Okay...here is something that has been driving me crazy for a long time...the people who always say that pre-war players were only playing against 50% of the best players in the world because of the Negro Leagues.
First let me say that there were fantastic Negro League players who were every bit as good and often far better than the stars in the Majors.
BUT...with that being said...the competition to make it to and stay in the Majors was far more intense. Why?...simple...there were only 16 teams total with smaller rosters than today's team. In order to become Ty Cobb, you had to beat out the best of the best.
Imagine today's league with 30 teams and larger rosters. Yes, you are still beating out the best of the best even with the League's added players after Jackie. But people keep saying 50%...well, that 50% is added now and I suspect that Cobb, Wagner, Wheat, Johnson, Matty, and all the rest would fit right in. Heck, I would venture to say that many of the fourth men on several rotations in the first half of the 20th century would be 20 game winners now.
Now think about those first few years after Jackie when many of the best of the Negro Leagues started entering baseball...those years in the late '40s and early '50s must have been TOUGH! 16 teams before expansion and now twice the competition to make it? Was it harder for any player to be a star since the Negro Leagues opened up? Probably a bit but still just as tough. I do not think that every Negro League player was great and could play Major League ball. I also feel that the stars in the Negro League were probably the same proportion to the stars in the Majors. That 50% comparison probably does not hold up.
This is all just arm chair talk and my opinion but if anybody has studied this seriously, I would like to hear their take on it.
Joshua
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