Top 100 momentsNo. 57
The Negro National League
Rube Foster organizes Black baseball into a league. The talent was never the question. The structure is the revolution.
Andrew “Rube” Foster pulls owners together in Kansas City in 1920. The Negro National League gives Black baseball a schedule, a championship, and a business that is not only barnstorming. Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston — the names are the equal of anything in the white majors.
The majors will raid this talent after Robinson and then pretend the history started in 1947. Foster’s league is the missing middle: organized, popular, and locked out.
MLB’s later incorporation of Negro Leagues statistics is paperwork catching up. 1920 is the founding. Foster built a league because the other one would not open the door.