JOSHUA (JOSH) GJoshua "Josh" Gibson

Hall of Fame Induction:  1972

Only one thing is keeping them out of the big leagues, the pigmentation of their skin.”  So wrote Shirley Povich of the Washington Post in 1941.

Gibson was the product of Mark Gibson, a steelworker and the former Nancy Woodlock.  He attended public school in Buena Vista, GA, before studying at the Allegheny Pre-Vocational School in Pittsburgh to learn the electrician’s trade.  When he was seventeen, he married 18-year-old Helen Mason, who died in labor, delivering their twins, Josh, Jr. and Helen.

Gibson’s legendary career began in 1927, with the semi-pro Pittsburgh Crawfords of Compton Hill.  Three years later, while attending a Homestead Grays game, young Josh suddenly got his first chance at pro ball.  The Grays catcher Buck Ewing had to leave the game with a split thumb.  Some of the Grays players had seen Gibson play, and they asked him to take Ewing’s place behind the plate.  Unpolished as a catcher, but country-boy strong, he made a lasting impression on the Grays and the host team, the Kansas City Monarchs.  He stayed with the Grays for two seasons (1930-31) and then jumped to the flash of cash from Gus Greenlee, to play for the cross-town rival Crawfords.  He won homerun titles in 1932, 1934, and 1936 while wearing Crawford red.  Gibson rejoined the Grays and Buck Leonard in 1937.  The ’37 edition of the Grays split their home games between Washington DC and Pittsburgh.  Before the season ended, Gibson along with several teammates ran off to play for the Santo Domingo dictator, Rafael Trujillo.  The 1937 edition of Trujillo’s team was stacked with superstars of the Negro Leagues.  Held under armed guard, the team won the championship and the dictator won re-election.

Gibson returned to the Homestead Grays and picked up where he left off.  He won homerun crowns in 1938 and 1939, and his first batting title in 1938 with a stunning .440.  Gibson was noted for his long distance drives.  Teammate Buck Leonard said, “Nobody hit the ball as far as Gibson.  I didn’t see the one he is supposed to have hit out of Yankee Stadium.  But I saw him hit a ball one night in the Polo Grounds that went between the upper deck and lower deck and out of the stadium.  Later the night watchman came in and said, ‘Who hit the damned ball out there?’  He said it landed on the El.  It must have gone 600 feet.”

Gibson played briefly in Mexico and Puerto Rico, winning the Puerto Rican batting title in 1941 with an incredible .480 average and being named Most Valuable Player.  After becoming very ill in Mexico, he returned to the Grays in 1942.  Despite intermittent health problems, Gibson won homerun crowns in 1942, 1943, and 1946, plus a batting title in 1943, hitting .521.

Gibson didn’t just destroy Negro League pitchers, he also beat up on white major leaguers.  In a recorded 60 at bats against the likes of Dizzy and Daffy Dean, Johnny Vander Meer, and others, Josh hit .426, including five home runs.  His bas was an equal opportunity banger.

Monte Irvin recalls a day in the life of Josh.  “On opening day in Newark of 1941, we were leading the Grays 2-0 in the ninth inning with two outs.  Jimmy Hill walked (Sam) Bankhead and (Buck) Leonard with Josh Gibson coming up.  Leon Day was in the bullpen.  He got two quick strikes on Josh and tried to slip the third one by him.  He hit it in the center field bleachers to beat us 3-2, before 22,000 disappointed fans.  Mrs. Effa Manley after the game said to Josh, ‘You should be ashamed of yourself for spoiling our opener.’  Josh replied, ‘Mrs. Manley, I break hearts all over the country every summer.  If you don’t believe me just ask any pitcher.’”

Breaking pitchers’ hearts was Gibson’s business.  In 1943, the unromantic Josh hit 10 home runs out of spacious Griffith Stadium, a feat never duplicated by any major leaguer.  The back wall of the left field bleachers was cleared only three times.  Mickey Mantle did it once, with a 565 foot blast, and Josh did it twice.  Historian John Coates credits Gibson with 823 home runs in 22 years, including the pro winter leagues.  Considering Gibson played the majority of his career in Forbes Field (center field 457 ft.) and Griffith Stadium (421 in center), his homerun totals could have been higher had he played in some of the band boxes in the league.

Max Manning, former ace of the Newark Eagles pitching staff recalled: “I never saw Josh take a leaving-the-ground swing.  It was always a smooth, quick stroke.  A lot of guys would swing, the ground would shake, the air would move, and their hats would fly off.  But he’d just take the short, quick stroke, and that ball would leave any ballpark.”

Gibson was the ultimate hitter.  He hit with power, for a high average, and seldom struck out.  He was a blue-collar slugger without the glitz and glamour of his major league counterparts.  Gibson was simply known as Josh—no nicknames, no monikers, no labels.

In late 1942, Gibson begun to suffer from recurring headaches and dizzy spells.  On New Year’s Day of 1943, he was hospitalized for 10 days after doctors discovered a brain tumor.  The man-child Josh refused to allow an operation.  He returned to baseball, while the headaches and blackouts continued, eventually eroding his mythical skills.  Gibson died at the age of 35.  He was buried in Allegheny Cemetery in Pittsburgh, PA.

Gibson will be the eternal monarch of homerun kings.  He dominated the game with majestic power like none before him.  Former Crawford teammate Judy Johnson boasted, “If Josh had been in the big leagues in his prime, Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron would still be chasing him for the home run record.”

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