Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb listed in Negro League database for exhibition series against "Cuban League".

Should this data be included in the Negro Leagues database? Does data for the black players who played in the Negro Leagues include exhibition games in 1920-1948?

Unfortunately, the home runs hit by Babe Ruth and Ty Cobb cannot be added to their MLB totals. Cobb's participation was not within the 1920-1948. And the "Cuban League" was not really a league but a mini tournament involving American League and National League "teams". In 1921 Ruth played with the New York Giants in the "Cuban League" even though he was with the Yankees in the AL. Obviously, the "Cuban League" is not one of the sanctioned Negro Leagues recently declared major leagues by MLB, Inc.:

MLB adds Negro Leagues to official records

By Anthony Castrovince  @castrovince

December 16, 2020

Addressing what MLB described as a “long overdue recognition,” Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday bestowed Major League status upon seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948...

The seven leagues are the Negro National League (I) (1920-31), the Eastern Colored League (1923-28), the American Negro League (1929), the East-West League (1932), the Negro Southern League (1932), the Negro National League (II) (1933-48) and the Negro American League (1937-48)...

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In 2015 I had noticed and posted Cobb's participation:

Ty Cobb played five Negro League games. Tuesday, June 9, 2015

But just to be sure, I just checked and confirmed this in the Negro Leagues database:

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=cobb--001tyr

Year	Team	Lg	Age	Pos	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	DP	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1910-11	DET	CvM	24	RF	5	23	20	4	7	0	1	1	5	0	1	2	1		0	0	1		.350	.391	.600	.991	234
1	1			RF	5	23	20	4	7	0	1	1	5	0	1	2	1		0	0	1		.350	.391	.600	.991	234

Cobb's five games are in the exhibition series involving the Tigers but read my 2015 post for other MLB teams doing this. If Cobb's numbers are in the Negro League database for playing these exhibition games, data for the black players must include same.

1920-21 Winter Cuban Leagues vs. Major Leagues

#	Player	Team	OPS
1	Cristóbal Torriente	ALM/AC4	1.371
2	Babe Ruth	NYG	1.353
3	Bernardo Baró	ALM	1.062
4	Ross Youngs	NYG	.852
5	Dave Bancroft	NYG	.812
6	George Burns	NYG	.769
7	Manuel Cueto	HAB/AC4	.765
8	Larry Doyle	NYG	.712
9	Bartolo Portuondo	ALM/AC4	.689
10	Frank Snyder	NYG	.671

	vs All Teams
#	Team	W	L	T	W%	GB		R/G	RA/G	Managers	Ballpark
1	New York Giants	9	4	4	.692	-		4.1	3.6	John McGraw	Polo Grounds (New York, NY)
2	All Cubans	0	0	1		2.5		2.0	2.0	Adolfo Luque	Almendares Park II (Havana, La Habana, Cuba)
2	Almendares	3	3	2	.500	2.5		5.4	4.9	Adolfo Luque	Almendares Park II (Havana, La Habana, Cuba)
4	Habana	1	6	1	.143	5.0		2.1	3.5	Miguel Angel González	Almendares Park II (Havana, La Habana, Cuba)

As mentioned above, Ruth was a ringer playing for John McGraw's 1921 New York Giants who had defeated Ruth's Yankees in the World Series 5-3 in the last best of nine WS. Ruth even pitched in relief against the Cubans:

Pos	Player	Age	W	L	W%	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	R	ER	H	HR	BB	K	WP	BK	HBP	BF	ERA	ERA+
SP	Rosy Ryan	22	5	0	1.000	8	8		6	2	0	60.2	27	15	49	0	27	22	1		4	252	2.23	121
SP	Pol Perritt	29	4	1	.800	7	5		5	1	1	51.2	14	10	34	0	18	15	1		2	209	1.74	155
SP	Jesse Barnes	28	0	2	.000	4	3		3	0	0	30.2	10	9	26	0	14	8	0		0	128	2.64	102
SP	George Kelly	25	0	1	.000	2	1		0	0	0	7.1	11	4	12	3	7	5	2		1	41	4.91	55
RP	Babe Ruth*	25	0	0		2	0		0	0	0	1.2	0	0	1	0	0	0	0		0	6	0.00
	5		9	4	.692	23	17		14	3	1	152.0	62	38	122	3	66	50	4		7	636	2.25	120

29 year old Pol Perritt had the second most starts for the Giants against the Cubans even though he threw only 11 innings for the 1921 Giants. 1921 was his last MLB season. Apparently, McGraw brought him along to fill out a tired Giants rotation.

June, 1921: Purchased by the Detroit Tigers from the New York Giants.

Last Game: July 3, 1921 with Detroit.

1921 Giants regular season starting pitching:

Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
1	SP	Art Nehf*	28	20	10	.667	3.63	41	34	5	18	2	1	260.2	266	116	105	18	55		67	2	0	5	1067	102	4.14	1.231	9.2	0.6	1.9	2.3	1.22
2	SP	Jesse Barnes	28	15	9	.625	3.10	42	31	8	15	1	6	258.2	298	108	89	13	44		56	3	0	2	1076	120	3.87	1.322	10.4	0.5	1.5	1.9	1.27
3	SP	Fred Toney	32	18	11	.621	3.61	42	32	9	16	1	3	249.1	274	112	100	14	65		63	4	1	4	1054	103	4.16	1.360	9.9	0.5	2.3	2.3	0.97
4	SP	Phil Douglas	31	15	10	.600	4.22	40	27	7	13	3	2	221.2	266	119	104	17	55		55	2	1	4	956	88	4.38	1.448	10.8	0.7	2.2	2.2	1.00
Rk	Pos	Name	Age	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	GF	CG	SHO	SV	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	BF	ERA+	FIP	WHIP	H9	HR9	BB9	SO9	SO/W
5	RP	Rosy Ryan	23	7	10	.412	3.73	36	16	14	6	0	3	147.1	140	72	61	6	32		58	1	0	3	597	100	3.52	1.167	8.6	0.4	2.0	3.5	1.

Barnes and Ryan started against the Cubans and were legitimate pitchers.

The other start was by Giants first baseman George High Pockets Kelly who led the NL with 23 home runs; Ruth hit 59 for the Yankees. Kelly went 7 innings and allowed the only three home runs hit in the series by the Cubans.

All of which suggests the informal nature of these games and questions their inclusion in the Negro Leagues database.

Babe Ruth in the Negro Leagues database:

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=ruth--002geo

Giants hat.

Year	Team	Lg	Age	Pos	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	IBB	HBP	SH	SF	DP	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
1920-21	NYG	CvM	25	CF	9	41	29	5	10	2	3	2	11	2		11			0	1			.345	.525	.828	1.353	300

The Babe played center field.

______________________

For the 1930 season I found "American League All Stars":

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/year.php?yearID=1930&lgID=All&tab=bat_basic

9	Marty Callaghan*	ALS	CF	1	4	4	0	2	0	0	0	0	0		0			0	0			.500	.500	.500	1.000	153
10	Jocko Conlan*	ALS	RF	1	4	4	1	2	0	0	0	0	0		0			0	0			.500	.500	.500	1.000	153
11	Charlie Gehringer*	ALS	2B	1	4	4	0	2	0	0	0	1	0		0			0	0			.500	.500	.500	1.000	153

Second baseman Charlie Gehringer was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1949. He played his entire career with the Detroit Tigers. Should his 2 for 4 and one RBI in this one game be added to his MLB data?

Note: Lefty O'Doul also played in a 1930 ALS game:

http://www.seamheads.com/NegroLgs/player.php?playerID=odoul-001fra