Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1926 stats
By Gary Ashwill
We are pleased to announce the addition of 1926 Negro National League statistics to the award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database.
Our newly audited and expanded statistics for the 1926 Negro National League includes 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, it’s worth noting that this audit has produced a new single-season record for home runs by a player in games against Negro league opponents: 32 by Mule Suttles of the St. Louis Stars.
The Stars played in Stars Park, which was built up against a trolley car barn that cut into left field, making it a great park for right-handed power hitters. In fact, Suttles hit 26 home runs in Stars Park (one of them inside the park) and only 6 on the road. Those numbers are a bit deceiving, though, as the Stars’ schedule was extremely lopsided, with most of their NNL games played at home.
A few other statistical highlights from this update, all from the St. Louis Stars:
- Suttles also sets single-season Negro league records for triples (19) and extra base hits (79), as well as for slugging percentage with 200 plate appearances or more (.877).
- The NNL leader in HBP was Stars catcher Mitchell Murray with 15, which also sets a single-season Negro league record.
- Cool Papa Bell stole 36 bases, which is the second-highest single-season Negro league total we’ve recorded (the highest is Bell’s 49 in 1929).
- St. Louis pitcher Slap Hensley set a less enviable record by allowing 20 home runs, the most allowed by a Negro league pitcher in a single season (so far). To be fair, he was a workhorse in an extreme hitters’ park who led the league in most counting stats for pitchers, including wins, games pitched, games started, innings pitched, hits allowed, runs & earned runs allowed, walks, and strikeouts.
Next up: the 1945 Mexican League, 1924 ECL with fielding stats, 1939 NNL & NAL with fielding stats, further Cuban League seasons, and more.
To view the award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit Seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php.
Related links:
- Little-known players from the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database
- Read our Q&A with Gary Ashwill about the Negro Leagues Database
Originally published: November 10, 2020. Last Updated: November 10, 2020.