Sports Reference Blog
Negro League Stats: 1903-1948
Posted by sean on March 22, 2012
We are very pleased and honored to announce that we have added Negro League Statistics from 1903 through 1948. These stats are due to a pair of collaborations. The first is between Baseball-Reference.com and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum (1920-1948 data), and the second is between B-R and Gary Ashwill and Scott Simkus of Outsider Baseball (1903-1919 data).
The details of what is and is not included is understandably complicated and the list of contributors very long, so we have provided a detailed rundown of the stats and the people who researched them.
Special thanks also to Ted Turocy who helped immensely with the integration of the stats into our existing databases.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For a researcher/stat geek, this is one of those "where were you when" moments. This is a momentous occasion. Congrats and thanks to all involved in pulling this together.
I believe I owe you a sponsorship for coming through on this one. I'll have to find a player.
Congrats on your hard work here!
Awesome work guys. This is amazing.
Like Christmas morning!
No stats for the '36 Monarchs - have no games been found for that year or is that a mistake?
The Monarchs were not officially part of any league from 1931-1936, so the NLRAG study did not include any of their games.
Over at seamheads.com, once we get up to 1936, we'll have statistics for Monarch's games vs. other major Negro League teams included. Unfortunately, it may be a while before we get 1936 stats posted....
Thanks KJOK. There are B-Ref stats for the Monarchs from '31-'35, so the fact that they were independent doesn't necessarily explain why '36 is missing.
However I do see about 12 games worth of stats for 1935 Kansas City Monarchs, so I may have to retract what I just said - it's not clear about 1936.....
[...] Negro League Stats: 1903-1948 [...]
It's wonderful to finally see these statistics. Some of us have been waiting for 10 years.
A question — these tables don't show games played by batters or pitchers, yet when the Hall of Fame previously published data for selected players (such as in Hogan's Shades of Glory), games were included. So I infer that the data on games played were available, but somehow didn't get transferred into bbref's database. Would it be possible to add them?
You all got a big shout-out on the WEEI / MLB.com RedSox broadcast last nite. You deserved it, they and I am very excited about this.
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If putting Josh Gibson's statue along-side Walter Johnson's in Washington is a physical manifestation of historical equality, publishing their statistics (however imperfect) in BR is the factual equivalent.
This is awesome!
The best thing Basball Reference ever did. Congratulations.
Josh Gibson shows 1 walk in 1943, but 39 walks in Shades of Glory, which is supposed to be the same data. I think something may be not quite right yet.
Two questions:
1. MLB counts pretty much every "major" league since 1876 in its stats, including the 1884 Union Association, 1890 Players' League, and 1914-15 Federal League. Is there any chance that the Negro Leagues will be similarly counted?
2. I understand that the Negro League teams did a lot of barnstorming and that league play actually was quite a bit shorter than MLB, something like 60-80 game seasons. Do these stats only count league play?