Josh Gibson Marquee Hall of Fame 1972

He caught for the Homestead Grays and the Pittsburgh Crawfords, and across fourteen seasons in the leagues now counted as major he led his league in home runs twelve times, in 1933 through 1939 and again in 1942 through 1946. Only Babe Ruth has as many. He led in runs batted in nine times, which nobody else has done, and in runs six times. He was chosen for ten East-West All-Star games.

The counted record gives him 831 hits, 171 home runs and 746 runs batted in over 622 recorded games, an average of .371. Three earlier seasons in independent Black baseball, worth another 176 hits and 26 home runs, sit outside it. The figures are partial for the reason all Negro Leagues figures are partial: nobody with the resources to keep them thought them worth keeping, and league games were a fraction of a year mostly spent barnstorming.

He was never signed by a major-league club. He died of a stroke in January 1947, three months before Jackie Robinson played his first game for Brooklyn, at 35. The Hall of Fame elected him in 1972. Major League Baseball recognized the Negro Leagues as major in 2020 and merged their records into the official statistics in 2024, which is why the leads above are league leads and not a separate list.