Buck Leonard: Better than 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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Buck Leonard will be the next Negro League home run legend examined in this study. For a complete biography of Leonard, please click here.
According to Baseball Reference, Leonard's official statistics indicate a total of 97 home runs across 2,163 at-bats, yielding an average of 22.30 at-bats per home run (AB/HR).
Leonard played in the Negro National League II from 1935 to 1948, a period during which the league accumulated a total of 131,589 at-bats and 1,713 home runs. The league's average at-bats per home run (AB/HR) throughout Leonard's career was 76.82.
With this data, we can assess how Leonard's performance compared to the average hitter in the Negro National League during his era.
Raw Difference: 54.52
Formula: League Average – Player Career AverageImprovement Factor: 3.44
Formula: League Average / Player Career AveragePercentage Difference: 70.97%
Formula: (League Average – Player Career Average) / League Average × 100%
When comparing Leonard to the average Negro League hitter, it is clear that his power was exceptional. His statistics far surpass the league average, reinforcing his elite home run efficiency. Leonard excelled across all categories in our three-pronged analysis, outperforming the typical hitter in every respect.
In our initial post, we analyzed the careers of Mickey Mantle, Alex Rodriguez, and Joe DiMaggio using our formulas. Later, we also examined Josh Gibson and Sadaharu Oh. Now, let's compare Leonard's career statistics against these baseball legends to highlight just how remarkable his performance truly was.
Leonard’s power, relative to the league average, outshines that of Rodriguez, Mantle, and DiMaggio.
When compared to Sadaharu Oh, Leonard’s statistics are nearly identical, with Leonard holding a slight edge. Buck Leonard was just as formidable as Japan’s greatest home run hitter.
Buck Leonard was often called “The Black Lou Gehrig,” while teammate Josh Gibson earned the nickname “The Black Babe Ruth.” One can only imagine the anxiety pitchers must have felt facing both Gibson and Leonard in the same lineup!
