Integrating Major League Baseball retroactively with Strat-o-Matic cards

(Slate) ... Until this month, though, it was impossible to answer the question What if baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis hadn't been such a stubborn bigot? The great Negro League ballplayers-Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Ted "Double Duty" Radcliffe-were missing from Strat-O-Matic's card sets, just as they'd been missing from the major league rosters of Landis' day. The black America of the early 20th century was invisible to white America, so there was no equivalent of the Elias Sports Bureau to keep Negro League statistics. The Negro Leagues also held a short 70- or 80-game season, supplemented by barnstorming against minor leaguers and semi-pro teams, so it was difficult to figure out where and when the teams had played-and how good their competition was. Continued

Photo: Logo of the Baltimore Elite Giants