Recent Comments

1. about 1 hour ago on Clay Jones

   Point of trivia: Three Nëgro League players are still alive, one of whom went on to become a superstar in the National League: Willie Mays, who is now 93 years old.

   It will be interesting to see how incorporating Nëgro League stats into official Major League records will alter the standing of superstars like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, who were stars in the Nëgro League before making the transition to the previously all-white Major Leagues.

2. about 1 hour ago on Clay Jones

   — I understand what you are saying about the proportional population numbers (twice as many teams in the white major leagues coming from eight times the total population), but as I noted earlier, when the Nëgro League teams played head-to-head with National League and American League teams, they won a majority of the 180 documented games between Nëgro League teams and teams from the white major leagues (many such competitions were organized by Dizzy Dean, a champion of recognizing African Americans in baseball, whose Cardinals lost numerous games to Nëgro League teams). You can’t do that on star power alone; you need a deep bench.

   The fact that Nëgro League teams did play head-to-head, and came out ahead more than they lost, absolutely solidifies the claim that Nëgro League teams were fully MAJOR LEAGUE TEAMS in every sense of the word.

   While it is impossible to fully go back in time and equalize all parameters, the records clearly shows that the Nëgro League teams were fully MAJOR LEAGUE and in any compilation of Major League records, their stats should absolutely be included.

3. about 3 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Further to the point that I am not talking about hypotheticals, or comparing players of one era to players of a different era, the reality is that the Nëgro Leagues were playing in the same era as the early National and American leagues. It was possible to compare them apples to apples.

   Prior to desegregation of baseball, teams from the old Nëgro Leagues did play exhibition games against major league teams and, in head-to-head contests, Nëgro League teams won about 60-70% of such matchups with National and American major league teams.

   This is not hypothetical; this is history. THEY WERE ANOTHER MAJOR LEAGUE.

4. about 4 hours ago on Clay Jones

   — Beyond correcting the historical injustice, which I agree is a worthy objective, it is also a matter of making the records books of the Hall of Fame more accurate. Prior to 1947, when Jackie Robinson suited up and went out on the field to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers (or maybe 1945 when Happy Chandler replaced racist Kenesaw Mountain Landis as baseball commissioner, setting the stage to end Landis’ rule prohibiting African Americans in the National and American Leagues), there were THREE major leagues — two for whites and one for blacks. These were the leagues where the top baseball talent went to play, unfortunately segregated by race.

   Once the color barrier fell, the Nëgro Leagues merged into the formerly all-white leagues as all the top talent quickly found places on top teams, and quickly showed just how much talent they had, bringing superstardom with them and setting new records and elevating the quality of play.

   Accuracy requires that, if they are going to keep records of major league play, that they include ALL of the major leagues.

5. about 5 hours ago on Clay Jones

   Your fallacy is in trying to compare the old Nëgro Leagues to minor league team or teams in other countries or women’s leagues or softball leagues.

   You completely miss the point, and frankly, to suggest that the old Nëgro Leagues were the equivalent of minor league teams or women’s teams or softball is insulting and racist.

   Players in the Nëgro Leagues were MAJOR LEAGUE TALENT. The players in the Nëgro Leagues would have been playing in the National or American Leagues if they had been allowed to.

   Do you think that all of a sudden one day, African American players like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays (and many others) woke up one day and suddenly got some magical talent that made them superstars? And by coincidence it just happened at the moment Happy Chandler (a former governor and senator from a SOUTHERN state) succeeded Kenesaw Mountain Landis as commissioner of baseball and ended his long-standing ban on black players?

   No, African American players had always had equal talent with whites. The players in the old Nëgro Leagues were the pinnacle of talent. It was the highest level to which players of color — who would have been in the major leagues but for the ban — could ascend. THEY WERE MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS.

   There were not just two major leagues. There were three.

   For whites, there was the National and American Leagues. For blacks, there was the Nëgro Leagues. If you are going to post the stats for the National and American Leagues in the Hall of Fame, then you should also post the stats from the third major league on an equal basis.

