Take Note, Ty Cobb Fans

[tjisonline]

Well said.

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

A concept I was struggling with is: Where is the data coming from, and how valid, accurate and complete is the data.

Years ago I tried to obtain stats for Satchell Paige. At the time, there wasn't much data, if any to be found. Chalk it up to go with the stories (decent amount of first account stories) and judge from there. Not much argument Paige was among the very best if not THE best, so I pencil him in at the top of my personal list. And assume he could easily give Walter Johnson, Lefty Grove, Koufax, Ryan, Seaver, Maddux, Randy Johnson a run for their money.

I found this morning some info about how the recently revealed numbers came to be.

"...bless those that spent more than 3 years digging through newspapers and other relics is search of the box scores to make it happen."

Ok, alright. Sounds like perhaps enough data has been recently been found to formulate some statistical legitimacy. But is it enough to warrant the new "set in stone" stats to be forever more regarded as gospel.

And the records - we are talking Major League Baseball MLB official records, are we not ? The Negro Leagues were not MLB. Kind of like in basketball, the ABA records are ABA records and not NBA records. To anoint an ABA record holder the now new king of an NBA stat record is not correct. There are different Leagues, different leagues have different records and different leagues have overall different talent levels. I am not a soccer guy, but professional soccer may also have different leagues. Again, is it appropriate we blend the leagues and their stats to come up with correct and official "together" records.

Although I can now better acknowledge and praise the accomplishments of Negro League players, I still find it difficult to incorporate the numbers we do have and rewrite the record books of MLB.