Ted Knorr Discusses Why Negro Leaguer – Herbert “Rap” Dixon Deserves to Be in The Hall of Fame!!!

Ted Knorr Discusses Why Negro Leaguer – Herbert “Rap” Dixon Deserves to Be in The Hall of Fame!!!

Welcome everybody to another great episode of the Allen Alfred Posuk Show. I’m Allan and today we have an outstanding guest for you. We have somewhat of a baseball historian Ted No joining us. He’s going to tell us a lot about some great baseball players and a lot more here on the Allen Outfox show. So, how you doing? I’m doing pretty good. That’s great to hear. And in fact, we’ll start right there. One of the great players that you have a lot of affiliation with is Herbert Allen. You know, Rap Dixon, not to be confused with Herbert Dixon who plays golf, but Rap Dixon. That’s right. Please tell us about him. Well, here’s here’s one thing about Negro League baseball research. It’s always changing. And you did your homework. Herbert Allen Dixon, which was correct to about five years ago. Herbert Alonso Dixon is what we now find. and I I believe to be his real name. This shoulder here, you see a beautiful rendition of him. It’s by an artist in Minnesota named Phil Dwey. And that picture was given to me by a friend. I don’t know what he paid for it, but he thought it should stay in Harrisburg. One day, I was told by a museum curator to stop by and pick up my picture. But Rap Dixon is a outfielder of the Negro Leagues from 1924 to 1937. I think he’s the greatest outfielder of any league not yet inducted. And his statistics, the opinions of those that are in the hall, and his legends are what makes his case. And why do you think he’s not in the Hall of Fame? Well, that’s a good question, and there’s two good answers. The first one, he dies way too young. Cool. Papa Bell, who rap, has better career stats than, but a much shorter career length than. Uh, and I’m not arguing Bell and Dixon. Bell belongs right where he is. The second Negro really got footer put into the hall. But Rap’s career stats are just as good. But he dies at the age of 41, meaning when Cole was around to embellish, you know, the Negro Leagues, and this is a debatable year, but let’s just say the last year without any African-Americans or players of color in the majors is 1946. It’s another 25 years till the hall induen. And and Rap Dixon was dead for all 25 of those years. Cool Papa Bella is alive. So that’s one very good reason. The second is very much related. Cool. Papa Bell’s champion, his Boswell was Satchel Page. And Satchel Page was also alive until he became the first Negro Liger inducted in 1971. And Satchel Page could tell some stories about K Papa Bell. Bell hitting a line drive right between his legs. And by the time Belle was no and he and Belle was hit by the ball as he was sliding in the second, you know, these are the kind of stories that is all we had in Negro League research until recently. And the other one, the most famous one, they were roommates. Paige is in bed, Belle’s going to be in the other bed. He flips the light switch off and he’s under the covers before the light gets dark. So those kind of stories coupled with great stats is what got cool in rap. His champion was in my opinion an even better player than Paige. And there only are one or two that you can make that argument about and that would be Oscar Charleston, the great center fielder. But Charlie died in 1954. So neither Dixon nor his champion Charleston were alive within a decade even of of the hall opening its doors. So that’s why I think he’s not in because his stats now there is nobody that batted as often as rap which isn’t much. You know, we Negro League data is not as deep, but it’s over 2500 played appearances and there’s no Negro Leager or no traditional major leaguer that has a higher OPS than Rap that batted that many times. Yes. It’s amazing that you’re bringing him back to life and letting us know this. And you have an affiliation somewhat of of him and his background. Tell us that. Well, yeah, I’ve been bringing them back. 1988, I took a job in Harrisburg. And of course, I’m a I was already a Saber member for a decade. And you know, my job was actually in the same building as the state library. So, you get me back in the day some microfish to look at, I’m I’m going to look at it. And it turned out that Rap Dixon and the Harrisburg Giants played Sunday home games in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The state capital was Harrisburg, where I had moved to in ‘ 88. Well, I went to Lancaster Catholic High School, which is built on the site of an old minor league baseball park where the Harrisburg Giants, Raps team in the 20s, played their Sunday home games. So now I find out that Rap Dixon played baseball along