His career records are impressive, and they even acknowledge that the records are incomplete. As it says on his tombstone, “Legendary Baseball Player”.
It seems problematic to incorporate the stats from two different leagues. Josh Gibson wasn’t hitting against the same pitchers as Ty Cob or Babe Ruth. Those guys were hitting against the best pitchers in the world. I’m not trying to devalue Gibson’s accomplishments, but the criteria to establish the records wasn’t the same.
Baseball stats had already incorporated multiple major leagues, some of which folded in the 1800s. Hell, the National League and American League are technically two separate leagues that used to have their own rules. Not to mention that the game has changed a lot in the nearly 150 years that the stats incorporate, from rule changes to different scheduling to better training regimens. With all that I think adding in the Negro Leagues stats isn’t too problematic at all.
Those are good points.
And Babe Ruth and Sammy Sosa weren’t hitting against the same kind of pitchers. I’d say Ruth and Gibson were probably facing pitchers and fielders with more in common than those of different eras. Stats always come with context. Doesn’t mean they don’t belong together in the same list.
Seems like a worthwhile discrepancy to ignore considering how marginalized they were back then. Im OK with it.
