennants.

Negro Leagues and the Hall of Fame is a great read for baseball fans, historians, and sociologists alike. The timing couldn't be more appropriate, either. 2020 has shown us just how far we have to go in terms of race relations, and nowhere is this more evident than in the Hall. Steven Greenes...