Negro Leagues advocacy sparked by Ted Williams, who hid a Latino past
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Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams watches his hit at Fenway Park in Boston during the 1959 season. Photo: Paul Maguire/The Boston Globe via Getty Images
Major League Baseball adding statistics from the Negro Leagues to MLB's historical record last month followed a decades-long fight that began with a plea from Boston Red Sox slugger Ted Williams, his biographer tells Axios.
The big picture: For years, Hall of Famer Williams hid his Mexican American heritage from the public amid MLB segregation but later became one of the first outspoken advocates for Negro League players whom he admired.
- By advocating for recognition of Negro League players, barred from MLB during the era of segregation, he began to atone for his past and come to terms with the family who shaped him, Ben Bradlee, Jr. tells Axios.
Zoom in: Born to a white pickle salesman and a Mexican American Salvation Army devotee in San Diego, Williams became what some writers called the "greatest hitter who ever lived."
- He played left field for the Boston Red Sox for 19 years, during which time he won two American League Most Valuable Player Awards and twice won the Triple Crown.
- Williams finished his career with a .344 batting average and 521 home runs, both of which rank among the top in baseball history. He's the last player to record a batting average over .400 in a single season.
- The slugger also lost prime years because of service in World War II and the Korean War — something that angered him.
The intrigue: After his sensational 1939 rookie year, Williams returned to San Diego to find around 20 of his Mexican American relatives waiting for him at the train station for a hero's welcome.
- Williams took one look at them and fled.
- At that time, not only were Black players not allowed in MLB, but the Red Sox were owned by Tom Yawkey, a controversial figure who was the last owner to integrate a major league baseball team.
Yes, but Williams played against Black players while growing up.
Zoom out: During his 1966 Hall of Fame speech, Williams used the occasion to say how blessed he was to play baseball — and call for Negro League players like pitcher Satchel Paige to join him in Cooperstown.
- It was a bold move at the height of the Civil Rights Movement and something few non-Black players would demand publicly.
- "That was a political speech. And Williams was so influential as a player, and this...had a huge effect," said Bradlee, who wrote the 2013 book, "The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams."
- A few years later, Cooperstown relented, and Paige and later Negro League players were inducted into the Hall of Fame.
- In retirement, Williams praised Black players in MLB, like Willie Mays, after Jackie Robinson broke the modern-day color line. He'd mentor future Hall of Famer Tony Gwynn, a San Diego Padres hitter.
State of play: MLB announced the addition of Negro League records to MLB following years of debate and recommendations from the independent Negro League Statistical Review Committee.
- Negro League legend Josh Gibson is now the all-time Major League batting champion, and Paige is third all-time for a single season ERA.
- "Williams would have been pleased at this news that the Negro Leaguers are finally getting their due being incorporated in fish in baseball's official stats," Bradlee said.
- "He would not have minded at all dropping down a few notches in key measures like slugging and batting average."
