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When Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and the slow integration of Black players into the American and National Leagues began — emphasis on slow, as the Phillies became the last NL team to integrate in 1957 and the Red Sox the last AL team in 1959 — the wave of talent coming out of the Negro Leagues was extraordinary.

Roy Campanella became Robinson’s teammate in 1948 and would win three NL MVP Awards. Don Newcombe joined Brooklyn in 1949 and would win an MVP and a Cy Young Award in 1955. Larry Doby became the first Black player in the American League in 1947. Minnie Minoso came up initially in 1949, Willie Mays in 1951, Ernie Banks in 1953, Henry Aaron in 1954. Eventually, teams bypassed the Negro League pipeline and signed young players themselves. By the end of the 1950s, Roberto Clemente, Frank Robinson, Orlando Cepeda, Willie McCovey, Billy Williams and Bob Gibson had reached the majors. This wave included several Hall of Famers and many of the game’s most legendary stars.

It stands to reason, then, that the Negro Leagues featured players of similar stature before Robinson arrived in ’47. As Bill James once wrote, referring to Robinson, Campanella, Mays, Banks and Aaron, “If those leagues could produce five players like that in seven years, what about the previous 40?”

That’s just one of the reasons it’s important to recognize the statistical accomplishments of the players who performed in the Negro Leagues as a permanent and official part of the MLB database — although it means new records and new names at the top of the all-time career and season leaderboards. This is not without some controversy; some view comparing statistics from different leagues as going a step too far to recognize those players who never had the opportunity to play in the integrated major leagues. (I point out that the National League and American League were separate leagues until 1997, other than meeting in the World Series.) Some will point out the fewer “official” games in a Negro League season create sample size issues when compared to numbers compiled over a longer season.

As MLB put it in its press release, “Negro League stats may be viewed separately and/or jointly: player and pitcher pages, no matter how infrequently these individuals may have played; within a team’s record in a given league year; within all MLB records for a given year; or by a given league season.”

As the release stated, “New stars, and the stories behind them, will emerge.”

As I was scrolling through social media, I saw a poster write, “I had never heard of Josh Gibson.” Now he has.

Indeed, starting with Gibson, here are some all-time greats to know about with MLB’s Negro Leagues statistical update.

Josh Gibson

With a .372 batting average in Negro League competition, Gibson now tops Ty Cobb and his .367 average as the all-time career leader. (To clarify, the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee is considering results only from official league games and not the many barnstorming and unofficial games Negro League teams would play.) Gibson’s .466 average in 1943 also becomes the new single-season record. The previous record holder being replaced at the top? Hugh Duffy hit .440 in 1894 for the Boston team in the National League.

The interesting lesson here is that stories about Gibson always mention him as the greatest slugger in Negro League history. Feats of his prodigious power include legends about him being the only player to hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium or belting 600-foot home runs or the great Buck O’Neil saying he heard only three players produce a certain sound while hitting: Gibson, Babe Ruth and Bo Jackson.

Gibson was a tremendous home run hitter: In his 12 full seasons playing in the Negro Leagues, he led his league in home runs 11 times. But these records show he was also a great hitter for average, winning multiple batting titles. Gibson never got a chance to play in the integrated major leagues. He died of a stroke in January 1947 at age 35, just a few months before Robinson would break the color barrier. (Gibson had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in 1943, playing the final four seasons of his career with recurring headaches.) Gibson didn’t walk as often as Ruth, Ted Williams or Barry Bonds, but he’s up there with them (excepting his career length) and could be considered the greatest right-handed hitter of all time and the greatest catcher.

Oscar Charleston

Rogers Hornsby was considered the modern record holder for batting average in a single season, hitting .424 in 1924. Charleston now beats that at .434 in 1921 and .427 in 1925 while posting a career average of .363, third behind Gibson and Cobb. Charleston was never as famous as Gibson and Satchel Paige and once the Hall of Fame started electing Negro League players in the 1970s (Paige and Gibson were the first two elected), he was only the seventh one inducted. If you conducted a poll of Negro League experts, however, Charleston would be regarded as the best all-around player. He was a center fielder with speed and power, who led his league in home runs, batting average and stolen bases. O’Neil compared him to Willie Mays — only better.

