(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
 . . . . . . . . . .



Josh Gibson's Stats are as Invalid as Babe Ruth's -- And Just as Valid [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2024-06-06  

Not the newsletter’s usual fair, but my dad is a huge baseball fan, so this caught my eye.

MLB, at the end of a very long research process, has added the stats from Negro Leagues (yes Leagues. There were seven of them that are officially recognized as “major” leagues). The stats are not complete yet, as finding and validating game information is complicated process. But at 75% by their own count, the Hall of Fame and MLB decided they had sufficient data to update the records books. Negro League players, such as Josh Gibson, now hold some records that white players, used to. Gibson, in fact, is now, per the record books, the leader in batting average, taking the title from Ty Cobb.

This has bent a few noses. The usual suspects complain about baseball being woke (I will pause now for people who follow the sport to get the laughter out of their system) and how MLB doesn’t count the Japanese or Mexican or Korean leagues or that they are messing with tradition or that the Negro League players didn’t always play the best competition.

Well, yeah. That last is true. Because America was so racist that they were kept out of the White leagues.

That truth, though, raises a point I hardly ever hear defenders of baseball tradition raise: Babe Ruth’s stats are bullshit. At no point in his career did Ruth ever play against the best players in the game consistently. How could he? Non-whites weren’t allowed onto the field with him. Ruth’s stats are padded by the fact that some of the people he played against were only on the field because they were white. If he’d played against the actually best players, regardless of color, at the time, his sats would almost certainly have bene lower than they are. He was never as good as the records indicate, because he was never forced to play against his real peers, at least not entirely.

Also, his candy bar is awful.

But, I can hear the howls, Josh Gibson never played against white players! Yep, again, true. Note the aforementioned racism. But all that means is Gibson’s stats are probably somewhat inflated too. But as there is no doubt that the Negro Leagues were high caliber leagues deserving of the designation “major” (and how do I know that? Well, the people who run baseball admit it. And, of course, there is the record of the Negro leagues against white all-star teams. They more than held their own.), there is no doubt that Negro League stats are just as valid as stats from White leagues.

Baseball stats have always been bullshit. Until at least the late twentieth century, no baseball players consistently played against the best available competition. They were a story sold to nostalgia hungry fans, a fairy tale of value and valor that elided the very ugly circumstances under which they were accumulated. If you can come up with a good reason why Cobb’s almost certainly inflated stats and Ruth’s almost certainly inflated stats are superior to Gibson’s almost certainly inflated sates that doesn’t involve the word “woke” I am all ears. Because I haven’t heard one yet.

Baseball is America’s game in that it has shared America’s flaws and virtues almost from the beginning. Its stats have always covered up that unpleasant reality. Incorporating the Negro leagues stats is merely an overdue acknowledgement that there was more than one high quality baseball league in this country for much of its history. No, Gibson never played against all of the best players. But neither did Ruth.

And that is the story of the Negro League stats. We will never know just how Ruth or Gibson or anyone from those eras would have done playing with and against the best available players all the time. That is a sad commentary on baseball and American history. The least we can do is acknowledge that the Negro League players deserve the same recognition for their flawed stats as traditionalists insisted Ruth and Cobb and other white players did for theirs.

Josh Gibson is the major league leader in batting average. That is just as flawed a statement as any other record in the MLB record books. And just as valid.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/6/6/2245014/-Josh-Gibson-s-Stats-are-as-Invalid-as-Babe-Ruth-s-And-Just-as-Valid?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/