On Tuesday MLB finally made the decision, rightfully so, to make the Negro Leagues a part of all big league baseball, and will set forth on including all it's players, teams, stats, etc, into the big league record book.
For fans if baseball in the State of Michigan, and the City of Detroit, this includes the players of the Detroit Stars, as well as the Detroit Wolves, who played only the 1932 season.
The most famous of the Negro Leagues players from the Stars was Hall of Famer Norman "Turkey" Stearnes, who played 10 of his 20 years for the Stars.
This iconic picture of Stearnes at old Tiger Stadium is one of my favorite baseball photos.
Turkey is famous for talking to his bat to coax base hits out of the lumber that he used to wallop 176 homers, including a 23 HR season in 1928, one of his 6 seasons of double digits dingers playing in Detroit.
The Stars uniforms were awesome, and I love getting Tigers baseball cards of players while they're wearing the replica uniform during the Negro Leagues weekends the team has celebrated over the last few decades.
⚾ I wrote an initial piece way back when Topps Series 1 came out, then shared a picture of the pink version in October.
It's only one week until Christmas, and I hope y'all are enjoying the season, and are staying safe as you go about your shopping.
⚾⛄🌲 Over on the Topps BUNT app, I have the Negro Leagues logo as my avatar.
🤔 Do you have a favorite Negro Leagues team, or player?
⚾🌲⛄ Have a terrific weekend...Play BALL! ⚾
Don't really have a favorite team or player, but there was a time when I considered buying a Homestead Grays jersey.
ReplyDeleteThey didn't keep the most accurate of stats for the negro leagues, so I can't imagine too many of them are going to be merged into the lists of all-time records.
ReplyDeleteI don't know enough about them to have favorites. Satch, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell are obvious candidates based on name recognition though.
ReplyDeleteJust learned about your blog. Very nice. I’ll add it to my roll.
ReplyDeleteCool post. My fav is Cool Papa Bell, but I like Fleetwood Walker too as he played briefly with the Syracuse Stars. He was the last Black to play in MLB (American Assoc. I think) until Jackie Robinson.