Throughout the 2024 Major League Baseball, Shohei Ohtani has been the headliner. As a two-way player focused on offense while recovering from Tommy John surgery, Ohtani was on pace to set records early.
On Thursday in Miami, he became the first player to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season. At least that’s what had been reported.
So, was Ohtani actually the first to reach this milestone?
When MLB officially recognized the statistics of Negro League players in May, dating back to 1920, they acknowledged that the data was incomplete. Researchers estimate that roughly 75 percent of the records from the 1920-48 Negro Leagues have been preserved.
Shohei Ohtani founded the 50/50 club on Thursday in Miami. Shohei Ohtani founded the 50/50 club on Thursday in Miami. Photo by Megan Briggs/Getty Images
But what unknown stories and achievements might be hidden in the remaining 25 percent?
Dodgers Nation reporter JP Hoornstra took it a step further by asking Adam Darowski, the Executive Director of Design & Product Management for Sports Reference, to help dive into the details of the Negro Leagues further.
What Darowski found was interesting.
To estimate the top candidates for a 50/50 season in Negro League history, Darowski referenced all players in the Baseball Reference database who had achieved at least 10 home runs and 10 stolen bases. He then prorated their stats to a 154-game season to make a numerical projection.
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