Negro Leagues Were Major Leagues

Visual artist and teacher Todd Peterson lives in Overland Park, Missouri. His work has been published in Baseball Research Journal and Black Ball.

• Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart One. EqualityBaseball Is the Music of MathematicsLarry LesterThe Case for the Negro LeaguesTodd PetersonMeasuring Equality: A Statistical Comparison of the Negro Leagues to the Major Leagues Based on the 1925 SeasonRichard J. PuerzerGray Area: Homestead vs. the Minor LeaguesScott SimkusThe Color of Money: Salaries and Performance in Pre–and Post-Integration BaseballMichael HaupertWinning in the Crucible of White-Hot CompetitionJeffery S. WilliamsThe Top Ten Reasons Why the Negro Leagues Should Be Declared a Major LeagueTed KnorrPart Two. EquityHotel Resorts and the Emergence of the Black Baseball Professional: Riverine and Maritime Communities, 1867–1890 James E. Brunson IIILeading Off: The Cuban GiantsTony KisselRube Foster: Negro League GiantRobert C. CottrellJohn Donaldson: Restoring the Legacy of Segregated Baseball’s Greatest PitcherPete GortonThe Measure of Failure: Atlanta Baseball and Community Development in the 1930s and 1970sThomas AielloChanging the Way They Do Business: Jackie Robinson, Integration and the Origins of Organizational Culture in Organized BaseballMichael E. LomaxSeparate but UnequalPhilip J. LowryMonuments: The Shaping of Negro Leagues Public MemoryJosh HowardAppendix I: NLB vs. MLB, 1885–1924Appendix II: NLB vs. MLB All-Stars, 1902–1948Appendix III: NLB vs. MLB Batting, Pitching and Fielding Statistics, 1886–1948Appendix IV: Batting and Pitching Statistics of Negro Leaguers in MLB and Triple A Appendix V: Black Minor League Batting and Pitching Leaders, 1946–1975 Appendix VI: MLB/NLB Throwback Games, 1994–2019 BibliographyAbout the ContributorsIndex

“How good were the Negro Leagues? Conventional thinking has dictated that, while stars from the Negro Leagues (Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and many others) were every bit the equal of, if not superior to, Major League standouts, the overall quality of Negro Leagues play was inferior to that of the majors. This collection of essays by baseball historians, many affiliated with the Society of American Baseball Research (SABR), tells a different story.... the authors have assembled all the available data and reassessed it in a wealth of revealing ways, including a comparison of all games played between 1920 and 1948 between Negro League teams and major leaguers...Peterson dives much deeper into the stats in his contribution, ‘The Case for the Negro Leagues,’ which analyzes available pitching and hitting records to show that in every area the Negro Leagues either outperform or are equal to Major League numbers...an important contribution to baseball history”—Booklist