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Josh Gibson

For his son, the baseball infielder, see Josh Gibson Jr. For the Australian rules footballer, see Josh Gibson (footballer).

Josh Gibson
Gibson with the Homestead Grays in 1931
Catcher
Born: (1911-12-21)December 21, 1911
Buena Vista, Georgia, U.S.
Died: January 20, 1947(1947-01-20) (aged 35)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
Negro leagues debut
July 31, 1930, for the Homestead Grays
Last Negro leagues appearance
1946, for the Homestead Grays
Negro leagues statistics
Batting average.372
Hits838
Home runs174
Runs batted in751
Stats at Baseball Reference Edit this at Wikidata
Teams
Career highlights and awards

MLB records

  • .372 career batting average
  • .718 career slugging percentage
  • 1.177 career OPS
  • .466 single season batting average (1943)
  • .974 single season slugging percentage (1937)
  • 1.474 single season OPS (1937)
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction1972
Election methodNegro Leagues Committee

Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947) was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. In 1972, he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.[1]

Gibson played for the Homestead Grays from 1930 to 1931, moved to the Pittsburgh Crawfords from 1932 to 1936, and returned to the Grays from 1937 to 1939 and 1942 to 1946. In 1937, he played for Ciudad Trujillo in Trujillo's Dominican League and from 1940 to 1941, he played in the Mexican League for Azules de Veracruz. Gibson served as the first manager of the Cangrejeros de Santurce, one of the most historic franchises of the Puerto Rico Baseball League.

Gibson was known as a spectacular power hitter who, by some accounts, hit close to 800 career home runs. (In the Negro League statistical records, his career home run total was 166[2] and MLB.com recognizes 174.)[3] He was known as the "black Babe Ruth";[4] in fact, some fans at the time who saw both Ruth and Gibson play called Ruth "the white Josh Gibson".[5] Gibson never played in the American League or the National League because of the unwritten "gentleman's agreement" that prevented non-white players from participating. He stood 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and weighed 210 lb (95 kg) at the peak of his career.[6] He was the first player since Oscar Charleston to win consecutive batting Triple Crowns (leading the league in home runs, runs batted in, batting average) and no batter has achieved the feat since.

On May 28, 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it had integrated Negro league statistics into its records, giving Gibson the highest single-season major league batting average at .466 (1943) and the highest career batting average at .372.[7]

  1. ^ National Baseball Hall of Fame, Josh Gibson "Gibson, Josh | Baseball Hall of Fame". Retrieved April 16, 2015
  2. ^ "Josh Gibson Stats, Height, Weight, Position, Rookie Status & More".
  3. ^ Treisman, Rachel (May 29, 2024). "The Negro Leagues are officially part of MLB history—with the records to prove it and most career". Sports. NPR. Retrieved May 29, 2024.
  4. ^ "Josh Gibson". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. January 16, 2024.
  5. ^ Brashler, William (1978) Josh Gibson: A Life in the Negro Leagues. Chicago: Ivan R. Dee. ISBN 1-56663-295-1
  6. ^ Riley, James A. (1994). The Biographical Encyclopedia of the Negro Baseball Leagues. New York: Carroll & Graf. ISBN 0-7867-0959-6.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference kepner was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

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