Statistics from Negro Leagues to be integrated into MLB record books

In a landmark decision that has been decades in the making, Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that it will incorporate into its record books statistics from the Negro Leagues that operated in the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

“This initiative is focused on ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement provided to The Associated Press.

Black players were barred from MLB until Jackie Robinson broke the league’s color barrier in 1947 when he joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. This discovery eventually led to the Negro Leagues finishing the game in 1960.

“His on-field accomplishments will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s Dodger debut in 1947,” Manfred said in his statement.

In 2020, in the wake of America’s reckoning with racial injustice following the murder of George Floyd, MLB announced which was “elevating” seven Negro Leagues that operated from 1920 to 1948 to “major league” status, a move that, at the time, meant that approximately 3,400 players in those Negro Leagues could be recognized by MLB for their on-field achievements. Wednesday’s announcement, however, will take it a step further.

The immediate impact of the incorporation will see Josh Gibson, one of baseball’s greatest players, take several records from the likes of Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, according to CBS Sports.

Gibson will become the all-time leader in career batting average with .372, surpassing Cobb’s mark of .366, according to CBS Sports. His career slugging percentage of .718 will also be the highest mark ever now, surpassing Ruth’s previous record of .690, and he will be the leader in career OPS (on base plus slugging percentage) at 1.177, surpassing Ruth’s mark of 1,164.

“When you hear Josh Gibson’s name now, it’s not just because he was the greatest player in the Negro Leagues, but one of the greatest of all time,” Sean Gibson, Gibson’s great-grandson, told USA Today in a statement Tuesday. fair. “These aren’t just Negro League statistics. They’re major league baseball statistics.”

In 2020, MLB acknowledged that it was seeking to rectify a 1969 decision by the Special Committee on Baseball Records — a group that was formed to determine which leagues would be recognized as “major leagues.” That 1969 committee recognized six such “major leagues” dating back to 1876, but omitted from consideration all the Negro Leagues.

“It is MLB’s opinion that the committee’s omission of the Negro Leagues in 1969 was clearly an error necessitating today’s designation,” the league said in 2020.

The late Hank Aaron played in the Negro Leagues before entering the MLB and eventually breaking Ruth’s career home run record. In the 2023 documentary “The League,” he described the challenges faced by Negro League players.

“We got a dollar a day for meals, we bought a loaf of bread and a big jar of peanut butter,” Aaron said. “That’s what we lived with for three or four days.”

—Zoe Christen Jones and Jericka Duncan contributed to this report.