MLB Adds Negro League Stats To Its Record

Photo: MLB website

Hundreds of Negro League baseball players contributions will officially be recognized in the Major League Baseball record book. The MLB announced that it has incorporated the stats of more than 2,300 Negro League players from 1920 to 1948 into its records. The stats are now available in a new online database.

“Today’s announcement is the first major step that makes the achievements of the players of the Negro Leagues available to fans via the official historical record,” the MLB said in a statement.

As their statistics enter the MLB record, some of their names have risen to the top of the leaderboards like power-hitter Josh Gibson. Gibson, who died of a stroke at age 35 in 1947, is now the MLB’s all-time career leader in batting average. He also holds the all-time single-season records in all three categories.

FILE – Baseball catcher Josh Gibson in an undated photo. Josh Gibson became Major League Baseball’s career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb’s .367, when records of the Negro Leagues for more than 2,300 players were incorporated after a three-year research project. (AP Photo/File)

It was first announced in December 2020 that the MLB would be “correcting a longtime oversight” with the addition of the Negro League players. The seven leagues that made up the Negro Leagues were home to legendary talents, with 35 of its stars now enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

“For more than 3,400 players, very few of whom are alive, their families will now be able to say their records were included among white Major Leaguers of the period. There’s no distinction to be made, they were all big leaguers,” said John Thorn, the official historian of the MLB.

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