With the Major League Playoffs here and the World Series right around the corner, I started to think about a player that never made either. Considered by many to be the greatest to ever play the game, Josh Gibson never got a chance because he was black. This is a look at a player from the old “Negro league.” I hate to use the term Negro. However, many of my friends believe it is okay because it draws the attention to many, about the battle of segregation in the public sector and even on the ball diamond.
Why didn’t he play if he was so good? Major League Baseball had what was called a “Gentleman’s Agreement.” It was an unwritten agreement between owners, managers, and the league to not let non-whites play. The agreement began as early as 1868. Any team using a colored person would be banned from the league. In 1916, Jimmy Claxton played with the Oakland Oaks. He was introduced as a part native American. When it was discovered that Claxton also had black relatives, he was fired.
The Negro League was founded in 1920 by Rube Foster. The league tried to mirror the major leagues as best as they could. For the first time in history, blacks had their own league. But more important than that was a chance to play baseball.
With Gibson comes many different stories. In 1934, he hit 69 home runs. this was seven years after the Babe hit his 60 in 1927. Because he was not considered to be a major leaguer, many just wrote off this effort. However, true baseball fans knew this was a major achievement. It is said that Gibson hit a ball measured at 580 feet in Yankee Stadium. Jack Marshall, an infielder for the Chicago American giants said that Gibson it one out of Yankee Stadium. He claims that it went over the third deck next to the left field bull pen. Although not proved, it may have been the only ball ever hit out of Yankee Stadium. It is also said the Gibson once hit a ball in Detroit that went out of Tiger Stadium on the fly and landed in a nearby lumber yard. It is said to have traveled 668 feet in the air and stopped at 911 feet from home plate. The sad part is that nobody actually kept a record and wrote it down. That might have been the longest tape measure job in history.
He was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972. His plaque says that he hit nearly 800 Home runs. Some historians think that 1000 Home runs are more closer to his total. The “Sporting News” ranks him as the 18th greatest player in the game. Research indicates that Gibson hit a Home run in every 15.9 at bats.
In early 1943, Gibson went into a coma. He was diagnosed with a brain tumor. He decided not to have it removed and played the next four years with severe headaches. Then in 1947 he died. He was only 35 years old. He is buried in Pittsburgh’s’ Allegheny Cemetery. He died three months before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
2008 will be a big year for Gibson. The Washington Nationals plan to honor Gibson with a statue at their new stadium to be opened in 2008. He will be honored as one of the greatest players to ever play in the game of baseball.
As I sit here finishing this article, I can’t help but wonder how this Gibson would have matched up against Bob Gibson, Nolan Ryan, or Roger Clemens. If there is a field of dreams, maybe someday we will all get a chance to see that match up.
