How Did Negro League Teams Fare Against Major League Teams?
How Did Negro League Teams Fare Against Major Leaguers?
Data is from the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database. This section looks at the overall record of Negro League teams in interleague games as well as comprehensive offensive statistics.
The Statistics
According to seamheads.com, a handful of games between Negro League teams and Major League teams took place during most years between 1920 (when the Negro Leagues were officially founded) and 1948. These exhibition games sometimes featured unofficial All-Star teams from each league, while other games featured offical teams that played in either the Negro Leagues or the Major Leagues.
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Individual box scores are not publicly available, but seamheads.com has recorded statistics from 126 games between the Negro Leagues and the Major Leagues. While the statistics are not 100% complete, 126 games is a significant sample size to draw from, as it is nearly a full MLB season. The Negro Leagues posted a 63-61-2 record in those games, outscoring Major League teams 532 to 497. I have calculated basic offensive statistics for both leagues over the 126 games. Below is a breakdown of these statistics:
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AVG
.271
.309
.386
.695
104
Major Leagues
.254
.307
.355
.662
96
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The principal takeaway from the above statistics is that Negro Leagues players outperformed Major League players in batting. The OPS+ statistic (which in this case does not take into account ballpark factors) can be interpreted as follows: Negro Leagues hitters were 4% better than the league average hitter across these 126 games. Meanwhile, Major League hitters were 4% worse than the league average hitter. OPS+ is scaled so that a value of 100 represents a league average hitter.
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Negro League players hit for a higher average, while Major League players took more walks. This resulted in nearly identical OBP values for the two leagues. However, because the Negro Leagues players were contributing to their OBP with base hits more than the Major League players were, they achieved a higher SLG percentage. This was also due to the fact that the Negro Leagues players out-homered the Major League players 52 to 40.
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Click here to download the data set.
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