The Seamheads Negro Leagues DB: A Brief Introduction

In the wake of the recent announcement about MLB’s recognition of the Negro leagues, we prepared the following brief introduction to our work here. The Seamheads Negro Leagues Database is an in-progress statistical encyclopedia covering Black professional baseball players, teams, and leagues during the era of segregation. Our work was specifically commended by Commissioner of […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1926 NNL Fielding & Pitching, 32 Home Runs for Suttles

We’ve added newly audited and expanded statistics for the 1926 Negro National League, including fielding statistics, complete pitching statistics, batters’ hit by pitch, and a handful of new games and corrections to the record. While I don’t think that counting stats are, by themselves, a particularly good measure of the quality of Negro league ballplayers, […]

THE 1944 MEXICAN LEAGUE SEASON

First and foremost, special thanks to John Russell and Steve Peissig, who provided rare Mexican League guides that enabled us to have FIELDING stats for the 1944 Mexican League and, for the first time, split out playing records for players who played for more than one team. For the 1944 Mexican League season, the league […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1924 NNL Fielding & Pitching + 1921 Tesreau Bears

A brief note on an update we made a few weeks ago. We have added: 1) Fielding statistics, full pitching statistics, and batters’ hit by pitch for the 1924 Negro National League, along with games involving one new independent team, Charlie Mills’s St. Louis Giants; 2) 1921 games between Black teams and a very good […]

THE 1942 MEXICAN LEAGUE SEASON

We’ve added data from the 1942 Mexican League, a season of 84-88 games that finished with three teams within two games of first place. Union Laguna de Torreon posted the best record (48-40) thanks to Martin Dihigo, who proved why he’s one of the greatest players in baseball history. The 37-year-old Dihigo not only led […]

NORMALIZING NEGRO LEAGUE STATISTICS

Most baseball fans are familiar with the concept of ‘normalizing’ statistics. For MLB statistics, the most basic adjustment is to normalize for park effects. The simplest park normalization calculation takes the impact of a team’s park on runs scored then divides that number, either positive or negative, in half, and then that calculation is applied […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1932 Negro Southern League

In time for the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Negro National League next month, we’re happy to announce that we have achieved full coverage of all the traditional major Negro leagues from 1920 through 1948. The latest addition to the DB is the 1932 Negro Southern League, the only year that circuit was […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1926 Negro National League

New in the DB: the 1926 Negro National League, once again based on the work of Larry Lester, Wayne Stivers, and the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group, with additions and edits by us. Along with the NNL playoffs and the 1926 World Series, the 1926 NNL takes its place alongside our compilation of the […]

THE 1941 MEXICAN LEAGUE SEASON

Before the 1941 season began, the Mexican League consolidated, going from 7 teams down to only 6 teams. Although the number of Negro Leaguers decreased from 67 to 58, in percentage terms they increased from around 33% to 40% of the total player population. But this understates their impact, as in terms of At Bats, […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1927 Negro National League

As we count down to the 100th anniversary of the first Negro National League (in February 2020), we’re adding the 1927 Negro National League to the database, to accompany our work on the 1927 Eastern Colored League. Based again on the work of Larry Lester, Wayne Stivers, Dick Clark, and the Negro League Researchers and […]

MACK PARK: Friend or Foe?

Ballparks are not uniform in baseball. Each one has unique dimensions and can be either a friend of Pitcher and foe of the batter, or vice versa. And beyond that, they can be friendly to RH batters, or LH batters, or both, or neither. Over the last decade, we’ve been continually building a “Negro Leagues […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1930 Negro National League

Check out the latest addition to the database, the 1930 Negro National League, based on the work of Larry Lester, Wayne Stivers, and the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group. Also part of this addition are games between NNL and eastern teams, especially the Homestead Grays, which gives a much fuller picture of the Grays’ […]

The Mexican Leagues are Here!

From its inception in 1924, thru the 1939 season, the Mexican League was basically a league of native Mexican semi-pro players, playing for their local teams. There were a few foreign imports that played in the league during those seasons, most notably Martin Dihigo, who left the New York Cubans after the 1936 season to […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1929 NNL

This week we’ve added the 1929 Negro National League to the database, where it joins the 1929 American Negro League (the east coast league) for a complete view of the black majors in that year. This update also includes the 1923 Harrisburg Giants and 1924–1925 Homestead Grays, both courtesy of Scott Simkus, along with new […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1931 NNL + 1922 Eastern Independent Teams

We’re happy to announce the latest update to the Seamheads Negro Leagues DB, one of the largest updates we’ve ever made. It includes: 1) The 1931 Negro National League (plus inter-regional games between NNL and eastern independent teams). This was the last year of the original NNL. Its death knell sounded when the Kansas City […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1929 American Negro League

We’re happy to announce the addition of the 1929 American Negro League season to the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database. This was an east coast league, a successor to the Eastern Colored League (which folded early in the 1928 season), and should not be confused with the later Negro American League (founded in 1937 and based […]

The “technically …not” Hall of Fame

In 2006, a Baseball Hall of Fame Special Committee on Negro Leagues, made up primarily of expert blackball scholars, elected 17 Negro Leaguers to the Hall of Fame, almost doubling the total number of players and executives whose careers were primarily in the Negro Leagues from 18 to 35. If we use Sol White and […]

Negro League DB Update: 1927 Eastern Colored League

Having brought our coverage of Negro league statistics forward to 1948, we are now going back to fill in the missing seasons from the late 1920s and early 1930s. First up is the 1927 Eastern Colored League, along with the Negro League World Series that year. The 1927 ECL opened with the same seven teams […]

