Telling the history of baseball without the Negro Leagues would paint an incomplete and narrow picture of the American pastime. The history of baseball is finally being revised.
Negro Leagues statistics will officially become part of the Major League all-time 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.
All 2,300 players who played in all seven iterations of the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 will be included in the MLB database. The 1969 Special Committee on Baseball Records did not grant the Negro Leagues major league status.
“It’s a great day,” Negro League Museum President Bob Kendrick told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. “The good thing is we’ve been saying that a lot over the last few days and weeks regarding the Negro Leagues. … This is the result of intense efforts by incredible historians and researchers who have dedicated themselves entirely to trying to do something that people probably thought was impossible.”
Bob Nightengale of USA Today was first to report the news.
“We are proud that the official historical record now includes players from the Negro Leagues,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “This initiative aims to ensure that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of everyone who made the Negro Leagues possible. Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to a broader knowledge of this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s Dodger debut in 1947.”
The Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee, comprised of baseball historians, Negro League experts, former players, researchers and journalists, reviewed the data, box scores, statistics and additional information discovered by Seamheads, RetroSheet and Elias Sports Bureau.
“We sought out historians, statisticians and stakeholders who could all be expected to be concerned about MLB having the right process and product in place,” said John Thorn, official MLB historian and chairman of the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee, at Yahoo Sports. week. “We weren’t looking for ‘like minds,’ but rather potentially controversial minds. »
What does this mean for good MLB stats?
One of the biggest questions baseball fans and spectators will likely have is how MLB determined what statistics can be used. The Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee combed through decades of scores and data to find statistics on what was considered league play. The Negro Leagues schedule typically consisted of between 60 and 80 games, with another 40 to 60 games as exhibitions. Statistics from what was known as “barnstorming,” or exhibition games, will not count toward MLB record totals.
Similar to how MLB determines the qualifications of statistical leaders, a similar formula was used to decide which players qualified for MLB rankings.
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 slugging percentage (.974 in 1937). 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 career were both 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.
In accordance with rules established by the SBRC in 1969, which state: “For all-time single-season records, no asterisks or official signs shall be used to indicate the number of games scheduled. » New Negro Leagues record holders and additions to MLB standings will not include an asterisk.
MLB will honor the Negro Leagues on June 20 during a regular season game between the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. Rickwood Field, home to the Birmingham Black Barons, is considered the oldest professional baseball stadium in the United States.
Giving “the history of the Negro Leagues a dominant voice”
The oral history of the Negro Leagues has lasted for over a hundred years, with players like Gibson becoming larger than life. As new data, documents, scores and information were gathered, it provided more tangible evidence of the stories being shared.
Kendrick was one of the biggest advocates for Major League Baseball’s recognition of the Negro Leagues and educated fans old and new about the Negro Leagues’ impact on baseball history.
“No sport maintains its history like baseball,” Kendrick told Yahoo Sports on Tuesday. “It is by far the most romanticized sport of all, and it is a sport in which we constantly compare the stars of the past with the stars of today. And the unified efforts that we’ve embarked on over the last few years, and I’ll go back to last year with the inclusion of the Negro Leagues in MLB The Show 23 (video game), those things gave Negro history Leagues. a dominant voice.
“What we found is that young baseball fans not only want to learn about the Negro Leagues, but they have also fallen in love with the Negro Leagues. And as a museum, a cultural institution, that’s exactly what we wanted to achieve.
Tuesday’s news amplifies another chapter in baseball that was once overlooked. The additions of Negro Leagues statistics to the MLB historical record do not detract from MLB history. It just adds. The story of baseball can continue to be told more fully and broadly as new generations of fans discover the game.
“I believe the past is a living, breathing thing that informs every present moment,” Thorn said. “No sport is more in tune with its history and heroes of yesteryear than baseball, and now we have the chance to tell the story of this game and the nation in an inclusive way.”