   Even some of the old stars like Satchel Paige did finally make it to the major leagues, but long after they were past their amazing prime, and they could still compete. (Neither Josh Gibson nor Buck O’Neil ever played in the National or American Leagues, but O’Neil did become the first African American COACH in the major leagues.)

6. about 6 hours ago on Clay Bennett

   CONVICTED FELON Dirty Don the Drowsy Dozing CON is the one who “started this fire” when he committed THIRTY-FOUR FELONIES in New York.

7. about 6 hours ago on Clay Bennett

   I’m hearing a lot of speculation that, as an older first-time offender for a non-violent offense, CONVICTED FELON Dirty Don the Drowsy Dozing CON could get probation only with no jail time.

   I am hoping that he does get some time behind bars — even if it is only 30 or 60 days, which would be enormously painful for him. And I’m not a monster. I’d even let them spray paint his cell gold so he’ll feel right at home.

   I saw one New York probation expert being interviewed on MSNBC this morning who said that, in preparing the probation report that the judge will use in considering his sentencing, they can consider all aspects of his life and not just the limits of this case.

   That means they can consider the E Jean Carroll sexual assault judgments, the civil fraud judgments and the fraud judgments in the cases of Trump “University” and his fake charity. Alan Weisselberg was an elderly first-time non-violent offender, too, and he went to jail.

   The person being interviewed said they would not be at all quick to conclude that jail is off the table.

   I do hope he does at least some time.

8. about 6 hours ago on Clay Jones

   — What gives you the idea that this is the issue that I am most passionate about or that I don’t care about other issues (including the ones you listed)?

   Do you understand how the comics comments section works?

   A political cartoonist draws a cartoon. People comment on it.

   I am commenting on this issue on this page on this date because that is what the cartoon on this page on this date is about.

   On other days or other pages I comment on other subjects, including the ones you listed. I have commented on those subjects, and at far greater length than this one. But the reason I am commenting on this subject on this page on this date is because that is the subject of the cartoon I am responding to.

   You should refrain from making guesses about people you don’t know and then just assuming that your guess is correct.

9. about 8 hours ago on Clay Jones

   — THE POINT is that there were not just two major leagues (National and American). There were THREE major leagues — National, American and Nëgro Leagues. All three of these were the highest pinnacle of skill to which players could advance in baseball — if you were white, it was to make it to the National or American League. If not, the place for the top talent was in the old Nëgro leagues. Major league talent. We have all the statistics from all three leagues. If we are going to include the stats from National and American leagues, we must by equity include the stats from the Nëgro Leagues. THEY WERE MAJOR LEAGUE PLAYERS.

   It is not speculation that there was major league talent that could not play in the white leagues because of the rulings of Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis.

   What is speculative is how much the stats of Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, Buck O’Neil and others would have changed if they had competed against the talents of Cy Young, Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth. But it is equally speculative how much the stats of Cy Young, Ty Cobb or Babe Ruth if their competition had included the likes of Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige or Buck O’Neil.

   Yes, there is a speculative aspect. But it works on both sides of the equation. The injustice that we cannot go back in time and undo is that the leagues were separated on the basis of race. The injustice that we CAN correct is to include all of their stats because all of them were major league players.

10. about 17 hours ago on Clay Jones

    — Some of the superstars from the old Nëgro Leagues like Satchel Paige were finally able to come to the white major leagues and show their brilliance, even though they were old and past their prime. Others, like Jackie Robinson, Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, were finally able to break into the white major leagues after starting in the Nëgro Leagues, and proved that they were not only equal, but superior to many of their white counterparts. The stats — already impressive — of these superstars, will now be increased to rightfully, and long overdue, reflect their baseball achievements before they came to the white major leagues and, by their presence, improved the quality of major league play.

    The old Nëgro Leagues were filled with stars that would have found homes on National and American League teams if racist Kenesaw Mountain Landis had not been such a pathetic, insecure RACIST wimp that he could not allow everyone to compete on a fully equal playing field.