Henry Kimbro now recognized as the 1947 MLB batting champion

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Should be aat or near the top of the list.

 

To say that the Negro League players were not in MLB and so should be ignored is not right. They had no chance to play in MLB. But would they have done as well in MLB as they did in the Negro Leagues? That is the million dollar question and we will never know. I suspect that a lot of the Negro League stars would have been All Stars and HOF players in the traditional sense and not guys that got there after the fact (if you know what I mean) if they got to play in MLB. Willie Mays started in Negro ball and was a pretty good MLB player.

Now how to assess each year's stats is a whole can of worms. I don't know if Baseball has done this right but I kind of like their intent. Maybe not entirely correct.

 

Make all the minor league stats count too...

 

A bit off topic but to the point about recognizing baseball players that didn't play in MLB. Without Sadaharu Oh would we have certain HOF Japanese players like Ichiro Suzuki and Ohtani playing MLB ball? Great player but never played in MLB or the Negro Leagues so not eligible for the HOF.

But really important for the international development of the game.

 

Koufax was my pitching hero as a kid but being a righthander and a three-quarters arm slot pitcher he was not a guy that I patterned my game after.

Mom, why did you throw out my Sandy Koufax autographed program when I went to college? I can forgive you throwing out my Roberto Clemente rookie card that I got by trading a number of Mickey Mantle cards when I was in first grade in 1960 but that autograph I got from him in was in person. I was in the presence of genius. It was special. Worth a lot of money but not enough if I still had it.

 

Thanks Mom!

 

Moms are great.