Baseball could use more Black stars like the Nationals’ hard-hitting Wood

OPINION:

First thing — James Wood is bigger than you think he is. Standing next to him, he is Frank Howard big. He hits home runs like Frank Howard did.

I asked Wood if he had ever heard of Frank Howard, who was also 6-foot-7. Maybe not a fair question for a 22-year-old kid, since Hondo stopped playing more than 50 years ago. I told him there was a statue of Howard outside Nationals Park.

I also told him there’s another statue outside the ballpark whose home runs are the stuff of legends — Hall of Fame Negro League legend Josh Gibson.

There are stories about the home runs that Josh Gibson hit. Those stories sound like the ones being written about Wood.

I asked Wood if he had ever heard of Gibson. “I know the name,” he said. “I know a little bit about him.”

He’ll have a chance to learn more about Gibson on Wednesday, when the Washington Nationals host Negro Leagues Night to recognize the great Negro League club, the Homestead Grays, who played the majority of their home games in the 1940s at Griffith Stadium.

The event will put the spotlight on Gibson, whose great-grandson Sean will be part of a panel to discuss, among other things, “the way that the Negro Leagues shaped baseball today,” according to the press release.

Wood should pay particularly close attention to that part — he may be the walking, talking, bat-swinging connection to the Negro League legend.

Wood is emerging as one of the young stars in the game, with 16 home runs, seventh in the league, along with 45 RBI, a .274 average and an OPS of .896, also seventh in the league. He hits the ball hard. He hits the ball far — like Gibson did.

If Wood becomes the player I, and others, believe he will be, he will have a presence far beyond the diamond. He would be the biggest Black baseball star in Washington since Gibson, who, thanks to the recognition of Negro League statistics in the official record books last year is now baseball’s all-time batting leader and was setting slugging records in the city 80 years ago.

In a game that has struggled with diminishing Black participation and interest, a large presence such as Wood could be important throughout baseball.

Has the young man from Rockville thought much about his impact as a Black baseball player in the community?

“I never really feel that,” Wood told me. “I just come here every day and enjoy what this game has brought me, enjoy the time with my teammates and trying to go out there and play hard every day and the rest of it is beyond my control.”

Black players on the field connect beyond the typical fandom with Black youth who are looking for athletes they can identify with.

Curtis Granderson, who spent 16 years in the major leagues and is now the board chairman for the Players Alliance, thinks Wood’s success could have an impact on the game in the Black community in the city.

“His popularity, his presence is starting to take shape, so in time if he continues to do those things and build something that people in the community, including black fans in Washington, will gravitate toward,” he said.

Wood is either unprepared for what could come or so prepared that he’ll deal with it with the coolness of one of his massive opposite-field home runs. He is self-assured, perhaps because of his knowledge of the mechanics of the game.

“He really is special,” Nationals manager Dave Martinez said. “He understands the game well and he really understands hitting.”

This franchise has had the good fortune in its short existence to have two elite stars among the game’s top attractions — Bryce Harper and Juan Soto. They each brought a different presence to the game in Washington — Harper with his brash, intense style and Soto with his outgoing, effusive manner. Wood is a quiet storm.

“I just take it as it comes,” he said. “Being a star is not really a goal of mine or motivated me. It’s not really my main focus. It’s not why I picked up a bat.”

Wood didn’t pick up a bat to be the next Gibson, either. He grew up emulating stars of the New York Yankees, like Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and others. “I was imitating swings in my backyard,” he said.

But the bat Wood swings now is connected by the history of the game that once excluded greats like Gibson and now celebrates them. He’ll have the opportunity to learn how next week.

• Catch Thom Loverro on “The Kevin Sheehan Show” podcast.