Baltimore Negro Leagues stars now in MLB record books baltimoresun.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from baltimoresun.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
BELMAR - From home plate at Memorial Field you can see the American flag fluttering in the distance, beyond the center field fence and across Main Street. Beneath the flag, at the corner of 13th Avenue, is the borough’s post office.
It’s a long, long way from the batter’s box.
You wonder: Did a man really hit a baseball that far?
“If you walk it off, it has to be one of the longest home runs hit anywhere, anytime,” said Spencer Heulitt, president of the Belmar Historical Society.
The hitter was Josh Gibson, a legendary slugger of the 1930s and 1940s known as “the Black Babe Ruth.” With Major League Baseball played by whites only, Gibson starred in the Negro leagues and on barnstorming tours. His Pittsburgh Crawfords team paid multiple visits to Memorial Field, which was part-time home to the rival New York Cubans and full-time home to the semipro Belmar Braves.
Fred Jeter | 12/24/2020, 6 p.m. Josh Gibson
Slugging catcher Josh Gibson always had the talent to be a Major League Baseball player. That was never in question.
But it wasnât until last week that the man known as the âBlack Babe Ruthâ officially became a major leaguer.
In what Major League Baseball called a âlong overdue oversight in the gameâs history,â seven Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948 have been granted Major League status.
That means some 3,400 players for those Negro League teams are now Major Leaguers and that their statistics will be integrated into MLB records.
The Homestead Grays team