Smith's quiet demeanor contrasted sharply with Satchel's flambouyant style. During his best years with the Monarchs, Smith was almost unstoppable and posted a 93-11 record over the years of 1939 through 1942. The following article details the entry of the first eleven Negro league players into the Hall of Fame. Other players that have since been inducted are Leon Day, Willie Foster, Willie Wells, Bullet Rogan, Smokin' Joe Williams, Turkey Stearnes and of course Hilton Smith. The other day Willie Mays hit his 522nd home run.
Baseball gives every American boy a chance to excel.
This is the nature of man and the name of the game. I hope that someday Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren't given the chance. In 1971, twenty-four years after Jackie Robinson first took the field for the Brooklyn Dodgers and more than a hundred years after the first black men began to play what would become the National Pastime, the National Baseball Hall of Fame created a special committee to recognize African American athletes who played during baseball's segregated period. Subjected to Jim Crow laws of the times, these players were never given the opportunity to showcase their talents in the white major leagues. Almost a third of the total players are pitchers.