Major League Baseball Officially added the statistics of players from the Negro Leagues to its historical record, a move that allowed the contributions of black players to be credited alongside their white counterparts.
Previously, Negro Leagues players were excluded from these archives, meaning that the records they set were not recognized by MLB, essentially erasing their accomplishments. The change incorporates Negro Leagues player statistics from a time when baseball was still segregated, and black players were barred from playing in the Major Leagues. After this addition, black athletes in the Negro Leagues now hold several records, including the highest career batting average — .372 — held by former Homestead Grace player Josh Gibson.
The decision marks a major step forward in remembering and honoring the game of 2,300 players in the Negro Leagues and is long overdue. It highlights, also, the significance records have in determining who is remembered and what stories are told.
What has changed about statistics?
The new statistics include information on seven Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948. These leagues were formed as a place where black athletes could play because they were banned from the American League and the National League, the two largest baseball entities at the time.
In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first black player to play in Major League Baseball for the Brooklyn Dodgers, finally integrating the sport. In 1948, the leagues held the last segregated World Series.
MLB announced its decision first Formed a 15-person committee to compile Negro Leagues statistics in 2020, and help determine how to do so. In the past, concerns about whether the Negro Leagues data was comprehensive enough were among the reasons it was not fully included. As The Athletic reports, Negro League records were previously more scattered and less organized due to lack of funding and coordination. Devoted fans, including those behind SeamheadsA data research group that focused specifically on compiling and verifying data about the records of black baseball players played an important role in filling this gap by analyzing countless newspaper reports to find information.
“In recent decades, the tireless work of researchers through newspapers, scorebooks, and microfiche has resulted in the expanded availability of Negro Leagues statistics (notably culminating in detailed databases Compiled by Seamheads) and made it viable to include these leagues in the historical record,” Anthony Castrovince explains for MLB.com. For now, experts estimate they have collected 75 percent of the statistics for the Negro Leagues.
A major difference MLB’s teams had to navigate was that the Negro Leagues’ regular seasons tended to be shorter, so players were evaluated based on their play in roughly 60-game seasons rather than longer ones. 150-plus game seasons played in other MLB leagues. (Negro League players played more games, Seamheads Co-Founder Gary Ashwill Note, but they were often outside the regular season.) As a result, players in the Negro Leagues are less likely to show up on the record for total home runs, for example, even though they now occupy the prominent slot for career average.
Significance of statistics
Statistics help celebrate the accomplishments of players in the Negro Leagues – and provide a more thorough description of their accomplishments. Previously, comparisons across leagues were difficult because no official database existed.
“When people look at MLB stats now, they get a true picture of who was good, great or passable, regardless of the league they played in,” By CNN’s Harry Enten.
They also reckon with chronic injustices in baseball, including the segregation of the leagues and the subsequent lack of recognition given to black players in the Negro Leagues.
“Black baseball history still remains a separate ghetto outside the mainstream history of white baseball,” Researcher John Holloway wrote in 2001. While such disparities are improving, MLB still grapples with several racial disparities, as numbers Black players in the league declined over time, and the management of the parties remained predominantly white.
The decision to officially include Negro Leagues statistics is a step toward acknowledging its gaps.
