Wouldn't it have been wonderful if all the great Negro Leaguers had been able to play in the majors? We can't change the past, but a close second would be black and Cuban players in our Strat-O-Matic baseball, right? No? Too bad, that's what you get.

Yes, Strat-O-Matic, that card-and-dice game that only about 12 people understand, is introducing its Negro League Roster Set, featuring stars like Satchel Paige, Buck Leonard and Josh Gibson. After some grunt work tracking down elusive statistics, and some computer calculations, we now know just what Cool Papa Bell would do if you roll an eight.

By typing the numbers onto Excel spreadsheets, [historian Scott] Simkus was able to determine fielding averages, platoon splits, strikeouts. Baseball Almanac readers take those stats for granted, but they'd been unknown for Negro Leaguers. Strat-O-Matic statisticians then came up with a "major league equivalency" formula to adjust the numbers to major league levels by studying how Negro Leaguers had performed against minor-league teams, Cuban winter league teams, and barnstorming big leaguers. They determined that the quality of play in the Negro Leagues was somewhere between AAA and the majors.

Now if only the Negro League cards were able to stay in the same box as the white player cards in Southern households.

Negro League Roster Set [Strat-O-Matic]
Satchel Paige vs. Babe Ruth [Slate]

Like a lot of people, I hadn't heard of Buck O'Neil until relatively recently. His participation in Ken Burns' "Baseball" documentary pushed him into the national conscience, and he's been a public figure since. I'd see him on television, or I'd read an interview with him, and I'd think, "Wow, that guy really took the whole 'you're not allowed in Major League Baseball because your black' thing remarkably well." Maybe that's part of the reason that he was such a popular guy recently. He never made anyone feel bad about anything.

He wasn't even mad when he came up one vote short to get into the baseball hall of fame this year.

God's been good to me. They didn't think Buck was good enough to be in the Hall of Fame. That's the way they thought about it and that's the way it is, so we're going to live with that. Now, if I'm a Hall of Famer for you, that's all right with me. Just keep loving old Buck. Don't weep for Buck. No, man, be happy, be thankful.

Well, I am, but... Buck O'Neil still deserves to be in the hall of fame. If his statistics on the field don't merit his inclusion, how about his contributions to baseball in general? O'Neil was a tireless proponent of keeping the history of the Negro leagues alive, and if he hadn't done that recently, who would have? If it wasn't for Buck, the special election for Negro league players in 2006 might not have even take place.

Help Build Buck's Hall [Negro League Baseball Museum]
Buck O'Neil, Negro Leagues Pioneer, Is Dead at 94 [New York Times]
10 Burning Questions for Buck O'Neil [ESPN Page 2]
Shadow Ball. Buck O'Neil Interview [PBS]

Anyway, he played for the Homestead Grays in 1913, the New York Lincoln Giants in 1926 and the San Francisco Giants in 2005.

Simmons held that old sepia photo of the 1913 Homestead Grays for those long 20 seconds, he gradually decided that one face did ring a bell. He fixed on it and pointed his weathered hand at the player sitting in the middle row, second from the right. He said nothing as he pointed.

Who is that? he was asked.

"That's Si Simmons," he said.

Really? Was he sure?

"That's me," he declared. "Oh, we had good times."

What's the secret to Simmons' longevity? He watches Tampa Bay Devil Rays games. Honestly: That's pretty much the last thing on earth we would have thought would keep someone alive.

Baseball's Oldest Old-Timer Opens a Window [New York Times]