Baseball’s Awkward Attempt at Making Amends for Its History of Segregation
Josh Gibson died in January 1947, a little more than three months before Jackie Robinson broke professional baseball’s so-called “color barrier.”
Despite never playing a single inning in the two leagues that comprise Major League Baseball (MLB), Gibson is now officially recognized as the player with the best career batting average in MLB history: He hit .372 during his years in the Negro Leagues, a few points higher than Ty Cobb’s career average of .367, the previously recognized top mark.
It’s a somewhat incoherent idea to have Gibson on top of the batting average charts, but that’s the awkward result of the MLB’s decision earlier this year to officially elevate the Negro Leagues—a collection of various circuits that existed in the first half of the 20th century, when nonwhite players were kept out of the National League and American League—to “major league” status. As a result, Gibson and other stars of the Negro Leagues are now recognized alongside figures like Babe Ruth (who played before the major leagues were integrated) and Hank Aaron (who played after they were).
In announcing that decision, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said the goal was “ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible.”
It’s a decision that should be understood as an attempt to apply some measure of justice to the sins of professional baseball’s racist past, but it’s also a decision that underlines the impossibility of fixing some injustices after the fact.
In short, Gibson might deserve to be recognized as the best hitter in baseball history. He was certainly tremendously talented. But what he really deserved was a chance to play against the best players of his generation, regardless of the color of their skin. Nothing can fix that now.
I’m thinking about all this today because MLB is hosting a special game tonight at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, which was once the home field for the Birmingham Black Barons, one of the top Negro League teams. Tonight’s game is meant to celebrate that complicated chapter of baseball’s history—and specifically to celebrate the la
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