Tiger337

Yes, there are some great players from Japan, but not half the league's hitters like Blacks in the 50s, 60s and 70s. Anyway, Japan is not America. There are professional baseball leagues in a lot of different countries. Are we supposed to recognize all of them as Major Leagues? Americans were banned from the American Major League, so they started their own American major league and now it is finally being recognized as such. I don't really understand why this is a problem for some people.

AAAA players regularly go to Japan and start slugging. Most of the players that come from there do not play as well in MLB as they did here. It is generally viewed by scouts as minor league quality, although it no doubt has talent. Even if they are MLB quality, there really isn't a reason to incorporate their stats as a major league. It does not have the same kind of connection to MLB that the Black leagues did. Many many players in the Black Leagues would have been in the Major Leagues of their own country had they been allowed. They SHOULD have been and WOULD have been part of the major leagues had they not been banned. They should be recognized as major leaguers. And they actually used the beat the White teams head to head more often than not. There is no asterisk on Bonds record. He is the official home run leader according to MLB.com Pete Rose was kept out of the Hall of Fame because he broke the cardinal sin of baseball. He deserved it, allthough now I don't care what happens to him since MLB is so shamelessly promoting gambling on the game every chance they get.

The Japanese and Mexican Leagues are not MLB quality. Crappy players who couldn't make it in the majors sometimes play there and become stars. The American and National Leagues were not major league baseball as we know it today either and they didn't fare that well against what you say was inferior competition. My guess is that the Black leagues were slightly inferior due to the Black population being smaller, but I believe they were closer to Major Leagues than Minor Leagues. There was an immense amount of talent in those leagues. one of the reasons segregation lasted so long was White players fear of losing their jobs.

They played more than 50 games, but the data are not available. You need 162 innings or 502 plate appearances to qualify for titles, so the Black League players are not going to qualify for any single-season records anyway. I'm not sure what records people are worried about.

Not a lot between home runs though.

Some would argue that White Leagues prior to 1947 should not be mixed in with integration era leagues beause the competition level was lower. I say put all the stats out there and let fans and researchers decide what to do. There will be American League Stats, National League stats and all the different Black leagues. If someone wants to ignore the Black leagues, they can do so. How inferior are the Black leagues? Most assume they were inferior because the population of Blacks was smaller than the population of Whites, but Black teams had a better record in exhibitions between White and Black teams. So, maybe not so inferior. Nobody really knows.

I thought they already did that. Baseball-Reference already did it like 3 years ago. It's good to see that it's official now.

Greene needs to bat clean up because he always hits home runs.

We aren't talking Tony LaRussa here!

Leyland seemed to have close relationships with players. If the players knew he disaproved a cheating scheme, they probably would have been less likely to go along with the front office and the owner. Players have a long history of labor battles with owners, so they don't automatically go along with the big boss. This is especially true of star players who can easily tell upper management to **** off if they don't like what are being told. If it's a situation where the cheating was already going on for months before Hinch even knew about, then that's on him too because he should have been more aware of what was going on fron the beginning. That kind of awareness comes from relationships with players.

They never gave up anything in their whole pathetic lives. All they do is take.

No, I meant if the Pirates tried to cheat the way the Astros did And Leyland didn't like it, would Leyland have done anything about it? The Pirates problem was cocaine - something that Chuck Tanner did not handle well,.

What about Leyland with the Pirates?

Do you think the same think would have happened to Leyland? Anderson?

I suspect most teams wanted nothing to do with him as it was which is why the lowly (at the time) Tigers franchise was able to get him.

As the manager, he is responsible for what happens on his team. Maybe he sniffs it out before it gets going, talks with upper management, talks with players. Maybe, he did all that and it didn't work. None of us know exactly what he did or whether it was possible for him to do anything more. I believe there are some managers who command so much respect from the bosses and from their players, that something like that would not happen. It was probably a difficult situation. He's the manager though. I can't just say "Nothing he could do. No fault of his whatsover". I have to question him on that. I have no problems with him as Tigers manager to this point.

Not sure where to post this but...

My concern about Hinch was about his ability to handle players after he couldn't get them to stop the cheating in Houston. The excuse his supporters gave was that it wasn't his fault and there was nothing he could do about it. I don't agree with that. I suspect Leyland, for example, could have done something about it. That being said, I have not seen any evidence that he doesn't have the respect of players in Detroit and have no complaints about his game management skills. In fact, I think his bullpen management is excellent.

Yup, I hate seeing great young players get seriously injured. This seems to be an unfortunate pattern for him.

We once had a substitute teacher in high school. He said his name was Ben Dover. Some students believed him and started calling him Mr Dover.

It's a clown show, but anyone who tells Dump to **** himself is not all bad.

I think Petry is great.

I like Petry best, but Gibson is easily better than Monroe and Jones.

Yes, I really feel for him. A teacher at the school I am at had to retire due to Parkinsons. He is brilliant and his mind is still there, but he has no energy. It is killing him that he had to retire.