Gibson, Josh

Source:

 African American National Biography

Gibson, Josh

(21 Dec. 1911–20 Jan. 1947),

baseball player, was born Joshua Gibson in Buena Vista, Georgia, the son of Mark Gibson, a sharecropper and steel mill worker and the son of former slaves, and Nancy Woodlock. Josh's two younger siblings, Jerry and Annie, were also children of this union. Around 1921 Josh's father left the uncertain work environment of southwestern Georgia and migrated north to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After securing employment as a laborer with Carnegie-Illinois Steel, he arranged for his family to rejoin him. Josh had completed five years of elementary education in Georgia and enrolled at Allegheny Pre-Vocational School with the intention of becoming an electrician. After completing the ninth grade he left school for an apprenticeship in a Westinghouse Airbrake factory and began playing with a sandlot baseball team, the Pleasant Valley Red Sox. He then joined the semipro Pittsburgh Crawford Giants in 1928. In the spring of 1930 he married Helen Mason, but three months later she died in childbirth, while fraternal twins Helen and Josh Jr. survived.

Gibson began his professional career when he was recruited by the Homestead Grays' player-manager Judy Johnson in July 1930, after their catcher suffered a split finger. With Gibson as their regular catcher, the Grays capped a successful season by defeating the New York Lincoln Giants in a playoff for the Eastern Championship. In the series Gibson batted .368 and hit three home runs, including a 460-foot drive at Yankee Stadium. A right-handed batter, he had extraordinary power and established himself as a superstar in his first full season, 1931. The press credited him with seventy-five home runs that year, although most were against semipro opposition, and the Grays again reigned as the best team in the east. In 1932 the Pittsburgh Crawfords' owner Gus Greenlee raided the Grays, signing Gibson and other key players. With the flamboyant Satchel Paige pitching and Gibson catching, the Crawfords had one of baseball's stellar batteries, and for the next five years they were easily the finest team in the Negro Leagues.

In 1933 Gibson met Hattie Jones, and the couple soon established residence together. The first East-West All-Star game was played that year, and Gibson made the first of four straight All-Star appearances. In those seasons he batted .464, .383, .440, and .457 and was the premier slugger in the Negro Leagues. In 1934 he was credited with sixty-nine home runs against all levels of opposition, and in the 1935 playoff against the New York Cubans for the Negro National League pennant, he hit .407 and smashed a dramatic game-winning, two-run home run in the ninth inning of the final game. The 1935 Crawfords are considered to be the greatest team in the history of the Negro Leagues. In a postseason exhibition game that year, Gibson hit a home run off the white St. Louis Cardinals ace pitcher Dizzy Dean. Over his career Gibson would compile a .412 lifetime batting average against major leaguers. In 1936 the Crawfords won another pennant, and, during the season, Gibson and a select black All-Star team were entered in the Denver Post Tournament and won the championship with ease.

In March 1937 Gibson was returned to the Homestead Grays in the biggest transaction in Negro Leagues history. Soon after signing with the Grays he went to the Dominican Republic, where he led the league with a .453 batting average and powered the dictator Rafael Trujillo's All-Stars to the championship. Upon his return to the Grays, Gibson teamed with Buck Leonard to form a power tandem that the press dubbed the “Thunder Twins.” Gibson was called the “black Babe Ruth,” and the duo formed the nucleus of the Grays' “Murderers' Row” that in 1937 won the first of nine straight Negro National League pennants for the Grays.

In 1938 the media urged the major leagues to sign Gibson and other black stars, but to no avail. Around this time, Gibson and Leonard were called into the office of the Washington Senators' owner Clark Griffith and asked about their interest in playing in the major leagues, but despite their expressed confidence that they could make the team, Griffith told them, “Nobody wants to be the first.” In 1938 the champion Grays made the first of two postseason tours of Cuba, with Gibson batting .347 in the series. Afterward he remained to play in the Cuban Winter League and powered Santa Clara to the championship, batting .356 and leading the league in home runs. One blast traveled an incredible 704 feet and is the longest home run in Cuban history.

