On the blog today, we add the great Negro league player George Scales to my long-running 1972 "Negro Leagues All-Time Greats" thread, celebrating the 25th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's debut in the Major Leagues:
The second baseman
put in a 25-year professional career that saw him bat .320, while also
going on to manage 12 seasons in the Puerto Rican Winter League, winning
six pennants.
An incredibly versatile player, he put in time
at every single position except for catcher, playing the most of his
career at third base with 235 games and second base with 161 games.
In
1927, while with the New York Lincoln Giants, he hit .419, a
career-best though he did top a .380 batting average three other times
over the course of his career.
His .510 career slugging
average ranks ninth among all Negro League players with 3000 or more
plate appearances, with all eight of the players ahead of him already in
the Hall of Fame, for which Scales has not been yet honored.