Turkey Stearnes

It took Stearnes until 2000 to get elected to the Hall of Fame, but he ranks right up there with Gibson and Charleston as the best hitters in Negro League history with a .348 lifetime average and more home runs than Gibson (188 to 174 via the numbers at MLB.com, although Gibson homered more often per at-bat). Stearnes was a left-handed hitting center fielder, not a big man (listed at 5-foot-11, 175 pounds), but a clear five-tool player with many stories of long home runs. He was nicknamed Turkey either because of the way he flapped his arms while running or, according to a Stearnes interview, because he had a potbelly as a kid. His best years came with the Detroit Stars from 1923 to 1931, but the team never won a pennant, perhaps explaining why he faded away from memory and took so long to make the Hall of Fame.

Mule Suttles

A big, powerful first baseman/left fielder, Suttles is credited with 183 home runs and a .337 average on MLB.com, putting him alongside Gibson and Stearnes as the third great power hitter of the Negro Leagues. In his greatest season with the St. Louis Stars in 1926, he won the Triple Crown, hitting .425 with 32 home runs and 130 RBIs … in 94 games. According to Suttles’ SABR bio, research shows he played 126 games in the California Winter League from 1930 to 1940 — a strong league featuring active major leaguers and top minor leaguers. Playing on Black teams that played against white teams in the league, Suttles hit .378 with 64 home runs.

Buck Leonard

A first baseman, Leonard was called the “Black Lou Gehrig” — indeed, Leonard said he copied his swing after Gehrig’s — and finished with a lifetime average of .345, which places him eighth on the all-time list, a bit higher than Gehrig’s .340 mark. A graceful, respected player who was a gifted defensive first baseman, Leonard didn’t join the Homestead Grays — where he teamed with Gibson for a lethal one-two punch — until 1935, when he was 27 years old. He was still active when Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947. Bill Veeck reportedly approached him about playing for the St. Louis Browns, but Leonard was in his 40s by then — too old, he said, to give it a try.

Satchel Paige

OK, hopefully you know about the great Satchel, regarded as the greatest pitcher in Negro League history. His 1.01 ERA for the Kansas City Monarchs in 16 starts in 1944 now ranks third on the all-time official list — behind Tim Keefe’s 0.86 for the 1880 Troy Trojans and Dutch Leonard’s 0.96 for the 1914 Red Sox. Of course, by then Paige was already 37 years old and probably past his fireballing peak of the late 1920s and early 1930s. How good was he? Well, Paige was the one Negro League legend who did a get chance to play after integration. In five seasons with the Cleveland Indians and Browns, pitching mostly in relief and relying more on junk and guile than his fastball, Paige posted a 3.31 ERA, good for an adjusted ERA+ of 124 — higher than Hall of Famers Juan Marichal, Mike Mussina, Bob Feller or Don Drysdale, to name a few.

This is just a starting point. Go look up Bullet Joe Rogan and John Henry “Pop” Lloyd and Cool Papa Bell and Martin Dihigo (maybe the best two-way player of all time before Shohei Ohtani) and Chino Smith (who hit .451 in 1929 but would die at age 30 after contracting yellow fever while playing in Cuba) and Willard Brown and Smokey Joe Williams and Willie Wells and so many others. These players are part of a rich, vital part of baseball history, of American history. Statistics and leaderboards and records are just a small part of that.

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‘Vibrant’ Sanders says Buffs will ‘win differently’

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'Vibrant' Sanders says Buffs will 'win differently'

BOULDER, Colo. — Colorado coach Deion Sanders said he feels “healthy and vibrant” after returning to the field for preseason practices after undergoing surgery to remove his bladder after a cancerous tumor was found.

Sanders, 57, said he has been walking at least a mile around campus following Colorado’s practices, which began last week. He was away from the team for the late spring and early summer following the surgery in May. Dr. Janet Kukreja, director of urological oncology at University of Colorado Cancer Center, said July 30 that Sanders, who lost about 25 pounds during his recovery, is “cured of cancer.”

“I’m healthy, I’m vibrant, I’m my old self,” Sanders said. “I’m loving life right now. I’m trying my best to live to the fullest, considering what transpired.”

Sanders credited Colorado’s assistant coaches and support staff for overseeing the program during his absence. The Pro Football Hall of Famer enters his third season as Buffaloes coach this fall.

“They’ve given me tremendous comfort,” Sanders said. “I never had to call 100 times and check on the house, because I felt like the house is going to be OK. That’s why you try your best to hire correct, so you don’t have to check on the house night and day. They did a good job, especially strength and conditioning.”

