Contemporary Negro League Stats

[Jason19th]

I don’t think the batting stats really speak to bad pitching but really just to style of play. When looking at Negro League stats of the 1940’s I think it is best to compare them to MLB stats of the 1920’s. It was just a league where the rules and the style of play favored the offense.
There were a number of good pitchers that came out after integration. Don Newcombe was about as good as you can be without making the Hall. Paige was winning games at 40 plus. Dan Bankhead has a number of really good years, as did Sam Jones. There was also a bit of a timing issue where a lot of the great black pitchers were just to old. If integration had come 10 years earlier guys like Cher Brewer, Leon Day and Martin Dihigo would have been great in the MLB. The talent was there. There was also a continuation of the racism that really restricted opportunities as pitcher was thought of as to cerebral a position for black players.