Charleston v. Clemente

[rats60]

Originally Posted by aljurgela

All fair points... I am not as sophisticated with Mr. James on the stats side of the equation, so I generally will trust his opinion.. but this quote from him gives you some insight:

"It’s not like one person saw Oscar Charleston play and said that he was the greatest player ever. Lots of people said he was the greatest player they ever saw. John McGraw, who knew something about baseball, reportedly said that. . . . His statistical record, such as it is, would not discourage you from believing that this was true. I don’t think I’m a soft touch or easily persuaded; I believe I’m fairly skeptical. I just don’t see any reason not to believe that this man was as good as anybody who ever played the game."

I also tend to be somewhat moved by this opinion:

Bill James, than whom no one has ever more carefully or impartially considered the historical evidence. In his New Bill James Baseball Historical Abstract, James ranks Charleston the fourth-greatest baseball player of all time.
Only Ruth, Wagner, and Mays were greater. Cobb, Mantle, Musial, Aaron, Williams, and other elite members of the tiny, last-names-only club don’t quite measure up.

Think about it. Bill James said that. Not a random fan or family member. Not a sportswriter ginning up a story. Not a basement-dweller blogger at Bleacher Report. Not an attention-seeking talking head. Not a revisionist historian with a social or political agenda. Bill James. The father of sabermetrics. The man who brought a new level of rigor in our thinking about baseball—indeed, about sports generally. The man who launched the analytics revolution. A walking baseball encyclopedia. A man who prides himself on not giving a damn what other people think.

He is the one who said that Oscar Charleston was the fourth-greatest player of all time, which of course makes Charleston one of the greatest athletes in American history.

Anyone who is interested in this may find this page (and the ones generally about him) helpful.

https://oscarcharleston.com/tag/bill-james/

I don't doubt that Charleston was a great player, at worst top 5 Negro League player. However, I have a problem with rating any Negro League player that high for the fact that they never played in the Majors, to no fault of their own. Ty Cobb hit .367 with 4191 hits, 892 stolen bases and won 12 batting titles. Could Charleston have done that? We will never know, but Cobb did. Ted Williams hit .344 with 521 HRs, despite missing 5 season to military service, with an OPS+ of 190. Could Charleston have done that? I don't think there is enough data to say that Oscar was better than all time greats like Cobb and Williams.

Babe Ruth said Pop Lloyd was the best Negro League player. Monte Irvin said Josh Gibson was the best. So who is right? McGraw? Ruth? Irvin? All see are are conflicting opinions. Also, some stories are exagurated like the one that Oscar would have made "the catch" in the 1954 World Series, but would have been waiting for the ball to arrive instead of making the catch on the dead run like Mays.

[Scocs]

Cobb and Williams never faced black players....is Cobb still hitting .366 lifetime? You see the flawed argument on both sides...

[orly57]

Originally Posted by Scocs

Cobb and Williams never faced black players....is Cobb still hitting .366 lifetime? You see the flawed argument on both sides...

Ted Williams actually faced Satchel Paige. He went 1-6. It was, of course, very late in their careers, but your point is well taken.

[aljurgela]

Originally Posted by Scocs

Cobb and Williams never faced black players....is Cobb still hitting .366 lifetime? You see the flawed argument on both sides...

And when they did play (like Cuba in 1909 and 1910), the black players did very well against the MLB teams. There has been a story about Bruce Petway throwing out Cobb three times while trying to steal, but I think that it has been refuted. Regardless they were good... Pop Lloyd hit .313 against MLB pitching albeit a small sample size and that is pretty consistent with the .318 that he had in the Cuban League.

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/pl...rID=lloyd01joh

In the few games that Charleston played against MLB players he raked with an .347 average and OPS of 1.224.

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/pl...rID=charl01osc

Could he have kept it up? Who knows, but intuition tells me that it is highly likely that he would have been elite if ever given the chance to shine. Why? Because he shined anyway! He basically had the same number (but a lower slugging percentage) when he played against the negro league players on a more consistent basis.

