rickey henderson = the black lenny dykstra!

I’ve been intending to link to this for a while.  Over at Baseball Think Factory, this thread on Ichiro Suzuki’s Hall of Fame chances from back in July morphed, somehow, into a sprawling, not-always very polite argument about Negro League statistics, specifically whether or not one can prove that Josh Gibson was the greatest-hitting catcher of all time. 

If you have the patience to wade through the 900+ posts (and a lot of snark and aggressive ignorance), there are some gems there, particularly this post (post #434; it should be on top if I’ve done this link correctly). It’s a satirical little thought experiment about what might have happened had baseball continued to be segregated to the present day and how tough-minded analysts and “skeptical” mainstream fans might view the best black players of the past few decades, had those players been forced to ply their trade in obscure and poorly-documented Negro Leagues.

One response

  1. David Lawrence Avatar
    David Lawrence

    The baudib post in the Gibson/Ichiro thread is marvelous, as you say. But in this sprawling thread, I can’t manage to find baudib’s original link to his HOM comparison chart between NELs and MLBs. It’s referred to many times, but I can’t find it. If you could send it to me, I would appreciate it.
    Thanks,
    David Lawrence

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