Catcher

Did Josh Gibson actually hit a ball clear out of Yankee Stadium? I heard that he did, but I don't know for sure because I didn't see it, and I don't know anyone who did.

Let me ask another question: did Babe Ruth actually point to the center-field seats in Wrigley Field in the 1932 World Series against the Cubs and then hit the ball right where he pointed?

That's what we have heard, but I don't know for sure that he did because I didn't see that either, and I don't know anyone who did. But from what we have all heard and read about the Babe, it's believable that he would have pointed to the seats and then hit the ball there.

The same goes for Josh Gibson. From what I have heard from old-time Negro Leagues players about his unbelievable power and from the shots I have seen him hit with my own eyes, I wouldn't doubt that he actually did hit a ball out of Yankee Stadium. He was capable of doing almost anything.

One player who swears he saw Gibson hit one clear out of Yankee Stadium is Jack Marshall of the Chicago American Giants. It happened in 1934, Marshall said.

"Gibson hit a ball off Slim Jones in a four-team doubleheader that we had in Yankee Stadium," said Marshall. "We had played the Black Yankees in the first game, and the Philadelphia Stars played the Pittsburgh Crawfords in the second game. They say a ball has never been hit out of Yankee Stadium. Well, that's a lie. Josh hit the ball over that triple deck next to the bullpen in left field. Over and out. I never will forget that, because we were getting ready to leave because we were going down to Hightstown, New Jersey, to play a night game, and we were standing in the aisle when that boy hit this ball."

The Sporting News credits Gibson with hitting a ball in Yankee Stadium that landed two feet from the top of the wall circling the bleachers in center field, some 580 feet from home plate. Estimates say that if the ball had been two feet higher, it would have sailed out of the Stadium and traveled about 700 feet.

Another account had Gibson hitting a ball that struck the rear wall of Yankee Stadium's left-field bullpen, about 500 feet from home plate.

Gibson had no peer for hitting home runs. In every league in which he ever played, he led in home runs and batting average. He had no weakness. He was big and strong — 6'1", 215 pounds — bigger than Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx and as big as Babe Ruth, and he was built like a tank. Derrick Brooks, a linebacker for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has a physique like Gibson's. Yes, Gibson was as strong as two men, could run like a deer, and had a great arm.

I've never seen anybody with a swing like Gibson's. He had very broad shoulders and great upper-body strength. He was unique. His swing was effortless. He would walk into the batter's box and turn his left sleeve up, and when he swung he lifted his left foot up just a little and put it right down, like Joe DiMaggio did. When he swung and missed, he wouldn't fall down, he'd follow through. Pitchers were afraid to throw him low and outside because that's the ball he would hit through the middle, and pitchers would be taking their life in their hands if they pitched him away. So they would pitch him inside.

If you want to compare Gibson to anyone, it would have to be Jimmie Foxx; both were strong right-handed hitters, were about the same size, were the same build, could run, and were easy to get along with. Gibson led the Negro National League in home runs for 10 straight years, and records show he hit 75 homers in the 1931 season and 89 homers in another season, many of them against semipro teams.

We were playing against him in a little town near Pittsburgh, Monessen, Pennsylvania. It was a huge stadium, and Gibson hit a ball out of the park, across the street. The mayor of the town was at the game, and he said, "Stop the game and get that ball, because I have never seen anybody hit a ball that far." They said it traveled 575 feet. He was capable of doing anything.

And Josh had a perfect temperament. Everybody liked him. He got along with everybody. A great guy to be around, just a terrific person. He was good-natured, and he had a great sense of humor and would laugh at himself.

They used to call Gibson "the black Babe Ruth," and there was a sort of rivalry between them. Josh would stroll into the clubhouse and say, "Hey, tell me this, how many did the Babe, 'the King of Swat,' hit today?" Somebody would say, "He hit a couple," and Gibson would say, "Well, then maybe old Josh better get out and hit three."

There'll never be another man like him.

Gibson wasn't a Campanella as a catcher. He didn't like pop-ups. He could catch them, but he didn't like to. Campy would chase you away on pop-ups. Gibson was a little slow on pop fouls. He'd tell the third baseman and first baseman to take any foul pop his way, but that was the only thing he wasn't good at. He had a rifle for an arm. He could throw a strike to second base from his squat. And he could really run, especially for a big man.

But he was such a great hitter, and a great clutch-hitter. He would say, "Okay, you got me last time, you won't get me tonight," or "You need one run, I'll go up there and get it for you."

One time we were playing against him in Philadelphia, and our pitcher, Max Manning, struck him out twice with sidearm curveballs. During the ninth inning, with a couple of men on base, Manning threw that same pitch, and Josh hit it over the center-field fence. He was a right-handed hitter, but he could hit the ball as far to right field as a left-handed hitter could.

The great Walter Johnson once said, "There is a catcher that any big-league club would like to buy for $200,000. His name is Gibson. He can do everything. He hits the ball a mile. And he catches so easy he might as well be in a rocking chair. Throws like a rifle. Bill Dickey isn't as good a catcher. Too bad this Gibson is a colored fellow."

The tragedy of Josh Gibson is that he was born too soon. He was 34, and his best years behind him, when Jackie Robinson broke into organized baseball with Montreal. If Gibson had been 10 years younger — or if the color barrier had been broken 10 years earlier — I have no doubt that Josh would have been a major star in the big leagues, right up there with Mickey Cochrane, Gabby Hartnett, Bill Dickey, Yogi Berra, Roy Campanella, and Johnny Bench as the greatest catchers ever to play the game.

Sadly, Gibson suffered a stroke, and possibly a brain tumor, and he died a year later, three months before Robinson played his first game with the Dodgers in 1947.

If it were my choice, I would have made Roy Campanella the first African American to play in the major leagues. That's not to take anything away from Jackie Robinson. He did it and he was a success, but nobody knew at the time that he would become such a great player. If it had...