Black Aces

Group of African American Major League Baseball pitchers

The Black Aces are a group of African American pitchers who have won at least 20 games during a single Major League Baseball (MLB) season. The term comes from the title of a 2007 book by MLB pitcher Mudcat Grant (1935–2021), one of the members of the group. Through the 2023 MLB season, 15 different African American pitchers have accomplished the feat.

Following the desegregation of MLB in the late 1940s, and continuing through the establishment of the MLB draft in 1965, it was common for major league teams to convert African American pitchers into position players rather than allowing them to continue pitching. Through the 1950s, only two African American pitchers were 20 game winners—Don Newcombe and Sam Jones. In 1965, they were joined by Bob Gibson and Mudcat Grant; the latter being the first African American 20 game winner in American League history. In 2007, The Black Aces: Baseball's Only African American Twenty Game Winners was published, authored by Grant. Meanwhile, Canadian born Ferguson Jenkins is included as a Black Ace (Jenkins traces his ancestry on his mother's side to escaped U. S. slaves). In February 2007, during an event to honor Black History Month, President George W. Bush honored book author Grant and three of his fellow Black Aces (Jenkins, Mike Norris, and Dontrelle Willis) at the White House. During the 2007 MLB season, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum had a traveling exhibit honoring the Black Aces. The Black Aces were celebrated at Oakland's McAfee Coliseum during that season. Two members of the Black Aces, Gibson and Jenkins, are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.