Negro Leagues Database Update: East-West All-Star Games Added

We have now added 22 new games to the Negro Leagues Database – the 16 East-West All-Star games played annually at Comiskey Park in Chicago from 1933 through 1948, plus 6 ‘second all-star games’ that were played at various eastern ballparks (two at the Polo Grounds, two at Yankee Stadium, one at Griffith Stadium and […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1948 NAL & NNL

The latest addition to the Seamheads Negro Leagues DB encompasses the 1948 Negro American League, Negro National League, and World Series. This was the last season for the NNL, which ceased operations in 1949 as the Homestead Grays and Black Yankees dropped out, and the four remaining teams joined the Negro American League. It was […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1901 Cuban League

Our newest addition to the DB is the 1901 Cuban League. This is another product of our collaboration with Negroleagueshistory.com, based on research in 1899-1901 Cuban sports newspapers from the collections of Jay Caldwell and Ryan Christoff. The 1901 season was the second year of integrated pro baseball in Cuba. After San Francisco’s shock pennant […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1900 Cuban League

This week, as part of our collaboration with Jay Caldwell and Negroleagueshistory.com, we present statistics gleaned from box scores printed in Cuban baseball newspapers (supplied both by Jay and by Ryan Christoff) for the historic 1900 Cuban baseball season. This includes: 1) The Cuban X-Giants’ tour in Cuba in the spring of 1900, during which […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1947 NNL & NAL

We’re pleased to announce the addition of the 1947 Negro leagues to the DB. In that year history continued to bear down on the NNL & NAL. Josh Gibson tragically died in January. Jackie Robinson debuted for the Dodgers in April, and by mid-season other big league clubs were sniffing around the Negro leagues for […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1938 Negro American League

We’ve added the 1938 Negro American League to the database, meaning that we now have every major Negro league from 1933 through 1946—with 1947 coming soon. In 1938 the NAL’s center of gravity moved decisively to the South. The Cincinnati Tigers, St. Louis Stars, and Detroit Stars all folded—while two new clubs in the South […]

History of a St. Louis Baseball Franchise: The St. Louis Stars

St. Louis Stars The St. Louis Stars were born when Richard William Kent, Sam Sheppard, Dr. J. W. “George” McClelland and Dr. G. B. Keys purchased the NNL St. Louis Giants franchise after the 1921 season. Dick Kent was a very successful businessman, who went from being a shoe shine boy to a real estate […]

St. Louis’ Forgotten Champions

On Sunday afternoon, October 7, 1928, at Sportsman’s Park, the St. Louis Cardinals were about to play the New York Yankees in the 3rd game of the 1928 World Series, finding themselves already down 2 games to none. This was the “Murderers Row” Yankees, with Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, Combs, Hoyt, Pennock, etc. They played in […]

1928 Negro National League Season Review – It’s in the Stars

For both Black History Month and the 90th Anniversary of the 1928 Negro National League season, below is a recap of the 1928 NNL pennant race. The Stars’ Wonderful First Half The 1928 NNL consisted of the following teams (in order of their 1927 records): Chicago American Giants (won 1st half, playoffs and World Series […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1946 NNL & NAL

In 1946 the Negro leagues began to face the inevitable. The Brooklyn Dodgers finally broke Organized Baseball’s 60-year-old color line, signing several black players for their minor league system—including the best player in the 1945 Negro American League, the Monarchs’ shortstop Jackie Robinson, and arguably the best player in the 1945 Negro National League, the […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1945 NNL & NAL

Last week the Negro Leagues DB added the 1945 Negro National League and Negro American League. In the NAL the Cleveland Buckeyes, led by Sam Jethroe (.339/.435/.559) and player-manager Quincy Trouppe, ended the two-year run of the Birmingham Black Barons as league champions. The Buckeyes were the eleventh attempt (in 24 years) at fielding a […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1937 Negro American League

Here’s a brief, belated introduction to the 1937 Negro American League, which we added to the site last month (July 10, to be precise). For a broader view of that eventful year in black baseball history, see my entry on the 1937 Negro National League, which we added to the DB back in 2015. Meanwhile, […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1944 NNL & NAL

Check out the 1944 Negro leagues, newly added to the DB this week. Another wartime season, 1944 saw a large number of the most promising young players, as well as many players in the primes of their careers, off to the war. In the NAL, the Kansas City Monarchs struggled without sluggers Willard Brown and […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1943 NNL & NAL

Here is Scott Simkus to introduce his work on the 1943 Negro leagues: With war raging overseas, Negro league rosters were once again ravaged by the draft in 1943, with star players Monte Irvin, Ted Strong, and Max Manning headlining a list of more than a couple dozen active African-American ballplayers entering the armed services. […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1942 NAL & NNL

Along with the new design and features added by our webmaster and Baseball Gauge guru Dan Hirsch, and the new logo designed by Gary Cieradkowski (of Infinite Baseball Cards fame), we’ve also added two whole new seasons this week, 1942 and 1943. The 1943 season is the work of Scott Simkus (you know him from […]

Introducing the New Negro Leagues Database

It’s been over five years since we originally launched the Negro Leagues Database. Over that time, there have been significant additions to the database, in terms of new seasons and statistics. But the website and the presentation of these statistics have largely remained the same. In May of 2015, I overhauled the Major League part […]

Negro Leagues DB Update: 1941 NNL & NAL

For the second year in a row, the Negro Leagues’ best player, Josh Gibson, played in the Mexican League instead of with the Homestead Grays. For the standings at least, it didn’t matter as Homestead finished first for the fifth consecutive year. The Grays were a very veteran team by 1941. Thirty-three year old first […]

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