1943 Washington Homestead Grays season

The 1943 Washington Homestead Grays baseball team represented the Washington Homestead Grays in the Negro National League (NNL) during the 1943 baseball season. The team compiled a 78–23–1 (.770) record, won the NNL pennant, and defeated the Birmingham Black Barons in the 1943 Negro World Series.

Candy Jim Taylor was the team's manager. The team played its home games at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh and Griffith Stadium in Washington, D.C.[1]

The team's leading batters were:

• Catcher Josh Gibson - .466 batting average, .560 on-base percentage, .867 slugging percentage, 20 home runs, 109 RBIs, 52 bases on balls in 69 games
• Center fielder Jerry Benjamin - .372 batting average, .478 slugging percentage, 40 RBIs in 70 games
• Left fielder Cool Papa Bell - .355 batting average, .436 slugging percentage, 12 stolen bases in 64 games
• Second baseman Howard Easterling - .352 batting average, .502 slugging percentage, 53 RBIs in 63 games
• First baseman Buck Leonard - .331 batting average, .504 slugging percentage, four home runs, 63 RBIs, 47 bases on balls in 67 games
• Third baseman Jud Wilson - .305 batting average, .413 slugging percentage in 63 games

[2]

The team's leading pitchers were Johnny Wright (18–3, 2.54 ERA, 94 strikeouts), Spoon Carter (14–2, 3.83 ERA, 44 strikeouts), Edsall Walker (9–4, 3.36 ERA), and Ray Brown (6–1, 4.10 ERA).[3]

Five of the Grays players were later inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame: Cool Papa Bell; Ray Brown; Josh Gibson; Buck Leonard; and Jud Wilson.