The Color of Cheating: Was segregated baseball as big of an advantage as steroids?

The greatest. That is the common belief of Babe Ruth, as he is thought of to be the best to ever play the game of baseball, however what many people do not consider is the era which he played. During the reign of the Babe, America's past time had yet to be integrated and black players were prohibited from playing in the MLB. Due to this "separate, but equal,"policy players in Major League Baseball had an undeniable advantage, as some of the greatest players of the era were unable to participate on the highest level of play. The question is if Babe Ruth could have been as successful as he was if baseball was not segregated during his time of play.



The skill of the Babe is undeniable. Despite having retired over 75 years ago many of his records are still intact, and he still holds many positions in the all-time statistics, such as:

    •    3rd on all-time home run list with 714
    •    10th on all-time batting average list with .342
    •    2nd on all-time RBI list with 2,217
    •    1st on all-time slugging % with 0.690
    •    2nd on all-time on-base % list with .474
    •    1st on all-time OPS with 1.164
    •    4th on all-time runs list with 2,174
    •    6th on all-time total bases list with 5,793
    •    3rd on all-time bases on balls list with 2,062

The biggest record that the Bambino held was of course his home-run record, which he held until 1974, when Hank Aaron became the all-time home run leader. Ironically enough it was a black player who took the record, as Ruth never had the chance to play against any black players during his time.

When the major league baseball finally integrated in 1947, it proved not only to be a great step in social progress, but it also lead to a large amount of talent to be discovered. Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, and many other greats all played in the negro leagues before joining the MLB; the skill of these players brings into question just how much talent the Negro League was inhabiting over the years.

Two of the greatest players to play in the Negro leagues were James "Cool Papa" Bell and Oscar Charleston, both of whom played during Ruth's era. Although neither played as many games as the Babe, who played 2503 in his career, each managed to earn significant statistics during their career.
NOTE: (Bell played 940 games in his career and Charleston played 814 games).

Considering that the Babe had over twice as many at bats than either Bell or Charleston, and more than both combined it is easy to see why he has over twice as many hits as either of the Negro League Players. If Oscar had the 5372 extra At-Bats that the Babe had, he would have had 2761 more hits (determined through career batting average), which would give him 3815 career hits. Oscar also had a career homerun average of .0423, and with those extra chances at bat he would have had 227 more homers, which would give him a career total of 355 Homeruns. Although the statistics of these players may not match those of the Bambino, it is clear that had they been given the opportunity they would have been more than enough to offer the Babe some quality competition.

Unlike it's larger and more successful counterpart, the Negro Leagues did not have a single large organization, and had several incarnations based over time. The most significant of these were the Negro National League, which was the first all-black baseball league which was established in 1920 and ran until 1931, the second National Negro League in 1933, and Negro American League which was established in 1937. Like in the MLB, the National and American leagues met in the Negro League World series from 1942 to 1948, and ended when the National league dissolved.

Unlike the time of segregation, the steroid era did not discriminate on the color of a players skin. Instead of prohibiting an entire ethnicity of players from participating, it simply gave certain players an advantage in their playing ability that they would have not had if they did not take steroids. The dirtiest era in baseball's history was also not nearly as uneven in terms of skill as the segregation period was, as many players who did not take steroids still manged to compete with the users. Of the top 10 homerun hitters from 1998 to 2003, only 3 have been linked to steroid use (Sosa, Bonds and McGwire) and the player with the most hits in the time period was Derrick Jeter, who has never been linked to performance enhancing drugs either. Although they played a significant role in the game at the time, steroids never gave any player enough of an advantage to blow past the competition.

Although the steroid era was one of taint and shame for both players and major league baseball alike, it is far from the most shameful and success altering situation the league has been in. Had there never been a segregation of players based upon the color of their skin in baseball, history could have come out very differently. Though Babe Ruth would surely reach the level of status and success that he did, there would have been many other stars of the era who would rightfully earn their own success. Though they will never truly earn the recognition they deserve, baseball owes it to many of the players in the negro league to place their best performers in the hall of fame. Not because of the color of their skin and the circumstances they were placed in, but because of their ability to play the game as better than most major leaguers in their era could.