The Black Aces

The African American pitchers who have won 20 games or more in a season refer to themselves as 12 Black Aces. Dontrelle Willis just joined the club. What is shocking is that he is only the 13th member, which will necessitate a name change for the group. Here are the members:



Vida Blue;
Al Downing;
Bob Gibson;
Dwight Gooden;
Mudcat Grant;
Ferguson Jenkins;
Sam Jones;
Don Newcombe;
Mike Norris;
J.R. Richard;
Dave Stewart;
Dontrelle Willis;
Earl Wilson



Since 1947 when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier, there have have been 341 twenty game seasons, involving 186 different pitchers. So 7% of the pitchers who have accomplished 20 game seasons were African American. Of the 341 seasons, 30 were by African American pitchers, or 8.8%.



Of course, 12 Black Aces do not include those black players of hispanic descent. Without trying to identify which hispanic pitchers might be considered black, clearly pitchers like Pedro Martinez, Luis Tiant and Juan Marichal would be on the list. So too Joaquin Andujar and Mike Cuellar.