Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1935 Negro National League stats

We’re pleased to pass along this update from SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com on July 18, 2014:

Check out the newest addition to the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database: the 1935 Negro National League season.

The defending champion Philadelphia Stars fell off quite a bit in 1935, partly because several of their key performers (Biz Mackey, Chaney White) were aging, but mostly because their ace, 1934′s 20-game winner Slim Jones, couldn’t stay away from the bottle. His strikeout rate was cut in half, and he won only 4 league games. Despite the efforts of the 39-year-old first baseman Jud Wilson (.344 with 14 doubles and 8 homers), the Stars finished just 34-31.

The previous year’s other playoff team, the Chicago American Giants, fared even worse, though problems with 1934′s statistical record make it a little hard to tell exactly what went wrong. The Big Four—Turkey Stearnes (.403/.490/.649), Willie Wells (.362/.451/.584), Mule Suttles (.298 with a league-leading 8 home runs), and Willie Foster (4-2, 2.35)—continued to play brilliantly. Bad years by Ted Trent (2-8, 4.37) and Wilson Redus (.181) might have been part of the problem.

The Nashville Elite Giants tried to move to Detroit, but couldn’t secure a home park. They wound up in Columbus, Ohio. Unfortunately the local papers didn’t carry many box scores, so less than half (24 out of 49) of the Elite Giants’ league games are included in the DB. Even so, it’s clear that stars Sammy T. Hughes (.360) and Roy Parnell (.337) continued to hit well, and that rookie outfielder Zollie Wright (.395) was seriously impressive.

Three marginal teams from 1934 (the Bacharach Giants, Cleveland Red Sox, and Baltimore Black Sox) dropped out of the league. They were replaced by the former powerhouse Homestead Grays and two new New York City clubs: the Brooklyn Eagles, playing in Ebbets Field, and the New York Cubans, who took up residence in Harlem’s refurbished Dyckman Oval.

The Grays had still not recovered from the Crawfords’ player raids of several seasons before, and finished in seventh place despite the contributions of first sacker Buck Leonard (.389/.455/.624), rookie second baseman Matthew Carlisle (.382/.440/.632), and catcher Tommie Dukes (.372/.449/.562), and the pitching of ace Ray Brown (8-5, 3.26).

Read the full update here: http://seamheads.com/2014/07/17/negro-leagues-db-update-1935-negro-national-league/

To view the award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php

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Originally published: July 18, 2014. Last Updated: July 16, 2020.