September 29, 1999 21:41:36 CST
SABR Segregates Voting For Top 100 Players
Negro League stars excluded from balloting.
NLB Dot Com
Staff
|
| |
Negro League slugger Josh Gibson not considered in voting for century’s top 100 players. |
The Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), a national organization of baseball history buffs and researchers, has released its Top 100 list of the best players of the twentieth century. The list, compiled from votes cast by SABR’s membership, places Babe Ruth at the top of the list of major league luminaries, followed by Lou Gehrig, Ted Williams, Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Joe DiMaggio, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, Rogers Hornsby, and Honus Wagner to round out the Top 10. The names of Negro League greats like Satchel Paige, Cool Papa Bell and Josh Gibson are nowhere to be found on the list.
In creating the ballots SABR made the decision to exclude Negro League stars from the Top 100, restricting eligibility to players who distinguished themselves in major league play. While a separate vote was taken on the best players from the Negro Leagues, the results of that poll was published in a separate Negro League list.
Several members of SABR have explained that separate votes were necessary because there is an insufficient Negro League statistical record to enable members to meaningfully compare Negro Leaguers with their major leauge counterparts.
|
