Negro Leagues Recognized As Major

[pgconboy]

Originally Posted by steve B

Except that open and free competition wasn't, even for white players.
With the reserve clause, a team that had a good player didn't need to look for or sign another for that position unless they thought they'd be much better.

Sounds like a whole lot of opportunity to me compared to what the alternative was up against.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by pgconboy

Sounds like a whole lot of opportunity to me compared to what the alternative was up against.

I'm mostly saying that all baseball players had limited opportunity, and that in many if not most cases there was no opportunity to compete for a position.

With fewer teams and far less scouting, the odds of a team being interested were lower. If you look at the lineups of many teams it's fairly obvious there just wasn't room on what we now call the depth chart.

The teams at the bottom of the league most years had space, but where could someone break into the 1920's Yankees lineup?
Or if you were say a second baseman, but the only scout that saw you was from the Red Sox between say 1938 and 1950 you were pretty much out of luck.

[earlywynnfan]

Originally Posted by steve B

I'm mostly saying that all baseball players had limited opportunity, and that in many if not most cases there was no opportunity to compete for a position.

With fewer teams and far less scouting, the odds of a team being interested were lower. If you look at the lineups of many teams it's fairly obvious there just wasn't room on what we now call the depth chart.

The teams at the bottom of the league most years had space, but where could someone break into the 1920's Yankees lineup?
Or if you were say a second baseman, but the only scout that saw you was from the Red Sox between say 1938 and 1950 you were pretty much out of luck.

I can see the point you are trying to make, but it loses some lustre when Cedric Durst plays 65 games for the 1927 yankees while the best Oscar Charleston could do was buy a ticket to watch them.