Joe Nuxhall No Longer Recognized As The Youngest Player In MLB History

[Ron Madden]

Nuxhall No Longer Recognized As The Youngest Player In MLB History

During World War II, Major League Baseball teams were so strapped for players that they turned to unusual options, including a one-armed outfielder, a one-legged pitcher and a half-deaf center fielder.

Still too young to drive, 15 year old Joe Nuxhall took the bus 30 miles from Hamilton, Ohio to Crosley Field in Cincinnati on June 10, 1944 for a Saturday afternoon game.

The Reds chose a low-stakes moment for his debut, with the home team trailing the first-place St. Louis Cardinals, 13-0, in the top of the ninth inning.

For the past 80 years, Nuxhall has been recognized as the youngest player in MLB history, a record that seemed unlikely to change, as American players must graduate high school to be eligible for the draft.

However, last month, MLB announced that it was incorporating Negro Leagues stats into its record books.

MLB historian John Thorn wrote that Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella made his debut for the Washington Elite Giants, a Negro Leagues team, on June 22, 1937, when he was several months younger than Nuxhall was at the time of his MLB debut. “Now we have a younger MLBer,” Thorn wrote.

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[JCM11]

If football or basketball had pro leagues back then they would've been segregated as well. Yes it was wrong, but that doesn't make a non MLB league magically become an MLB league 100 years later.

[Wonderful Monds]

Yeah idk man this is dumb. They weren’t MLB teams. You didn’t let them play. You can’t just retroactively go “oh yeah they were totally MLB players all along”

[JCM11]

Yeah idk man this is dumb. They weren’t MLB teams. You didn’t let them play. You can’t just retroactively go “oh yeah they were totally MLB players all along”

Exactly, you can't learn from history if you're constantly rewriting it. Just call it the youngest player in a professional baseball league record instead of an MLB record.

[redsrule2500]

Exactly, you can't learn from history if you're constantly rewriting it. Just call it the youngest player in a professional baseball league record instead of an MLB record.

That's literally what it was until last week.

Regardless, society holds the records that matter. Joe was the youngest in MLB and the Cincinnati Reds were the birth of professional baseball.

[RedTeamGo!]

Yeah, this is a weird situation. If we are all being honest with ourselves we can acknowledge it wasn't MLB so their numbers should not count. However, I feel if you say that out loud you will immediately be called racist and your entire opinion will be disqualified.

[KeefeCato]

Yeah, this is a weird situation. If we are all being honest with ourselves we can acknowledge it wasn't MLB so their numbers should not count. However, I feel if you say that out loud you will immediately be called racist and your entire opinion will be disqualified.

I agree. Obviously the negro leagues had players who would've excelled in MLB.
I also suspect each team had several players who wouldn't have been good enough to play in the majors.

Probably the better teams had 5 or 6 players that would've been legit mlb players.
The lesser teams probably had a couple. Probably 25% or so of the league could have been major league players. So the competition was good but not major league good likely.

[LeatherPants]

I agree. Obviously the negro leagues had players who would've excelled in MLB.
I also suspect each team had several players who wouldn't have been good enough to play in the majors.

Probably the better teams had 5 or 6 players that would've been legit mlb players.
The lesser teams probably had a couple. Probably 25% or so of the league could have been major league players. So the competition was good but not major league good likely.

How much research did you do here, or do you have links to any studies you've read?

What made the white NL/AL players so good that only a percentage of the black players would be good enough to play in the NL/AL?

[Wonderful Monds]

How much research did you do here, or do you have links to any studies you've read?

What made the white NL/AL players so good that only a percentage of the black players would be good enough to play in the NL/AL?

They segregated out a league that had to pull from a smaller portion of population given that they are a demographic minority. If the argument is that the Negro Leagues matched the talent of the MLB at the time, that’s a pretty bold claim that carried a big burden of proof.

Josh Gibson would not have hit 962 home runs in the MLB. Just kinda take it from there and that’s the level of competition the best players were playing against

[LeatherPants]

They segregated out a league that had to pull from a smaller portion of population given that they are a demographic minority. If the argument is that the Negro Leagues matched the talent of the MLB at the time, that’s a pretty bold claim that carried a big burden of proof.

Josh Gibson would not have hit 962 home runs in the MLB. Just kinda take it from there and that’s the level of competition the best players were playing against

And Babe Ruth doesn't hit 714 if he has to face black pitchers, so that argument doesn't really fly either.

I'm not saying that everyone that played in the Negro League would have been able to play in the NL/AL, but I am asking where Keef came up with those numbers, which doesn't seem like an unreasonable thing to ask.

[dragonoffrost]

They segregated out a league that had to pull from a smaller portion of population given that they are a demographic minority. If the argument is that the Negro Leagues matched the talent of the MLB at the time, that’s a pretty bold claim that carried a big burden of proof.

Josh Gibson would not have hit 962 home runs in the MLB. Just kinda take it from there and that’s the level of competition the best players were playing against

Not sure where you get that HR total for Josh Gibson. He only has 174 on MLB.com

[RedTeamGo!]

How much research did you do here, or do you have links to any studies you've read?

What made the white NL/AL players so good that only a percentage of the black players would be good enough to play in the NL/AL?

No major variation occurred in the racial composition There of the national population between 1940 and 1950. was a slight decrease from 89.8 percent to 89.5 percent in the proportion of white persons in the total population. The percentage of African Americans in 1950 was 10.0 in contrast to 9.8 in 1940.

Pretty simple math, the MLB was drawing from a much larger sample size of humans than the negro leagues. And that is just whites. IIRC the majors were bringing players from Caribbean at the time.

[KeefeCato]

How much research did you do here, or do you have links to any studies you've read?

What made the white NL/AL players so good that only a percentage of the black players would be good enough to play in the NL/AL?

It's just my opinion from reading several books on white and black baseball from the 30s 40s etc.
It's not a set in stone guarantee that I'm right or even close in the percentages.
That's why I said "Likely" the negro league had players that had they played their entire careers in MLB would have been first ballot HOFers.
They had players who would have been stars or hall of the very good.
They had players who would have played in the majors as mostly reserves.
They also had players who were more minor league caliber players.
I think everyone would agree with this about the overall talent level.

[redsfan9988]

A lot of really awful stuff has happened in this country. There are no takesies-backsies.

Our society and culture will just have to wear it. Honestly, it’s borderline disrespectful to those that suffered tremendously for some suits in 2024 to be like, “k we’re even now, right?”

[westofyou]

Semantics

MLB - Major League Baseball - The Negro Leagues have been designated Major League, meanwhile in the long history of the National League, American Association. American League, Players League and Federal League Joe is the youngest player ever.

But really who cares?

Joe got in because it was war year, the game in 1944 was taxed talent wise and but by the luck of age Joe was too young to be in the army and by the luck of his physical talent good enough to draw interest... hell a guy with one arm played the next year. It was not a normal time.