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Posted By: Kenny Cole

Matt,

I'm not sure I agree that the Negro leagues were of major league caliber, at least not across the board. I think it is obvious that many of the stars who played in the Negro leagues would also have been stars in the National or American Leagues, and that many of those stars have never received the recognition they are due. I also don't have a problem agreeing that the talent level of the Negro league stars was at least equal to that of the MLB stars at most equivalent periods of time.

However, in most of the interviews with former Negro league players I have read, if the Negro league - MLB equivalence question is raised, the players say that the caliber of play in the Negro leagues was somewhere between AAA ball and the majors. The reasons most commonly given are that: (1) Negro league teams were generally far smaller than a MLB team (often consisting of 14-16 players), thus causing them to have far less bench strength than a MLB team; (2) their pitching depth was far poorer than MLB teams (at least back then - the current MLB depth is pretty weak in my opinion); and (3) many Negro league teams lacked much of a disciplined training regimine. On a most days, does a Negro league all star team beat a MLB all star team? The studies seem to say yes, although there have predictably been questions raised about the supposed absence of desire on the part of the MLB teams and the presence of extra desire on the part of the Negro league teams. I guess those questions are supposed to help explain why the MLB all star teams got whipped more often than not.

When all is said and done, I personally have some difficulty concluding that a team composed of 14-16 persons is going to be competitive with a team composed of 24-25 people for very long. While they could win on any given day, I don't see it happening too much over the course of long season. Even in the days when pitchers actually pitched more than twice a week and generally completed their games, presumably allowing teams to get by with fewer pitchers, that is kind of a stretch for me. Overall, I tend to think that a ranking between AAA and the majors is probably fairly accurate.

Insofar as the issue of the first Latin player in MLB is concerned, it seems to me that the answer is entirely dictated by how you define the major leagues. If the Haymakers are a major league team, Bellan is the guy. If they're not, he's not. I tend not to view the Haymakers as a MLB team, but others could certainly disagree and present valid arguments in support of their position. If you change the question to who is the first Latin player in "professional" baseball, Bellan may slide back in as the answer. However, Marsans was very clearly the first "impact" Latin player to play at the highest level. Consequently, I'd give the nod to him.

Kenny