Major League Baseball officially adds long overdue historical statistics to the big leagues for a multitude of Negro League players Wednesday morning, one most notably being Hall of Famer Josh Gibson.

The MLB and Commissioner Rob Manfred collectively decided it was time for African-American pioneers of the Negro Leagues to not only be recognized in the Hall of Fame but in the historical database. Although the decision changes record holders in several major categories, Manfred went on to explain the significance of having Negro League statistics integrated into the record books.

“The initiative is focused on ensuring future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of Negro League Players. Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history.”

What exactly was the Negro Leagues?

In a time when most African-American baseball players weren’t allowed to compete on the same field as the White players, merely defined as segregation, a specific league was created in 1920 by executive Andrew “Rube” Foster called the Negro Leagues. 

The Negro League had eight teams and seven leagues that broke barriers for African-American athletes, allowing them to showcase their talent which they’d been vying for decades to display. 

Alienated from the highest levels of organized baseball allowed African-American stars like Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Satchel Paige, and many more to excel in a time when it seemed like it was hard to get over the hump of continued discrimination. 

The Negro Leagues are prevalent because they produced 37 members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and their history can’t get left in the archives. 

The seven leagues include:

Negro National League I (1920-1931)

Eastern Colored League (1923-1928)

American Negro League (1929)

East-West League (1932)

Negro Southern League (1932)

Negro National League II (1933-1948)

Negro American League (1937-1948)

What changes have been made?

An astounding 2,300 Negro League player statistics were added to the Major League Baseball database, creating a reshuffle of records that have been withstanding for decades. 

Negro League great Josh Gibson is now the all-time leader for batting average percentage sitting at .466, based on his 1943 season for the Homestead Grays. Chino Smith, another Negro League great, comes in at second, batting .451 for the 1929 New York Lincoln Giants. Both of these surpass Hugh Duffy’s .440 batting average for the 1894 Boston Beaneaters.

The slugging percentage record set by Barry Bonds with a .863 for the 2001 San Francisco Giants was surpassed by four Negro Leaguers. Josh Gibson’s .974 in 1937, Mule Suttles’ .877 in 1926, Gibson again with .871 in 1943, and Chino Smith’s .870 in 1929 all surpassed Bonds. 

Career on-base percentage has new members in the top five, with Gibson at .564 for the 1943 Grays being added, along with Smith’s .551 for the 1929 Lincoln Giants.

Lastly, the career-best OPS (on-base slugging) percentage is now held by Josh Gibson at 1.474 with the 1937 Grays, exceeding Barry Bonds’ previous record of 1.421.

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What’s next?

According to the MLB’s official website, the data for the Negro League records isn’t complete. An estimate of about 25% still needs to be uncovered to complete the 1920-1948 statistics for the Negro League records. 

Chairperson and official MLB historian John Thorn, who served as a historian in the 2016 Jackie Robinson docuseries, was a big proponent in helping gather data to update the record books. In an interview with TSN earlier today, Thorn explains how the seven Negro Leagues vanished from the history books.

“The Union Association of 1884, the Players League of 1890, and of course, the Federal League of 1913 were intact. The idea that the special baseball records committee would examine the records of these defunct major leagues, and at no point in their deliberations over years would the subject of the negro leagues ever come up. It is beyond racism or racialism. It is as they regarded, black baseball as invisible.”

Although the MLB made a controversial decision integrating the statistics of Negro League players, it was long overdue. This led to some having mixed emotions about the ruling, but you can’t deny the long-lasting impact these African-American players had. The careers of these pioneers in a league that was deemed a major league needed to be recognized.