1943 Homstead Grays

'43 Grays -- comparable to '27 Yanks?
One of the Negro Leagues' best ranks fifth on experts' list

Which team is the greatest in the history of black baseball? That's the kind of question that's likely to spark a debate. While many people can rattle off the great Negro Leagues players, most baseball fans would be hard-put to pick the greatest teams. So as a tribute during Black History Month, MLB.com put the question to Negro Leagues historians and experts. Twenty-two people responded, and 25 teams got at least one vote. The countdown to the greatest five teams begins at No. 5 with the 1943 Homestead Grays. Here is their story.

Hall of Fame sportswriter Leonard Koppett wrote that any man willing to rank another ballclub ahead of the 1927 Yankees would have to make a case based on unimaginable factors.

Brad Snyder agreed.

Snyder, an author who's written extensively about black baseball, won't dare rank another team above those storied Yankees of '27. He is, however, bold enough to say the 1943 Homestead Grays were, at least, the Yankees' equal.

To Snyder, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig stood no taller than Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson. Both sets of teammates hit homers and drove in runs; both took their teams to championships.

And like the '27 Yankees, the '43 Grays had more than two stars.

With Leonard and Gibson providing power and runs, Cool Papa Bell was running amok on the bases, Jud Wilson was lacing singles everywhere and Ray Brown was winning games every time he pitched.
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During the '43 season, Gibson hit more homers at Griffith Stadium than the entire Washington Senators team. What's even more astounding, he crushed more pitches over the left- and center-field fences at that ballpark than the entire American League.

"Left field was 405 feet down the line, and there was a spot in left-center that was 457," Snyder said.

"Griffith Stadium was a huge ballpark. So the '43 season was -- at least statistically -- the apex of Gibson's time in Washington with the Grays."

That year also stood out among the legendary Gibson's many great seasons because he was able to overcome a nervous breakdown earlier in the year.

"He sort of has an up-and-down couple of years with his weight and whether or not he's got a tumor," said Robert Ruck, a Negro Leagues historian and a history professor at the University of Pittsburgh. "There's some mental issues or something going on, but it's a little uneven."

Whatever Gibson battled, fans still flocked to Griffith Stadium to watch him that season more than in any other. Snyder said at least 225,000 people in 1943 attended the 26 Grays appearances in Washington, a total that shattered a single-season attendance record set a season before.

Click on the headline and read the whole article. The story on team number four should be posted later today.