with Babe Ruth and Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston on the same field where I played a couple years of football, a couple games of football, excuse me. And so that that that connected me with with rap and it’s 37 years I’ve been pushing them. What’s up next? Yes. In fact, let us know about that jersey you got. Okay, this jersey is a n vintage 1997. The Harrisburg Giants, that was their first Negro League commemorative year. And Ebbittzfield Flannels made these jerseys for the team. They wore them to play that day and much to the regrint of the players, they wore them for several years. It’s very hot when you’re out, you know, playing an athletic contest. But this is a Harrisburg Giant jersey. It is now almost 30 years old. It wasn’t game worn, but it’s been worn by me ever since. Yes. And you mentioned you’re a Saber member. For those who don’t know, Society for American Baseball Research, tell us about your, you know, connection with Saber. Well, I don’t know how many members there’s been in Saber, but right now there’s around 7,000 or so, and there’s always been four or 5,000 since I’ve been in. and I was in year nine of its existence. It was founded in 1971. I don’t think you know there’s a there’s a big zero to 10. Zero being pretentious and 10 being misunderstood or underrated. Saber is closer to the underrated side than the pretentious. We have our pretentious people, but most of the guys and gals in Saber, you know, really know baseball. And the organization was founded in Coopertown in 1971. And the founder and many the I think there’s only one living guy that was at that meeting in August of 71. Although I got to tell you a quick story about him. In 2011, I was on a cruise with my future wife and I gave a lecture run. You know, they they were happy to have anyone fill their ballroom. I didn’t exactly show it but and you know offer some entertainment for the folks in my audience. I mean I’m not making this up. Allan was that one guy. In other words, there was a guy in my audience that was there in August of 1971 when Saber was founded. Anyway, I’m beating that to death. Yeah, that’s that’s awesome. And you know that’s the thing is that that research that you’ve done is amazing. How great were the players in the Negro Leagues? Oh, well, let me tell you what the Hall of Fame teaches and then I’ll tell you how great they are. And God bless Major League Baseball. On August 16th of 2020, they declared the Negro Leagues a subset, you know, certain leagues in certain periods as major. And of course, that was met with mixed reviews because who gives them the right? You know, there’s that opinion and I understand that. But it was the greatest thing. And I talked to a few guys, Phil Dixon in particular, right away, and I was thrilled. Phil a little less so be being African-American, th this is something that he’s known since he was born. And now Major League Baseball, after not opening the doors for 75 years, they have the gall to to deem that they have the ability to to call them major. But that faded sort of fast that because the truth of the matter is now players only four were still living and only two are still living now from the era that they named. But there are probably 40 to 50 that played since 1948 that are now being told that they were major leaguers. They knew it all along. But it’s it’s a great thing. It’s time for the Baseball Hall of Fame to do their thing. Here’s I I I digressed, but there were 137 players in the hall from the traditional majors who debuted before Jackie crossed the line. There were only 28 Negro League players. There’s 37 total, but only 28 players. That’s almost a 5:1 ratio. despite. And here to answer your question, every summary I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen five or six by guys like John Holloway or Scott Simus or Todd Peterson, and they list games played between, this is an important title here, socalled Negro League teams against socalled major league teams. Oh, Ken Burns is the most elite of these people. Everyone show the Negro Leagues won more than half their games. Ken Burns says it was 70%. Although when I asked Ken cuz I was all excited. I I asked him, I said, “You have you have box scores, right?” His answer was so classic and honest. He said, “Box scores? This is oral history. So the 75 the 70% is kind of, you know, you know, braggadocia players. I’m I’m going to talk about my wins, but every single of six or seven that I have show more than half. And how can a a league win more than half and only have one sixth as many great players? It doesn’t make sense. And the Hall of Fame needs to get their act together. And let me just make one more point here. We had our meeting last