MLB Raises Negro Leagues to Major League Status

Major League Baseball is formally redefining the Negro Leagues as Major League Baseball, to include Negro League stats among those of the MLB.

The Negro League, which lasted from 1920 to 1948, has been redefined to acknowledge the achievements of the 3,400 black players who were not allowed to play professional baseball with the white players, The Ringer reported.

One player, for instance, who will benefit from the move is Willie Mays. The Giants great played for a short time in the Negro Leagues before joining Major League Baseball. Now, Mays’ stats will all climb with the addition of his achievements in the Negro League once it is added to his MLB numbers.

“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations, and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement provided by the league. “We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as major leaguers within the official historical record.”

The formal decision to exclude the Negro League from MLB statistics came in 1968 when MLB’s Special Baseball Records Committee decided not to add the Negro League’s history to that of the MLB for the massive Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia.

In a Wednesday press release, MLB calls the decision “long overdue.”

“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice. We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said.

The Official Historian of Major League Baseball, John Thorn, added, “The perceived deficiencies of the Negro Leagues’ structure and scheduling were born of MLB’s exclusionary practices, and denying them Major League status has been a double penalty, much like that exacted of Hall of Fame candidates prior to Satchel Paige’s induction in 1971. Granting MLB status to the Negro Leagues a century after their founding is profoundly gratifying.”

Also, Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, was thrilled over the move.

“The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is thrilled to see this well-deserved recognition of the Negro Leagues,” Kendrick said. “In the minds of baseball fans worldwide, this serves as historical validation for those who had been shunned from the Major Leagues and had the foresight and courage to create their own league that helped change the game and our country too. This acknowledgment is a meritorious nod to the courageous owners and players who helped build this exceptional enterprise and shines a welcomed spotlight on the immense talent that called the Negro Leagues home.”

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