Negro Leagues great Josh Gibson's Hall of Fame plaque to be on display at PNC Park
Baseball fans will get to see Josh Gibson at PNC Park.
The Negro Leagues great’s Hall of Fame bronze plaque will be on display for fans for games against the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 3-4, as well as a luncheon for the Josh Gibson Foundational on Aug. 5, as it makes a rare appearance away from the National Baseball Hall of Fame’s Plaque Gallery in Cooperstown, N.Y.
Fans will be able to take photos with the plaque of Gibson, who starred as a power-hitting catcher for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays in the 1930s and ‘40s.
Gibson led the Negro National League in home runs 11 times in his 12 full seasons from 1933-46. A .374 lifetime hitter, Gibson also led the league in RBIs seven times. He is often credited with hitting more than 800 home runs over his career, which included numerous barnstorming stops and games in the Mexican League. Gibson died Jan 20, 1947, just months before Jackie Robinson integrated the National League.
While Gibson’s plaque is away from Cooperstown from Aug. 2-8, a photographic image of the plaque will be featured in the space, featuring a full replication of the plaque.
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.
Remove the ads from your TribLIVE reading experience but still support the journalists who create the content with TribLIVE Ad-Free.