Seamheads.com updates Negro Leagues Database with 1945 stats
We are pleased to pass along this update from SABR member Gary Ashwill at Seamheads.com on September 21, 2017, with mention of SABR members Larry Lester and Wayne Stivers:
Last week the Negro Leagues DB added the 1945 Negro National League and Negro American League.
In the NAL the Cleveland Buckeyes, led by Sam Jethroe (.339/.435/.559) and player-manager Quincy Trouppe, ended the two-year run of the Birmingham Black Barons as league champions. The Buckeyes were the eleventh attempt (in 24 years) at fielding a Cleveland team in the organized Negro leagues, and the first to win a pennant.
The Kansas City Monarchs snagged a former UCLA football star named Jack Roosevelt Robinson. He had never played professional baseball, but he won the shortstop job right away, and became the best player in the (war-weakened) league, hitting .384/.445/.606 in games with box scores. Even with his help, the Monarchs languished in third place.
In the NNL the Homestead Grays won their eighth pennant in nine years with one of the oldest championship squads ever put together, featuring four players in their 40s. Josh Gibson battled depression and drug addiction, but fought through it to post his usual 203 OPS+. Even so, the young Roy Campanella (.389/.483/.571) of the Elite Giants might have matched (or even surpassed) Gibson as the Negro leagues’ premier catcher.
Going for their third straight World Series win, the Grays found themselves shackled by the unheralded Buckeyes’ pitchers. The mighty Grays offense could only squeeze out three runs in four games on an anemic .165 batting average. Homestead went down meekly in four straight games, and the long-suffering fans of black baseball in Cleveland finally had something to cheer for.
But all this was overshadowed by Jackie Robinson’s departure from the Monarchs in late August for a meeting with Brooklyn Dodgers president Branch Rickey. Change was rounding third and on its way home.
Our 1945 stats are based on the work of Larry Lester and Wayne Stivers, with new research and additional box scores from us.
To view the award-winning Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, visit http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/index.php
Related links:
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database update: 1944 season (April 28, 2017)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database update: 1925 season (February 4, 2016)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database update: 1938 Negro National League stats (January 28, 2016)
- Seamheads Negro Leagues Database update: 1932 East-West League stats (August 13, 2015)
- Little-known players from the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database (February 2, 2012)
- Read our Q&A with Gary Ashwill about the Negro Leagues Database (September 14, 2011)
Originally published: September 22, 2017. Last Updated: July 16, 2020.