Negro League Stats DEFINITELY Belong In Major League Baseball’s Record Books

The story of America’s pastime, also known as baseball, is incomplete and insufficient without including the story of the Negro Leagues. So Major League Baseball history is justifiably getting a proper revision.

On Wednesday, May 29th, 2024, all Negro League statistics officially started being integrated and entered into the MLB database. So now, over 2300 players that played in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 will have their statics officially recognized by Major League Baseball.

The move comes more than three years after Major League Baseball announced it would be elevating the Negro Leagues to “major league” status. The Special Baseball Records Committee of 1969 voted to include the American League, National League, American Association, Federal League and Players’ League, and Union Association, bud did not give the Negro Leagues major league status.

Because of this integration, there will be new leaders on the MLB leaderboards. Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson, who played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, will become the new MLB leader in multiple categories. This includes being the single-season record holder in batting average (.466 in 1943), slugging percentage (.974 in 1937), and on-base plus slugging percentage (1.474 in 1937). He is also the career record holder in all three of these categories (BA .372, SP .718, OPS 1.177).

It’s important to note that there is a popular legend that has been told for many decades about Josh Gibson hitting a total of almost 800 home runs during his career. Even his plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame states, “he hit almost 800 homers.” While the oral history of Gibson’s amazing power helps put into context how special and amazing of a player he was, the committee did not include the anecdotal evidence.

However, make no mistake, it is possible that Gibson hit almost 800 homers total during his playing career, due to his extensive play in other leagues, exhibitions, and scrimmages. However, he did not hit this many in what is considered Negro League “league play.’’ This is evident via historical box scores. So while Gibson will be the clear new league leader in batting average, slugging percentage, and OPS, he will not be the leader in career home runs.

This decision to integrate Negro League statics with Major League baseball’s wasn’t hastily made. The Negro Leagues statical review committee, which comprised of baseball historians, Negro League experts, researchers, former players, and journalists all played a significant role in providing the MLB with the needed data, box scores, first-hand accounts of events, statistics, newspaper articles, and additional information which was uncovered by RetroSheet, Seamheads, and Elias Sports.

The Negro League statical review committee reviewed decades of box scores and data to find statistics from what was considered “league play.” The Negro Leagues’ schedule was commonly 60–80 games with another 40–60 games counting in the forms of exhibition games. Stats from what was known as ‘barnstorming,” or exhibition games during that period were not counted towards the MLB record totals.

Major League Baseball used the same qualifiers and stat formula to decide which players qualified for MLB leaderboards. MLB’s official historian and chairman of the Negro Leagues statistical review committee, John Thorn made a statement regarding the process and philosophy involved in the integration of Negro Leagues stats with the official records:

“We looked for historians, statisticians, and stakeholders who all could be expected to have concern that MLB would get the process and product right. We were not looking for ‘like minds,’ but instead potentially contentious ones.”

As more information, statics, and data are uncovered, the Negro League Statical Review Committee will continue to make changes and adjustments as needed. But most importantly, the story of baseball can’t be told genuinely told without the Negro Leagues. With Negro League statics now added to the office of MLB historical records, baseball can be told in a broader, more complete picture.

In these very polarizing times, where any and everything is politicized, people are making the argument that Negro Leagues stats don’t deserve to be integrated with Major League Baseball stats because the players who played in the Negro Leagues weren’t of the same caliber as those who played in Major League Baseball.

However, there is little to no evidence that the Major Leagues was totally dominant or superior to the Negro Leagues. In this era of segregation, it was commonplace for Negro League teams to play exhibition games against their white counterparts. Many of these exhibitions were “all-star” teams from both leagues. Many of these contests were close and very competitive.

There are at least 2000 documented exhibition games between the Black players vs their White Counterparts. At least 180 of these were against players who played for MLB teams. The Negro League players won 51% of the time. Negro League historian Todd Paterson is on record saying, “Out of the exhibition games the White major leaguers played, the Negro Leaguers were the only ones to consistently compete and beat them. The White major leaguers dominated games played against, minor league, college, and semi-pro men’s teams.”

Major League Baseball has gone out of its way to make sure these high-level elite players get their just due and accolades they deserve. They are being as firm and fair as possible in their process of going about including these players.

Those that argue that these players don’t deserve their rightful place in the MLB record books because they didn’t play against the top players are WRONG!

We’ll never know how a player like Babe Ruth would have done in totality if he only played in the Negro Leagues, just like we will never know how Josh Gibson would have done had he only played in the MLB. What we do know is, twenty-nine players moved from the Negro-Leagues to have at least one 500-plate appearance season in the Major Leagues. All of them had stats that were above average at the time. Players like Jackie Robinson, Minnie Monoso, Satchel Paige, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, and Ernie Banks all played in the Negro Leagues and came to the MLB and destroyed their competition. So, I think Gibson would have torn it up had he also had his chance to play against his white counterparts.

This by all means was the right move by the MLB and shines a light on an imperative chapter of America’s pastime that is often ignored or thought of as “less than.” The addition of the Negro League Stats to the MLB doesn’t take away from baseball’s great history, it simply adds. The history of America’s Past Time can now be told in a more complete and extensive way for future generations to come.

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