1948 Negro League Batters
The 1948 Aries Rams had a pretty solid outfield, concentrated on two recognized Major League teams. In left and right, the 1948 Boston Braves had Jeff Heath (1,634 / 14.2) and Tommy Holmes (1,738 / 12.5), both lefty swingers, and the two highest-scoring Aries corner outfielders. The rest of the Rams outfield would be made of Philadelphia Athletics: center fielder Sam Chapman (1,400 / 11.4) and left fielder Barney McCoskey (1,530 / 11.3) who, for fantasy purposes, would be designated hitter. So, a pretty solid outfield, especially by 1940’s standards.
But there’s another Aries outfielder who just emerged on my database for the 1948 season: leftfielder Lester Lockett of the Baltimore Elite Giants (pronounced EE-light). That’s because 1948 is the last year where Baseball Reference has statistics for the Negro Leagues, of which BEG were the champions. Since the Negro League official schedule was much more truncated than the AL/NL at the time, it doesn’t quite work to compare-full season points: Lockett scored 1,038 points over 58 games, while no one in the above-mentioned Aries foursome played fewer than 115. But in his 58 games, Lockett averaged an amazing 17.9 points-per-game.
That type of production is on the same level as Joe DiMaggio’s 18.8 PPG, and he totaled 2,872 points over a full AL/NL schedule. Speaking of DiMaggio, his Sagittarius club would have definitely been better with Hank Thompson in the lineup, as he would be regularly in the 1950’s, while playing for the National League’s New York Giants. In ’48, Thompson scored 965 points in his 47 games playing outfield for the Kansas City Monarchs (with an average of an MVP-worthy 20.5 PPG). But when you consider that he broke into AL/NL play as a second baseman, he would really provide a huge jump over Cincinnati’s Bobby Adams (718 / 8.3).
The problem with my fantasy point system – which goes by full-season point totals – is the length of the Negro League schedules. While the AL and NL played a season that was just a week shorter than what MLB plays today, the Negro Leagues were dealing with a slate of games roughly equivalent to the COVID-shortened 2020. That’s because box scores were not recorded for the unofficial barnstorming tours, which made up the majority of games played by Negro League teams during that time.
Because of this discrepancy, even second-tier fantasy AL/NL players had enough games to eclipse the top Negro Leaguers in points. So despite their near-identical points-per-game averages, Elite Giants centerfielder Henry Kimbro (852 / 14.4) couldn’t possibly beat out someone like Dom DiMaggio (2,242 / 14.5), even though Kimbro led the Negro Leagues in plate appearances. So while I’d rather see a lineup with Kimbro in right field over Vic Wertz (1,135 / 9.5), or with Monarchs third baseman Herb Souell (687 / 14.9) instead of Phillies utility player Bert Haas (849 / 8.9), the full-season point system will never support this formation.
Of course, some 1948 Negro League players had good enough seasons to surpass even their AL/NL counterparts. Look no further than the Cancer Crabs centerfielder Willard Brown, whose 24.4 points-per-game average was the highest in all of Major League baseball (minimum 200 plate appearances). Higher than Stan Musial (3,352 / 21.6), higher than Ted Williams (2,876 / 21.0), and certainly higher than leading Crabs batter Lou Boudreau (2,549 / 16.8), who won the AL MVP award in ’48. What’s more, Brown’s point total of 1,123 would place him well among CAN’s top three outfielders, beating out both Phil Cavarretta (915 / 8.2) and DH Paul Lehner (770 / 7.5).
It's truly shameful and tragic that baseball fans in the 1940’s did not get to watch all the best players compete with each other. But maybe Fantasy Astrology Baseball can provide a framework with more inclusion.