Lovingly crafted–dare we say, bespoke–MLE’s from the Negro Leagues
Integrated 9s (i9s) seeks to answer the question: what is our best possible guess of how baseball players from the old Negro Leagues (NeL) would have integrated into Major League Baseball (MLB)? The eventual vision is to model the full projected career statistics of hundreds, if not thousands, of African-American and Latin players as if they competed with their MLB contemporaries, showing just how different baseball might have been if it welcomed brown- and black-skinned players from day one.
This work began in the 1990s, bringing together the research of two NeL enthusiasts who shared a vision for imagining how these players would have contributed to the history of MLB. This would help to validate accomplishments and contributions of these men–many of whom remain long forgotten.
Since this work began nearly 30 years ago it has progressed in fits and starts. In the intervening years, the Negro Leagues have gotten more attention and interest, ranging from expanding the presence of their players in the Hall of Fame during the 2000s, to the drastically increased availability of online sources for historical information and statistics, to more recently MLB’s announcement that the Negro Leagues were Major Leagues (a complicated, overdue, problematic, and applaudable declaration). See our Resources page for more information.
This project is deeply personal. We are moved by a passion for better understanding the history of sports across eras, not to mention a deep love for our national pastime. Contact us with questions, or suggestions for new reference sources, relevant to this project.
Thanks for stopping by and we hope you find the work of interest.
Places to get started: