Baseball In Black And White

When I was very young my Dad's favorite ballplayer was Willie Mays, who became my favorite player, and always will be (sorry Big Papi, but you're #2).  He also told me how important the integration of baseball was and that the National League played a superior brand of baseball to the American because it was much more aggressive in signing black ballplayers.  Dad's viewpoint is now generally accepted - the National League had a quality advantage in the 1950s and 60s, before the American League finally caught up.

I thought I'd try to quantify that advantage by looking at AL and NL ballplayers at the end of the 50s, 1959 to be specific, and in the mid-60s (1965).  The method was to identify all American black and dark-skinned Latins on AL and NL rosters in those years who accumulated at least 1.0 WAR.  While WAR (Wins Above Replacement) is a flawed measure it is useful for making comparisons. "White" Latins, like Luis Aparicio, are not included because they had been generally accepted in baseball since at least the 1920s, in contrast to darker skinned Latins like Minnie Minoso.


It turns out differences in numbers and talent were significant in both years.

In 1959 there were 17 black players on National League rosters who accumulated at least 1.0 WAR.  Cumulative WAR was 69.7 or an average of 4.1  Eight were eventually inducted in the Hall of Fame (Hank Aaron, Orlando Cepeda, Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Roberto Clemente, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson and Bob Gibson).

There were only 4 in the American League with a cumulative WAR of 11.2 (2.8 average) of which Minnie Minoso accounted for almost half (5.5).  The other three were Vic Power, Pumpsie Green, and Elston Howard.  None are in the Hall of Fame, though Minoso might have if he'd been able to start his major league career earlier.

By 1965 the National League had 35 black ballplayers meeting the criteria.  Cumulative WAR was 161.7 or an average of 4.6.  Twelve of the 35 have been inducted into the HOF - in addition to those from 1959 we can add Juan Marichal, Willie Stargell, Lou Brock, Billy Williams, and Joe Morgan (Orlando Cepeda was still active but injured, missing most of the season).  Other outstanding black ballplayers active in the NL that year included Dick Allen, Curt Flood, Vada Pinson, Jimmy Wynn, and Felipe Alou.

The number of black ballplayers had substantially increased in the AL to 23 and cumulative WAR to 64.5 but the talent gap remained; average WAR was 2.8, and only three had at least 5.0 WAR compared to 15 in the NL, and none have yet been admitted to the Hall of Fame, though Luis Tiant might eventually make it (I hope), and Tony Oliva might have but for the injuries that shortened his effective career.

In 1965 the talent gap between the leagues extended beyond race.  That year the AL had only nine players with at least 5.0 WAR while 26 NL players reached or surpassed that mark.

Dad was right.