Rap Dixon: Negro League Mickey Mantle?
The Power Hitter Pantheon: Baseball’s Greatest Home Run Heroes
This project aims to determine the greatest home run hitter of all time by comparing each slugger’s statistics to the average of their era using three formulas. The final adjusted stats will then be used to compare them head-to-head with other all-time greats.
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Rap Dixon will be the next legendary Negro League slugger examined in this study. For a detailed biography of Dixon, please click here.
According to Baseball Reference, Dixon’s official statistics reveal a total of 58 home runs over 1,553 at-bats resulting in an average of at-bats per home run 26.78 (AB/HR).
Rap Dixon played in the Eastern Colored League (ECL) from 1924 to 1928, the American Negro League (ANL) in 1929, the Negro National League (NNL) in 1930, the East-West League (EWL) in 1932, and the Negro National League II (NN2) from 1934 to 1937.
When aggregating the statistics from each of the seasons Dixon competed in, the league totals include 146,546 at-bats and 2,032 home runs, resulting in an average of 72.12 at-bats per home run (AB/HR).
With this data, we can evaluate how Dixon’s performance compared to the average Negro League hitter of his era.
Raw Difference: 45.34
Formula: League Average – Player Career AverageImprovement Factor: 2.69x
Formula: League Average / Player Career AveragePercentage Difference: 62.87%
Formula: (League Average – Player Career Average) / League Average × 100%
Dixon’s AB/HR:
The typical player in the leagues Dixon played in needed over 72 at-bats to hit a home run, suggesting home runs were less frequent overall. Dixon hit a home run roughly once every 26.78 at-bats, a strong indicator of his power-hitting ability.
Raw Difference:
Dixon required 45.34 fewer at-bats per home run than the league average, a substantial gap that highlights his superior power.
Improvement Factor:
Dixon was 2.69 times more efficient at hitting home runs than the average player. In other words, he hit home runs at a rate over two-and-a-half times better than his peers.
Percentage Difference:
Dixon’s AB/HR was 62.87% lower than the league average, reinforcing that his performance was dramatically better than the norm.
Dixon’s 26.78 AB/HR places him among the elite sluggers of his era. A lower AB/HR ratio is a hallmark of power-hitting prowess, and Dixon’s mark is impressive compared to the league’s 72.12.
The 2.69x improvement factor and 62.87% difference show that Dixon wasn’t just above average—he was exceptional. He hit home runs at a frequency that dwarfed the typical Negro League player during his career.
In our initial analysis, we examined the careers of Mickey Mantle, Alex Rodriguez, and Joe DiMaggio using our formulas. Following that, we also evaluated the careers of Josh Gibson, Sadaharu Oh, Buck Leonard, Tetsuharu Kawakami, Mule Suttles, Noboru Aota, Oscar Charleston, Katsuya Nomura, Turkey Stearnes, Makoto Kozuru, Willie Wells, Hiromitsu Ochiai, Wilson Redus, Kazuhiro Yamauchi, Dewey Creacy, Hiromitsu Kadota, Edgar Wesley, Koji Yamamoto, Jud Wilson, Fumio Fujimura, John Beckwith, Kazuhiro Kiyohara, Martín Dihigo, Isao Harimoto, George Scales, and Masayuki Kakefu.
Now, let's compare Dixon’s career statistics against these baseball legends to gain a clearer perspective on how he stacks up.
The following players are in Dixon’s statistical orbit:
George Scales: 41.58, 2.22x, 54.99%
Kazuhiro Yamauchi: 31.53, 2.62x, 61.85%
Wilson Redus: 49.64, 2.54x, 60.63%
Willie Wells: 48.54, 2.73x, 63.42%
Makoto Kozuru: 42.23, 2.58x, 61.27%
Noboru Aota: 43.56, 2.76x, 63.74%
Katsuya Nomura: 24.86, 2.56x, 60.93%
Mickey Mantle: 26.10, 2.73x, 63.32%
Raw Difference:
Dixon’s 45.34 falls near the higher end of this group. Only Wilson Redus (49.64) and Willie Wells (48.54) exceed him, while George Scales (41.58) and Makoto Kozuru (42.23) are close behind. Katsuya Nomura (24.86) and Mickey Mantle (26.10) are notably lower.
Improvement Factor:
At 2.69x, Dixon sits comfortably in the middle. Willie Wells (2.73x) and Noboru Aota (2.76x) edge him out slightly, while George Scales (2.22x) and Kazuhiro Yamauchi (2.62x) are a bit lower.
Percentage Difference:
Dixon’s 62.87% is among the highest, surpassed only by Willie Wells (63.42%) and Noboru Aota (63.74%). It’s nearly identical to Mickey Mantle’s 63.32%, and slightly above Wilson Redus (60.63%), Makoto Kozuru (61.27%), and Katsuya Nomura (60.93%). This metric highlights how much better Dixon was than his league’s average, aligning him with the top performers here.
Dixon emerges as a balanced, highly effective slugger, holding his own among these baseball legends.
