Josh Gibson, the 'Black Babe Ruth,' honored in Pittsburgh with a historical marker

Jet, Oct 21, 1996

Josh Gibson, who was called the "Black Babe Ruth," recently was honored in Pittsburgh, PA, with the unveiling of a historical marker.

Gibson, who played 17 years in Pittsburgh with two Negro League teams, hit 800 home runs during his extraordinary career. He died just months before Jackie Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers, which broke baseball's color barrier.

"Without Josh, there would have been no Jackie," said Rob Ruck, author of several books about the Negro League. After watching Gibson, who played many exhibition games against White superstars, Ruck said, "White Americans had to realize Black athletes were not only the equal of White athletes, but often their superiors."

The Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission installed the marker honoring Gibson, who was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, in front of Ammons Field, where the baseball legend helped to organize the semi-pro Crawford Colored Giants in 1929.

The following year he joined the Homestead Grays, the last championship team in the Negro League. He also played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords, where he caught pitches from Satchel Paige.

Historians contend Gibson, who died of a stroke in 1947 at the age of 36, would have been a household name had Black men been allowed to play in the major leagues during his career which spanned from 1929 through 1946.