I was so excited to see that in December 2020, Major League Baseball officially gave seven professional Negro Leagues “Major League” status. That opens up the statistics for addition into the official MLB record books. It also gives me the green light to sift through the stats and find Negro Leagues heroes of baseball.
Here are the Negro Leagues players that I’m adding to my list of Heroes of Baseball:
- Frank Grant
- Pete Hill
- Rube Foster
- John Henry “Pop” Lloyd
- Smokey Joe Williams
- Jose Mendez
- Ben Taylor
- John Donaldson
- Louis Santop
- Dick Redding
- Cristobal Torriente
- Oliver Marcell
- Bullet Rogan
- Willie Wells
- Turkey Stearnes
- Newt Allen
- Mule Suttles
- Oscar Charleston
- Jud Wilson
- Biz Mackey
- William Bell
- Andy Cooper
- Satchel Paige
- Cool Papa Bell
- Martin Dihigo
- Willie “Bill” Foster
- Dewey Creacy
- Josh Gibson
- Ray Brown
- Frank Duncan
- Vic Harris
- Ray Dandridge
- Buck Leonard
- Willard Brown
- Chester Williams
- George Scales
- David Whatley
- Matt Carlisle
- Leon Day
- Bill Byrd
- Ted Strong
- Sam Bankhead
- Henry Spearman
- Hilton Smith
- Henry Kimbro
- Henry McHenry
- Monte Irvin
- Gentry Jessup
- Lennie Pearson
- Max Manning
- Judy Johnson
- Dick Lundy
- Dobie Moore
- Dave Malarcher
- Hurley McNair
- Nip Winters
- Bingo DeMoss
- Bill Hoskins
- Jesse H. Williams
- Steel Arm Davis
- Rap Dixon
- Jerry Benjamin
- Wild Bill Wright
- Buck O’Neil
- Bud Fowler
I will be writing about these heroes in the future. Stay tuned!