1934 Negro National League

The 1934 Negro National League was the second season of the second edition of the Negro National League. After a rocky first year marked by only three teams completing the season, the second year was more stable. Last year's champion Pittsburgh Crawfords were competitive (with a 184 OPS+ from Josh Gibson and 262 ERA+ from Satchel Paige), but did not win either half despite peak seasons from two legends. The Chicago American Giants won the first half and the new entry Philadelphia Stars the second half, with Philly winning an exciting postseason series behind Slim Jones.

Standings

Rank	Team	G	W	L	T	WPCT	GB
1	Pittsburgh Crawfords	77	47	27	3	.635	--
2	Philadelphia Stars	64	36	18	10	.667	1.0
3	Chicago American Giants	51	28	20	3	.583	6.0
4	Newark Dodgers	32	17	14	1	.548	8.5
5	Baltimore Black Sox	13	3	8	2	.273	12.5
6	Nashville Elite Giants	47	18	28	1	.391	15.0
7	Philadelphia Bacharach Giants	25	5	20	0	.200	17.5
8	Cleveland Red Sox	25	3	22	0	.120	19.5

Both the Philadelphia Bacharach Giants and Baltimore Black Sox joined the league in the second half.

• Postseason: Philadelphia defeated Chicago, 4 games to 3, with 1 tie

League leaders

(based off games for which box scores could be found)

Bold indicates league record, Italics indicate all-time record

Batting

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Games Played	Pete Washington	Philadelphia Stars	70
At Bats	Cool Papa Bell	Pittsburgh Crawfords	272
Runs Scored	Josh Gibson	Pittsburgh Crawfords	56
Hits	Cool Papa Bell	Pittsburgh Crawfords	89
Doubles	Josh Gibson	Pittsburgh Crawfords	19
Triples	Jake Dunn Turkey Stearnes	Philadelphia Stars Chicago American Giants	7
Home Runs	Josh Gibson	Pittsburgh Crawfords	15
Runs Batted In	Josh Gibson	Pittsburgh Crawfords	59
Stolen Bases	Cool Papa Bell	Pittsburgh Crawfords	14
Walks	Cool Papa Bell	Pittsburgh Crawfords	34
Hit-by-Pitch	Oscar Charleston Vic Harris	Pittsburgh Crawfords Pittsburgh Crawfords	3
Sacrifice Hits	Chester Williams	Pittsburgh Crawfords	15
Batting Average	Buddy Burbage	Newark Dodgers	.438
On-Base Percentage	Buddy Burbage	Newark Dodgers	.512
Slugging Percentage	Josh Gibson	Pittsburgh Crawfords	.616
On-Base plus Slugging	Buddy Burbage	Newark Dodgers	1119
On-Base plus Slugging Plus	Josh Gibson	Pittsburgh Crawfords	184

Pitching

Statistic	Leader	Team	Number
Wins	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	20
Losses	Bill Byrd	Cleveland Red Sox	8
Win-Loss Percentage	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	0.833
Appearances	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	30
Games Started	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	22
Complete Games	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	20
Shutouts	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	6
Saves	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	2
Innings Pitched	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	203
Batters Faced	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	789
Hits Allowed	Slim Jones William Bell	Philadelphia Stars Pittsburgh Crawfords	134
Home Runs Allowed	Slim Jones Webster McDonald	Philadelphia Stars Philadelphia Stars	6
Base-on-Balls Allowed	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	47
Hit Batsmen	Webster McDonald	Philadelphia Stars	4
Strikeouts	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	164
Wild Pitches	Paul Carter	Philadelphia Stars	3
Runs Allowed	Bob Evans	Newark Dodgers	67
Earned Runs Allowed	Bob Evans	Newark Dodgers	59
Earned Run Average	Slim Jones	Philadelphia Stars	1.24
WHIP	Satchel Paige	Pittsburgh Crawfords	0.87

All-Star Game

The 1934 East-West Game was a classic, with Paige getting the win for the East in a 1-0 pitching duel, Jud Wilson driving in Cool Papa Bell with the only run.

Sources: The Complete Book of Baseball's Negro Leagues by John Holway, Seamheads database (accessed 1/5/2021), Agate Type blog, Black Baseball's National Showcase by Larry Lester

Further Reading

• Frederick C. Bush and Bill Nowlin, eds.: The Stars Shone on Philadelphia: The 1934 Negro National League Champions, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2023. ISBN 978-1-960819-05-5