Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s colour line in 1947; prior to that players like Robinson, Sachel Paige, and Josh Gibson could only play on teams where the only thing that was white was their uniforms…and the ball.
In a project that has lasted three years, Major League Baseball has finally added the stats of those players into the records.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred spoke on the addition to the records saying, “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.”
The state of over 2,300 Negro League Players are now a part of the record books. With that, Homestead Grays catcher Josh Gibson became the career leader in battling average at .372 – passing Ty Cobb’s .367. Gibson also took over the slugging percentage title of .781 with an OPS of 1.177, beating out Babe Ruth .690 with an OPS of 1.164.
AP Washington correspondent Sagar Meghani reports Major League Baseball’s record book looks a lot different, with Negro League records now incorporated.
In 1969 MLB added the records from the National, American, the American Association, Union Association, Players’ League, and Federal Leagues stats; but the Negro League stats were not among the additions.
In 2020 MLB made the decision to “correct a longtime oversight” and add the stats from the Negro National League, Eastern Colored League, American Negro League, East-West League, Negro Southern, and the Negro American League. However, barnstorming exhibition fames were not included in the new records.
Over the Memorial Day weekend, the Baseball Hall of Fame held their inaugural Baseball Classic between the East and West honouring the Negro League players.
On June 20 the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants will play a tribute game to the Negro Leagues at Rickwood field in Birmingham. An updated version of the new MLB database will be available to the public at that time.
Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch noted that the plaques on display at The Hall in Cooperstown will remain as they are because they reflect the information that was available at the time the players were inducted.
With the addition of the new statistics, Willie Mays, Minnie Minoso, Sachel Paige, and Jackie Robinson gained additional stats to boost their rankings.
Some stats could not be added due to a lack of information like a box score. Figures may change if more information becomes available.