He was at times called the "black Babe Ruth" though to be fair, perhaps the Bambino should have been tagged the "white Josh Gibson." With strength and power of mythical proportions and a life and death shrouded in mystery and further clouded by time, the Negro Leaguer's legacy is also part John Henry and part Jack Johnson.

	File, Post-Gazette A photo of Josh Gibson, believed to be from the 1940's, playing for the Homestead Grays. Click photo for larger image. Return to index

Gibson's plaque at the Cooperstown credits him with nearly 800 home runs in his career, though that number is thought to be on the conservative side. His lifetime batting average is thought to be upwards of .350, and according to the Hall, in recorded at-bats against big league pitching, Gibson batted .426.

According to the Negro League Baseball Players Association, Gibson, a catcher for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, led the Negro National League in home runs for 10 consecutive years; credited with 75 home runs in 1931. Belting home runs of more than 500 feet was not unusual for Gibson. One homer in Monessen, Pa., reportedly was measured at 575 feet. The Sporting News of June 3, 1967 credits Gibson with a home run in a Negro League game at Yankee Stadium that struck two feet from the top of the wall circling the center field bleachers, about 580 feet from home plate.

Although it has never been conclusively proven, Chicago American Giants infielder Jack Marshall said Gibson slugged one over the third deck next to the left field bullpen in 1934 for the only fair ball hit out of the House That Ruth Built.

Even his death has been clouded with myth. Gibson, it was said, believed he was going to die and gathered his family around his bedside. He even sent his brother out to gather up his trophies. While talking and laughing he supposedly raised his head, spoke incoherently, then laid down and died. The true story was not as sentimental or dramatic. Gibson suffered a stroke in a movie theater and was taken unconscious to his mother's house where he died a few hours later. Gibson is buried in Allegheny Cemetery in the city's Lawrenceville section, not far from the owner and founder of the Pittsburgh Crawfords, Gus Greenlee.

Teammate and friend Jimmie Crutchfield often said that Gibson died of a broken heart at not having made the white major leagues. Gibson himself might have disagreed, though at times his depressed mental state and threw him into fits of rage and rambling outbursts. Like most of his teammates, Gibson generally accepted his fate and did not speak out about the injustice of baseball's color bar, although Jackie Robinson broke into the major leagues only three months after Gibson's death.

A Pennsylvania historical marker was dedicated in 1996 to memorialize Gibson at the former site of Ammons Field in Hill District where Gibson played as a member of the Pittsburgh Crawfords.

	File, Post-Gazette An undated photo of Josh Gibson. Click photo for larger image.

In late-June, the Pirates organization drew back the curtain on its new Highmark Legacy Square project inside the left-field entrance at PNC Park, where life-size bronze statues and interactive kiosks commemorate seven Pittsburgh Negro League greats: Gibson, Crawfords pitcher Satchel Paige, Crawfords/Grays outfielder Cool Papa Bell, Grays/Crawfords center fielder-manager Oscar Charleston, Grays first baseman Buck Leonard, Grays/Crawfords infielder Judy Johnson and Grays pitcher Smokey Joe Williams. Paige, Gibson, Leonard, Bell, Johnson and Charleston were five of the first six Negro League stars to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

Nowhere except the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City is there a display approximating this one: seven statues, huge commemorative bats overhead and an indoor, 25-seat Legacy Theatre where visitors can see an interactive fans wall created by Carnegie Mellon University and watch a 12-minute video focusing on black baseball in Pittsburgh. The film was written with the help of Pitt professor Rob Ruck and narrated by ESPN's Joe Morgan.