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'Long overdue': Negro Leagues now part of Major League Baseball, stats counted in MLB records [barf alert]
NBC News ^ | 12/16/20 | David K. Li

Posted on 12/17/2020 6:40:12 PM PST by foreverfree

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To: edh
there were a LOT of people upset that blacks were not allowed to play for MLB teams ... my grandfather was one of them :-) ... when the Pittsburgh Pirates all but stunk after the 1920s, he followed the Homestead Grays and had said that many Negro League players should have been on major league teams :-).

Did you grandfather attend Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords* games? Did other whites do so? Were they comfortable attending?

And didn't the Grays ever play in the 'Burgh? IIRC they were based in DC. Memory can play tricks.

Obviously he was a front runner, so I imagine he never talked about Gabby Hartnett's "homer in the gloamin'" that helped the Cubbies win the pennant over (wait for it) the Pittsburgh Pirates. :)

*The Crawfords employed Judy Johnson, whose name is on the field at Wilmington, DE's MiLB stadium (he grew up in Wilmington). His statue is outside the stadium.

ff

61 posted on 12/18/2020 5:25:48 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide
>honoring Jackie Robinson for breaking the color barrier in Major League Baseball.

I guess that isn’t the case anymore?

Perhaps we can start calling the NL and AL the "traditional major leagues" but that somehow won't gain traction.

ff

62 posted on 12/18/2020 5:27:56 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: jy8z
There was a field semi close to where I live that I saw some of the best baseball games ever. Black Sox Field was the site.

Like I asked edh about his/her grandfather, did other whites attend Black Sox games? Were you comfortable attending?

ff

63 posted on 12/18/2020 5:29:54 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: Sam Clements
I am a long time baseball fan, 64 years, and I am totally on board with this.

The closest I can say to that is, I would've loved to see the Bambino standing 60.5 feet from Satchel Paige (Monty Burns referenced Paige on a Simpsons ep) in something other than, as they call it in soccer, a friendly. OTHO I don't like the Orwellian aspect.

ff

64 posted on 12/18/2020 5:34:17 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: mosesdapoet; All
Many radio game announcers would refer to Negro League stats when covering a game.

Were they doing this in the fifties?

The Red Sox were the last of MLB's Original 16 (heck, if the NHL can have an Original Six...), finally taking the plunge in 1959 with Pumpsie Green. (IIRC Tom Yawkey was a southerner). Ted Williams befriended Green.

Williams may have been the first prominent MLB figure to call for recognition of the Negro Leagues at his HoF induction when he called for the Hall to make Negro Leaguers eligible. When the Hall took action, there was going to be a separate wing for the Negro Leagues. Satchel Paige said he wouldn't attend his induction if they were going to be treated that way so the HoF blinked and the Negro League inductees are enshrined in the main wing.

ff

65 posted on 12/18/2020 5:44:27 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: shanover
This Negro League stuff in itself is something I care less about but the ... expansion of teams is what has killed them.

So you consider the 8 team, no divisions AL and 8 team, no divisions NL to be sacrosanct?

How about MLB geography? MLB had no teams west of Missouri until 1958, and no teams in the former CSA until 1962 when Houston-We-Have-A-Problem BTW MLB h

Me, I was born during the AL's first 10 team, 162g season, which was the NL's last 8 team, 154 game season (1961). I didn't start following baseball (and sports in anything like a big way) until 1971. By then, each MLB league had 12 teams and divisions. (oh the horror [/s])

ff

66 posted on 12/18/2020 6:30:58 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: foreverfree

What about inner city basketball, there are players there who average 40 points a game?


67 posted on 12/18/2020 6:34:34 AM PST by 1Old Pro ( )
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To: foreverfree

Yes I was. Everyone was nice to me also.


68 posted on 12/18/2020 7:04:58 AM PST by jy8z (When push comes disguised as nudge, I do not budge.)
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To: PAR35

The negro league team was officially called the Atlanta Black Crackers.

https://www.mlb.com/history/negro-leagues/teams/atlanta-black-crackers/

So no, I’m not wrong.


69 posted on 12/18/2020 7:23:35 AM PST by Brookhaven
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To: Brookhaven
I was wrong when I mis-typed Falcons instead of Crackers, but don't try to re-write history here. You wrote

by changing their name to the Atlanta Crackers—which was the name of the negro league team in Atlanta.

not

Atlanta Black Crackers

As I pointed out, the Atlanta Crackers were the white boys.

70 posted on 12/18/2020 7:32:14 AM PST by PAR35
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To: PAR35

You’re grasping at straws.

Both teams were called the Crackers.

The negro league team differentiated themselves by appending Black to the front, but they were still the Crackers.

In my part of the country, they refer to the UGA women’s teams as the Lady Bulldogs, but it’s not incorrect to call them Bulldogs.


71 posted on 12/18/2020 7:39:28 AM PST by Brookhaven
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To: Kenny Bania

Thanks Kenny, and that is an interesting point.


72 posted on 12/18/2020 8:21:32 AM PST by DoughtyOne (I'm calling for terrorist and criminal reform. Defund them now.)
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To: All
For those who care...

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/30540089/mlb-add-negro-leagues-official-records-never-change-did-black-players

73 posted on 12/20/2020 5:05:13 AM PST by foreverfree
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To: foreverfree

Negro leagues are not major leagues.
Not to mention there are no far more Latinos in the MLB than blacks.


74 posted on 12/20/2020 5:08:12 AM PST by SmokingJoe
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