Negro league stats

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Posted By: Frank Ceresi

John Holways book is the most accomplished book ever published regarding Negro League statistics but even conceding that John poured over countless boxscores at the Library of Congress regarding the same, he and I have both discovered something that should be considered: many of the statistics published and viewed in the old box scores from papers throughout the country might be faulty and thus at least somewhat unreliable. I have done a fair amount of research on the great Sol White (who will certainly be elected to the Hall in a week or so), and learned that Sol tried for years to have the the Negro Leagues hire professional scorers, for the very reason that we seek reliable stats today...to make sure that history properly records the play of those great players who toiled in the Negro Leagues. Much to Sol's chagrin, however, there was never enough money to hire professionals to keep reliable stats. Having said that, there is enoough reliable evidence to have a pretty good idea of which players really excelled.