When Jim “Mudcat” Grant won a league-leading 21 games in 1965, he became the American League’s first African-American 20-game winner. Later he published his autobiography under the title, The Black Aces: Baseball’s Only African-American Twenty-Game Winners.
The term, “Black Aces” came to represent 20-game winners of African-American descent. The first member of the club was Don Newcombe of the 1951 Brooklyn Dodgers. A Rookie of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP, Newk’ had 20 or more wins on three occasions including a league-leading 27 in 1956.
Four years later Sam Jones of the San Francisco Giants posted an NL-best 21 victories to join Newcombe. First AL Black Ace Mudcat Grant earned his 20th win of 1965 on September 25; eight days later the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson became the club’s fourth member. Gibson reached the 20-win plateau again in 1966, ’68, ’69, and ’70. Gibson is also one of two Aces to reach 3,000 career strikeouts.
In 1967 Fergie Jenkins and Earl Wilson gained membership by winning 20 and 22 games respectively. Jenkins proved to be the most prolific of the 20-game winners, reaching the mark in seven seasons.
Vida Blue had the first of his three 20-win seasons in 1971 when he was voted the American League Most Valuable Player. That same year Al Downing captured the NL’s Comeback Player of the Year Award by winning 20 contests.
Flamethrower JR Richard secured his spot with the Black Aces in 1976 with exactly 20 victories while Mike Norris joined him as a 22-game winner in 1980 with the A’s.
Dwight Gooden had perhaps the finest season of any of the aces in 1985. It was a Triple Crown campaign for Doc who led the NL in wins (24), ERA (1.53) and strikeouts (268). That same decade, Dave Stewart dominated AL hitters by winning 20+ in four consecutive seasons started in 1987.
Former Rookie of the Year Dontrelle Willis became the first Black Ace of the 21st century with 22 victories in 2005. Five years later CC Sabathia of the New York Yankees led the league with 21 triumphs to join his mates. The most recent addition to the exclusive club is David Price who won exactly 20 in his Cy Young campaign of 2012.
When Sabathia signed the contract shown above, the baseball season for his junior year in high school had not yet begun. Though he held great promise, no one would dare envision the level of performance he’d reach by the end of his time at Vallejo High School in California.
In 45 2/3 innings he struck out 82 batters while allowing only 14 hits. He went undefeated for the Apaches and was named the top high school prospect in Northern California by Baseball America.
The same month he graduated from Vallejo, the Cleveland Indians made him their first-round selection in the 1998 amateur draft. Three years later he was a 17-game winner and runner up to Ichiro Suzuki for the AL Rookie of the Year.
Bob Gibson and CC Sabathia are the only two Black Aces to reach the 3,000 strikeout plateau.
Thanks for sharing. I was so fortunate to see Bob Gibson pitch several times 1964-68. So exciting and fun. I was a kid but could see how talented he was. Good discussions with my Dad about his skill.
I was lucky to have seen him pitch what a work horse 256 complete games big game pitcher the more the game had meaning he got better it seemed 1.12 era in 1968 7-1 1.89 in World Series games 17 strikeouts in World Series game