I tend to believe that the negro leagues and the MLB leagues are closer in talent and depth than most people do. Think about it.... this was basically the only professional sport than African Americans athletes played. There was no football and basketball to siphon the talent pool. Anyway, just my 2 cents.

[rats60]

Originally Posted by Scocs

Cobb and Williams never faced black players....is Cobb still hitting .366 lifetime? You see the flawed argument on both sides...

Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957 when blacks could pitch in the majors. Besides Bob Gibson, what great black pitcher has their been since 1947? How many pitchers post intregation were as good as Walter Johnson or Cy Young? My opinion is yes he still would have hit .366 if mlb was integrated.

[Jason19th]

Originally Posted by rats60

Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957 when blacks could pitch in the majors. Besides Bob Gibson, what great black pitcher has their been since 1947? How many pitchers post intregation were as good as Walter Johnson or Cy Young? My opinion is yes he still would have hit .366 if mlb was integrated.

Careers
1. Don Newcombe
2. Juan Marichal
3. Feggie Jenkins
4. Pedro Martinez
5. Luis Tiant

Short term greatness
1. Dwight Gooden
2. Vida Blue
3. Mudcat Grant
4. Ramon Martinez
5. JR Richards

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by rats60

Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957 when blacks could pitch in the majors. Besides Bob Gibson, what great black pitcher has their been since 1947? How many pitchers post intregation were as good as Walter Johnson or Cy Young? My opinion is yes he still would have hit .366 if mlb was integrated.

A) If you increase the pool of talent you're drawing from you're necessarily going to make the opponents (Ted Williams or otherwise) fare worse than they otherwise would have.

B) The appropriate comparison should be not to the two greatest pitchers in MLB history but to the below average pitchers of the 1940s who wouldn't have been on the roster to face Teddy if the game had integrated earlier.

[Scocs]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

A) If you increase the pool of talent you're drawing from you're necessarily going to make the opponents (Ted Williams or otherwise) fare worse than they otherwise would have.

B) The appropriate comparison should be not to the two greatest pitchers in MLB history but to the below average pitchers of the 1940s who wouldn't have been on the roster to face Teddy if the game had integrated earlier.

+1

[aljurgela]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

A) If you increase the pool of talent you're drawing from you're necessarily going to make the opponents (Ted Williams or otherwise) fare worse than they otherwise would have.

B) The appropriate comparison should be not to the two greatest pitchers in MLB history but to the below average pitchers of the 1940s who wouldn't have been on the roster to face Teddy if the game had integrated earlier.

+2

[rats60]

Originally Posted by darwinbulldog

A) If you increase the pool of talent you're drawing from you're necessarily going to make the opponents (Ted Williams or otherwise) fare worse than they otherwise would have.

B) The appropriate comparison should be not to the two greatest pitchers in MLB history but to the below average pitchers of the 1940s who wouldn't have been on the roster to face Teddy if the game had integrated earlier.

Ty Cobb hit .366 vs. Walter Johnson. So, who or these mysterious pitchers who Cobb couldn't have hit against?
If your assumptions were correct, then how do you explain Williams hitting .388 in 1957? The fact is integrating the majors didn't slow Ted down. From 1954-57 Williams hit .359 with an OPS+ of 203.

[Jason19th]

Originally Posted by rats60

Ty Cobb hit .366 vs. Walter Johnson. So, who or these mysterious pitchers who Cobb couldn't have hit against?
If your assumptions were correct, then how do you explain Williams hitting .388 in 1957? The fact is integrating the majors didn't slow Ted down. From 1954-57 Williams hit .359 with an OPS+ of 203.

