Negro League Baseball Discussion Forum: Former Players – Information Exchange: Josh Gibson's statistics
By Jlorenzo (Jlorenzo) on Thursday, June 14, 2001 – 11:48 am:
Hi, I am trying to find complete stats for Josh Gibson's 1931 season. I found several sites that said that he hit 75 homeruns. Some said it was in 154 games and one said it was in 77 games. Another site said that he hit .623 that year. I would like to know other stats for that year e.i. hits, atbats, runs, hits, 2b, 3b, rbis, so, bbs, ect. If it is also possible, I want the same information for Joe Baumann's 1954 season including his uniform # if possible. Thank you very much.
By Jkurt (Jkurt) on Saturday, August 11, 2001 – 01:55 pm:
Jlorenzo,
I've found that the rather incomplete nature of record-keeping for negro league games makes it difficult to accurately test such time honored 'myths' as Josh's 75 homerun season. In John Holway's wonderful new book, "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues," he talks a bit about this difficulty. Because newspaper boxscores often didn't list number of at-bats and extra-base hits were often not reported (other than in the narrative of the newspaper article), accurate counts are difficult to come by. In Holway's book, he has extensively researched all the VERIFIED data about individual season stats, much of which leaves a fair bit to guesswork and the imagination. It should be noted that he excludes stats against semi-pro and lesser teams. The listed totals he has for Josh Gibson in 1931 are as follows:
Home runs: 14 (which works out to roughly 30 for 550 at-bats)
Doubles: 15
Triples: 7
Batting Average: .308
It is quite likely that against all levels of competition that Josh hit far more homeruns. As a sidenote, he did not even LEAD the league in homeruns that year–John Beckwith, the slugging shortstop of the Newark Browns and Chicago American Giants, hit more verified round-trippers than Josh.
A more interesting statistic Holway determined was the average number of homeruns the greatest Negro League batters hit per 550 at-bats. Leading this category is Josh, who AVERAGED 51 homeruns per 550 at-bats in his career. A distant second in this category is Mule Suttles,the great St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles slugger, who averaged 40. A last note: Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth averaged 42 homers per 550 at-bats in their career. I find this a VERY telling stat…
Good luck tracking down more complete information. Should you become frustrated in your attempts, do check out John Holway's books and work–he has really done some marvelous baseball scholarship specific to Negro League history….
By Jkurt (Jkurt) on Saturday, August 11, 2001 – 01:55 pm:
Jlorenzo,
I've found that the rather incomplete nature of record-keeping for negro league games makes it difficult to accurately test such time honored 'myths' as Josh's 75 homerun season. In John Holway's wonderful new book, "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues," he talks a bit about this difficulty. Because newspaper boxscores often didn't list number of at-bats and extra-base hits were often not reported (other than in the narrative of the newspaper article), accurate counts are difficult to come by. In Holway's book, he has extensively researched all the VERIFIED data about individual season stats, much of which leaves a fair bit to guesswork and the imagination. It should be noted that he excludes stats against semi-pro and lesser teams. The listed totals he has for Josh Gibson in 1931 are as follows:
Home runs: 14 (which works out to roughly 30 for 550 at-bats)
Doubles: 15
Triples: 7
Batting Average: .308
It is quite likely that against all levels of competition that Josh hit far more homeruns. As a sidenote, he did not even LEAD the league in homeruns that year–John Beckwith, the slugging shortstop of the Newark Browns and Chicago American Giants, hit more verified round-trippers than Josh.
A more interesting statistic Holway determined was the average number of homeruns the greatest Negro League batters hit per 550 at-bats. Leading this category is Josh, who AVERAGED 51 homeruns per 550 at-bats in his career. A distant second in this category is Mule Suttles,the great St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles slugger, who averaged 40. A last note: Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth averaged 42 homers per 550 at-bats in their career. I find this a VERY telling stat…
Good luck tracking down more complete information. Should you become frustrated in your attempts, do check out John Holway's books and work–he has really done some marvelous baseball scholarship specific to Negro League history….
By Jkurt (Jkurt) on Saturday, August 11, 2001 – 01:55 pm:
Jlorenzo,
I've found that the rather incomplete nature of record-keeping for negro league games makes it difficult to accurately test such time honored 'myths' as Josh's 75 homerun season. In John Holway's wonderful new book, "The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues," he talks a bit about this difficulty. Because newspaper boxscores often didn't list number of at-bats and extra-base hits were often not reported (other than in the narrative of the newspaper article), accurate counts are difficult to come by. In Holway's book, he has extensively researched all the VERIFIED data about individual season stats, much of which leaves a fair bit to guesswork and the imagination. It should be noted that he excludes stats against semi-pro and lesser teams. The listed totals he has for Josh Gibson in 1931 are as follows:
Home runs: 14 (which works out to roughly 30 for 550 at-bats)
Doubles: 15
Triples: 7
Batting Average: .308
It is quite likely that against all levels of competition that Josh hit far more homeruns. As a sidenote, he did not even LEAD the league in homeruns that year–John Beckwith, the slugging shortstop of the Newark Browns and Chicago American Giants, hit more verified round-trippers than Josh.
A more interesting statistic Holway determined was the average number of homeruns the greatest Negro League batters hit per 550 at-bats. Leading this category is Josh, who AVERAGED 51 homeruns per 550 at-bats in his career. A distant second in this category is Mule Suttles,the great St. Louis Stars and Newark Eagles slugger, who averaged 40. A last note: Mark McGwire and Babe Ruth averaged 42 homers per 550 at-bats in their career. I find this a VERY telling stat…
Good luck tracking down more complete information. Should you become frustrated in your attempts, do check out John Holway's books and work–he has really done some marvelous baseball scholarship specific to Negro League history….