Colorado improved from four to nine wins in Sanders’ second season, but the team loses Heisman Trophy winner Travis Hunter, the No. 2 pick in April’s NFL draft, as well as record-setting quarterback Shedeur Sanders, the son of Deion Sanders. The Buffaloes have an influx of new players, including quarterbacks Kaidon Salter and Julian “Ju Ju” Lewis, who are competing for the starting job, as well as new staff members such as Pro Football Hall of Fame running back Marshall Faulk, who is coaching the Buffaloes’ running backs.

Despite the changes and his own health challenges, Deion Sanders expects Colorado to continue ascending. The Buffaloes open the season Aug. 29 when they host Georgia Tech.

“The next phase is we’re going to win differently, but we’re going to win,” Sanders said. “I don’t know if it’s going to be the Hail Mary’s at the end of the game, but it’s going to be hell during the game, because we want to be physical and we want to run the heck out of the football.”

Sanders said it will feel “a little weird, a little strange” to not be coaching Shedeur when the quarterback starts his first NFL preseason game for the Cleveland Browns on Friday night at Carolina. Deion Sanders said he and Shedeur had spoken several times Friday morning. Despite being projected as a top quarterback in the draft, Shedeur Sanders fell to the fifth round.

“A lot of people are approaching it like a preseason game, he’s approaching like a game, and that’s how he’s always approached everything, to prepare and approach it like this is it,” Deion Sanders said. “He’s thankful and appreciative of the opportunity. He don’t get covered in, you know, all the rhetoric in the media.

“Some of the stuff is just ignorant. Some of it is really adolescent, he far surpasses that, and I can’t wait to see him play.”

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LSU QB Nussmeier dealing with patellar tendinitis

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LSU QB Nussmeier dealing with patellar tendinitis

LSU starting quarterback Garrett Nussmeier aggravated the patellar tendinitis he has been dealing with in his knee but will not miss any significant time, coach Brian Kelly said Friday.

Kelly dropped in ahead of a news conference Friday with offensive coordinator Joe Sloan to tell reporters that Nussmeier did not suffer a severe knee injury or even a new one. According to Kelly, Nussmeier has chronic tendinitis in his knee and “probably just planted the wrong way” during Wednesday’s practice.

Nussmeier ranked fifth nationally in passing yards (4,052) last season, his first as LSU’s starter, and projects as an NFL first-round draft pick in 2026.

“It’s not torn, there’s no fraying, there’s none of that,” Kelly said. “This is preexisting. … There’s nothing to really see on film with it, but it pissed it off. He aggravated it a little bit, but he’s good to go.”

Kelly said Nussmeier’s injury ranks 1.5 out of 10 in terms of severity. Asked whether it’s the right or left knee, Kelly said he didn’t know, adding, “It’s not a serious injury. Guys are dealing with tendinitis virtually every day in life.”

LSU opens the season Aug. 30 at Clemson.

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3 departing members file updated suit vs. MWC

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3 departing members file updated suit vs. MWC

Three departing members of the Mountain West Conference are suing the league, alleging it improperly withheld millions of dollars and misled them about a plan to accelerate Grand Canyon’s membership.

Boise State, Colorado State and Utah State filed an updated lawsuit in the District Court of Denver arguing the conference and Commissioner Gloria Nevarez willfully disregarded the league’s bylaws by “intentionally and fraudulently” depriving the schools of their membership rights.

The three schools, which are all headed to the Pac-12 after the 2025-26 school year, are seeking damages for millions of dollars of alleged harm caused by the Mountain West, including the withholding of money earned by Boise State for playing in last year’s College Football Playoff.

“We are disappointed that the Mountain West continues to improperly retaliate against the departing members and their student athletes,” Steve Olson, partner and litigation department co-chair for the O’Melveny law firm, said in a statement. “We will seek all appropriate relief from the court to protect our clients’ rights and interests.”

The Mountain West declined further comment outside of a statement released last week. The conference has said the departing schools were involved in adopting the exit fees and sought to enforce those against San Diego State when it tried to leave the conference two years ago.

“We remain confident in our legal position, which we will vigorously defend,” the statement said.

The three outgoing schools argue the Mountain West’s exit fees, which could range from $19 million to $38 million, are unlawful and not enforceable. The lawsuit also claims the Mountain West concealed a plan to move up Grand Canyon University’s membership a year to 2025-26 without informing the departing schools.

The Mountain West is also seeking $55 million in “poaching fees” from the Pac-12 for the loss of five schools, including San Diego State and Fresno State starting in 2026. The two sides are headed back to court after mediation that expired last month failed to reach a resolution.

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