You do remember that Ted used his hall of fame induction speech to talk about the need to recognize the greatness of great black players who were denied their pace in the majors. It's also important to remember that the national league integrated a lot faster so ted wasn't facing many black pitchers prior to retirement

Also the mysterious pitchers were
1. Jose Mendez
2. Rube and Bill Foster
3. Dick Redding
4. George Wilson
5. Smoking Joe Williams

These were the type of players who could have at very least replaced the below average starters Cobb was feasting on

[darwinbulldog]

Originally Posted by rats60

Ty Cobb hit .366 vs. Walter Johnson. So, who or these mysterious pitchers who Cobb couldn't have hit against?
If your assumptions were correct, then how do you explain Williams hitting .388 in 1957? The fact is integrating the majors didn't slow Ted down. From 1954-57 Williams hit .359 with an OPS+ of 203.

And Hank Aaron hit .362 against Koufax. I'm going to extrapolate from your anecdotes as arguments logic that Aaron must have had about a .450-.475 career BA.

[darwinbulldog]

Also Ty Cobb hit .139 against Bill Bayne. You can look it up. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess there was at least one Negro League pitcher better than Bill Bayne.

[Fred]

Originally Posted by rats60

Ty Cobb hit .366 vs. Walter Johnson. So, who or these mysterious pitchers who Cobb couldn't have hit against?
If your assumptions were correct, then how do you explain Williams hitting .388 in 1957? The fact is integrating the majors didn't slow Ted down. From 1954-57 Williams hit .359 with an OPS+ of 203.

Cobb's lifetime average is .367 so he was just below average when facing Johnson (probably like most others). Ok, not so bad....

Al, this is an interesting topic. Are there any books (biographies) on Oscar? Have you read them? It'd be interesting to see James put together a document supporting why he believes Oscar is top 5, that's a very bold statement. As far as card values go, it's supply and demand (as indicated throughout this thread) which are based on so many of the factors that have been mentioned in this thread. Negro League collecting is a niche that has a relatively small audience. Please don't read too deeply into that, it's just a statement that covers the reason why there's such a difference in Clemente vs Oscar.

[aljurgela]

Originally Posted by Fred

Cobb's lifetime average is .367 so he was just below average when facing Johnson (probably like most others). Ok, not so bad....

Al, this is an interesting topic. Are there any books (biographies) on Oscar? Have you read them? It'd be interesting to see James put together a document supporting why he believes Oscar is top 5, that's a very bold statement. As far as card values go, it's supply and demand (as indicated throughout this thread) which are based on so many of the factors that have been mentioned in this thread. Negro League collecting is a niche that has a relatively small audience. Please don't read too deeply into that, it's just a statement that covers the reason why there's such a difference in Clemente vs Oscar.

None that I know of as of now. I have heard that there are a few thinking about the project. And don’t worry. I have pretty thick skin and so not really give a “darn” what others think about the negro leagues. There are some great general books. Including a biography of Mendez which is cool. I always say that one should collect what they like. I am partial to history and pretty much detest injustice, so I am fascinated by this niche. The funny thing is that I have always loved Clemente, but if given the chance I would rather own a Dave Brown Billiken to a mid grade Clemente rookie any day. If you don’t know about Dave Brown, you should check him out. Fascinating story.

I have been posting some YouTube videos about the cards, but maybe we should spend some time on the history as well. The blog that I posted has some pretty good info on Charleston, though.

Al

[Kenny Cole]

Originally Posted by rats60

Ted Williams hit .388 in 1957 when blacks could pitch in the majors. Besides Bob Gibson, what great black pitcher has their been since 1947? How many pitchers post intregation were as good as Walter Johnson or Cy Young? My opinion is yes he still would have hit .366 if mlb was integrated.

"Could pitch." How many did? Particularly early in integration there weren't too many. Those who did were veterans from the Negro Leagues. At least that is my perception. Sam Jones, Paige, Don Newcombe, Joe Black. They were all either Dodgers or Giants. No one in the AL who comes to mind other than Paige. Who else? Name names. Gibson was literally 10 years later and in the NL. Marichal was in a different league too and basically debuted the year Williams retired. So best as I can tell, your statement is basically irrelevant insofar as Williams numbers are concerned he was still basically hitting pre-integration pitching. There is no difference because there was literally no difference.