In 1939 the Grays won their third straight pennant, Gibson recording a .440 batting average and a slugging percentage (the ratio of bases reached on hits to at bats) of 1.190. A postseason four-team tournament was held, with the Grays losing in the final round despite Gibson's pair of home runs. Gibson opted to spend the 1939–1940 winter in Puerto Rico as Santurce's playing manager, and he batted .380 while leading the league in home runs. He jumped to Venezuela for the 1940 season, but, when the league folded, he signed with Veracruz in the Mexican League, where he batted .467. Gibson returned to Veracruz for the entire 1941 season and led the league with 33 home runs and batted .374, as Veracruz repeated as champions. He then returned to Santurce in the Puerto Rican Winter League, where he led the league with a .480 batting average, a .959 slugging percentage, and 13 home runs, to win the league's Most Valuable Player trophy. One of his home runs traveled more than 600 feet and was the longest in the history of Puerto Rican baseball.

When the Grays' owner Cum Posey filed a ten-thousand-dollar lawsuit against Gibson for breach of contract and sought to take his house as compensation for alleged damages, a settlement was reached, and Gibson returned to the Grays for the 1942 season. With Gibson back in the fold, the Grays won another pennant, though the Kansas City Monarchs swept them in the first Negro World Series between the Negro National League and the Negro American League. But as the result of alcoholic excesses and, possibly, drug abuse, Gibson's physical and psychological condition deteriorated during the season. This decline was apparent to many by the end of the year. In January 1943 he was committed to a hospital after suffering a nervous breakdown. He lapsed into a coma and was diagnosed with a brain tumor. Upon recovery, he decided not to have the tumor removed for fear that he might have permanent brain damage, and he did not inform the Grays of his condition. Gibson developed a relationship with Grace Fournier, a rumored drug addict whose husband was stationed overseas in the army, and her influence contributed to his continued debilitation. As his substance abuse worsened, Gibson's behavior became more erratic, and he was frequently hospitalized or committed to sanatoriums throughout the remainder of his life.

World War II was at its peak, but Gibson was ineligible for the draft because of bad knees from many years of catching, both summer and winter. Despite the problems in his personal life, he still maintained his high standard of performance, and the Grays won back-to-back Negro World Series from the Birmingham Black Barons in 1943 and 1944. In the 1943 World Series, Gibson hit a grand-slam home run, and, in the 1944 series, he batted .500 and also hammered a home run. By 1945 Gibson had lost some of his power, but he still batted .398 for the season, as the Grays won their ninth straight pennant but were swept by the upstart Cleveland Buckeyes in the Negro World Series. Gibson began the winter season in Puerto Rico, but he did not play well and was involved in another dark episode when he ran naked through a San Juan plaza and had to be physically subdued, after which arrangements were made for his return to Pittsburgh for a long rest.

The 1946 season was Gibson's last. A distinct difference was noticeable, both in his health and his playing skills. His defensive skills had eroded, and he could not even squat down behind the plate in a catcher's position. Observers were saddened to see what had happened to the once seemingly indestructible player. He suffered excruciating headaches and dizziness and was plagued by occasional disorientation, incoherence, and conversations with imaginary people. Two All-Star games were played that season, and, despite his debilitation, Gibson was the starting catcher in both games. The consistency of his power had diminished, but the potential was still present, and though he was only a shadow of his former self, Gibson retained his smooth swing and bashed several long home runs, including a 550-foot shot in St. Louis against the Cleveland Buckeyes.

By the end of 1946 Gibson was unable to care for himself and, after a weekend of intense headaches, he suffered a stroke and died at his mother's home in Pittsburgh only three months before Jackie Robinson broke the major league color line. In 1972 Josh Gibson became the second player from the Negro Leagues, after Satchel Paige (1971), to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York.

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