year, Sabers Negrily Committee in Coopertown. It was great. And as founder of that meeting at the the Sabers Negro League research conference, I was able to welcome folks in the plaque gallery of the hall, including Josh Frolich, the exe the president of the hall. And the last thing I said before turning the mic over, I looked around this room filled with Hall of Fame plaques and I paraphrased Jackie Robinson’s last public statement. You may recall he was talking about the third baseline, the coach’s box where a manager back in the day would be found. And Jackie said, “I look forward to the day when I can look down at that third baseline and see a manager that looks like me.” At that time, 1972 is when he died, there were no black managers. So, I looked around the room and I said, “Before I introduce President Raw, I just want to comment that I look forward to the day when I can look around this room and see more Negro League players.” Josh took the took the mic, had no comment, and of course I I can understand that. But anyway, that’s a major theme. the Negro, the Hall of Fame needs to increase I I would say probably doubling little more than doubling the amount of players. So they need to double the amount of Hall of Fame players from the Negro Leagues and they need to get Rap Dixon in there. Well, yes. Although if they double the amount of players in the Negro Leagues, they really can’t miss rap. I mean, his he’s got statistics and let me just tell you about the opinions that I like to site. I have a couple dozen. But the first three outfielders put into the hall for Negro League play, Monty Irvin was the first and the first two were put in because they were alive. Oscar Charleston was third and everybody knows that Charlie was the best. But Molly Irvin ranks eight outfielders in his autobiog his biography and he puts Rap fifth best outfielder of Negro League all time and he does have one outfielder ahead of him that’s not in the hall. So he says Rap is the second most deserving outfielder. That that outfielder he has a header app is Wild Bill Wright and he belongs in the hall. No doubt. But Cool Papa Bell in another little book, I think it’s called The Greatest Team in which he names his all-time team now. And he puts Charleston at first cuz when Bell played with Charleston, Charleston was in his 30s and no longer a center fielder. But that that enables him to name three outfielders. and he names Turkey Sterns who went in the hall a few years after Bell made that selection. Monty Irvin who was in the hall at the time and Rap Dixon. So cool Papa Bell the second Negro League outfielder feels rap belongs. And the best is the third guy in Oscar Charleston who managed rap who brought rap to to different teams throughout his career who actually offered Philadelphia stars cool Papa Bell even up for Rap Dixon in 1934. His all-time outfit includes Christoal Toriente and Martin Die Eagle, two Afroubans, meaning because his third outfielder is Rap Dixon. In OS, if I may interpret Charlie, in his opinion, Rap Dixon is the greatest AfricanAmerican outfielder he ever saw. So, I love what you said. If if the hall would put in with double the amount of Negro Leaguers, there’s no way they could miss putting Rap Dixon in the hall. Hey, you heard it here first on the Allen Alpha Sports Sucks show. Got to double the amount of Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame and they must got to get Rap Dixon is one of them because he deserves to be there. So, they’re not going to miss him. That’s right. I I appreciate you, Ted Norv. Thank you for your insight. Thank you so much for joining us on the Allen Alpha Sports Show. We’re going to do our best to make sure Rap Dixon and those other players get in. That’s right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you, Alan. See you next time.

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Thank you, MLB, Negro League Historian, Ted Knorr for being our Special Guest on the Alan Alford Sports Talk Show!!!

Ted Knorr advocates for former Negro Leaguer Herbert Alfonso Rap Dixon for the Hall of Fame election to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, citing his impressive accolades and statistics.

Ted has conducted thorough research and is the most knowledgeable!

Please enjoy this fantastic interview on Rap Dixon for the Hall of Fame! After watching this interview, please check the fantastic documentary: Rap Dixon: Beyond Baseball!

Thank you, so much Ted Knorr for sharing your knowledge and joining the Alan Alford Sports Talk Show!!

On behalf of the Alan Alford Sports Talk Show, I tremendously appreciate you! 💯🙏🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽🧢⚾🎙️😊

🎙️Interview Date & Time: 6/3/25 11:00 AM EST