Baseball’s record books changed dramatically this week, but not because of current players having success at bat or on the pitcher's mound. Instead, Major League Baseball is following through on its December 2020 decision to recognize the Negro Leagues as having “major league” status. This week, MLB announced that the stats of over 2,300 players who competed in the Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948 would be incorporated into the official records of professional baseball.
The change recognizes that the African-American athletes who competed in the Negro Leagues rightfully belonged among the leading ball players of their respective generations, despite being barred from Major League Baseball for six decades. Baseball was segregated with the so-called “gentleman’s agreement” of 1887 until 1947, when Jackie Robinson famously broke the color barrier by playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers.
Quite a few counting statistics, such as home runs, hits, and strikeouts, are unlikely to change simply because Negro League seasons were shorter and athletes generally played in fewer games than their MLB counterparts. Instead, the changes will mainly impact rate statistics such as batting average and career slugging percentage that don’t depend on cumulative games or seasons.
One name that will finally appear in MLB records is Josh Gibson, who spent most of his career with the Homestead Grays (based near Pittsburgh) during the 1930s and 1940s. Gibson’s long-overdue inclusion has resulted in notable revisions to several iconic records. He is now the single-season champion in batting (.466 in 1943), slugging (.974 in 1937), and on-base plus slugging, better known as OPS (1.474 OPS in 1937). Similarly, Gibson’s .372 career batting average has now surpassed Ty Cobb’s .367 for the best overall. His .718 career slugging percentage and 1.177 career OPS mean he has replaced Babe Ruth at the top of those leader boards. Oscar Charleston and Buck Leonard have also joined Gibson on many lists of career offensive stats.
Correcting the record books:
- *MLB players who also spent time in the Negro Leagues, such as Minnie Miñoso, Willie Mays, and Jackie Robinson, have also gotten a boost from the inclusion of the Negro League stats. Miñoso is now recognized as a member of the 2,000-hit club thanks to his output with the New York Cubans from 1946 to 1948, which brings his career total to 2,113. The new stats mean that pitcher Satchel Paige, who spent most of his career in the Negro Leagues before joining the Cleveland Indians in 1948 at age 42, now has 28 more wins, bringing his total to 125.
- *The December 2020 decision to recognize the Negro Leagues as majors reversed the glaring omission made by Major League Baseball’s Special Baseball Records Committee in 1969, when it set out the standards for defining which historical statistics could be counted in the record books. The MLB has stated that further changes are possible as additional records and information come to light.
- *Delving into the Negro League records has taken researchers and statisticians, led by MLB historian John Thorn, more than three years. The updated database will be officially made public to coincide with a tribute game to honor the Negro Leagues, scheduled for June 20 at Birmingham’s Rickwood Field between the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants.
- *In a recent interview, MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred told the Associated Press that “it’s a show of respect for great players who performed in the Negro Leagues due to circumstances beyond their control and once those circumstances changed demonstrated that they were truly major leaguers. Maybe the single biggest factor was the success of players who played in the Negro Leagues and then came to the big leagues.”
