Telling the story of baseball without the Negro Leagues would paint an incomplete and limited picture of the American pastime. Baseball history is finally being revisited.
Negro Leagues statistics will officially become part of the all-time Major League Baseball record on Wednesday. The move comes more than three years after Major League Baseball announced it would elevate the Negro Leagues to major league status.
The 2,300 players who played in the seven iterations of the Negro Leagues between 1920 and 1948 will be integrated into the MLB database. The 1969 Special Committee on Baseball Records did not grant the Negro Leagues major league status.
Bob Nightengale of USA Today first reported the news.
“We are proud that the official historical record now includes Negro Leagues players,” commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “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. “His accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader knowledge about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s debut with the Dodgers in 1947.”
The Negro Leagues Statistics Review Committee, comprised of baseball historians, Negro Leagues experts, former players, researchers and journalists, reviewed data, scores, statistics and additional information uncovered by Seamheads, RetroSheet and Elias Sports Bureau.
“We looked for historians, statisticians and stakeholders who might be expected to be concerned about MLB getting the process and product right,” John Thorn, MLB’s official historian and chair of the MLB Statistical Review Committee, told Yahoo Sports. the Negro Leagues. week. “We weren’t looking for ‘like minds,’ but rather potentially conflicting minds.”
What does it mean for big MLB stats?
Negro Leagues legend and Baseball Hall of Famer Josh Gibson will become the MLB single-season record holder for batting average (.466 in 1943), slugging percentage (.974 in 1937) and OPS (1,474 in 1937). Gibson, who played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, also becomes MLB’s career leader in all three categories. The previous records for slugging and OPS in a season and a career were held by Barry Bonds.
Former Negro Leagues players who played in the major leagues, including Willie Mays, Minnie Miñoso, Larry Doby, Jackie Robinson and many others, will also have their Negro Leagues statistics integrated and updated. Statistics will continue to be reviewed and updated as more data and information is discovered.
According to rules established by the SBRC in 1969 which state: “For single-season all-time records, there shall be no asterisks nor shall any official signs be used to indicate the number of games scheduled.” New Negro Leagues record holders and additions to MLB leaderboards will not include an asterisk.
MLB will honor the Negro Leagues on June 20 in a regular-season matchup between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Rickwood Field, which was home to the Birmingham Black Barons, is considered the oldest professional baseball stadium in the US.