MLB adds Negro Leagues to official records

“Addressing what MLB described as a long overdue recognition, Commissioner Rob Manfred on Wednesday bestowed Major League status upon seven professional Negro Leagues that operated between 1920 and 1948. The decision means that the approximately 3,400 players of the Negro Leagues during this time period are officially considered Major Leaguers, with their stats and records becoming a part of Major League history.”

I think it is a good call, given that the top players were as good as the top players in the American and National leagues. I didn’t know that their records were documented well enough to assemble thoroughly, but I guess that the guys at Seamheads have been busy on that task.

3 thoughts on “MLB adds Negro Leagues to official records

    1. Yeah.

      Ya gotta love that 1943 season. Of course the fact that he batted .486 is impressive even on the surface, but consider further that he must have swung at about a bazillion bad pitches, given that he drew exactly one walk that year. It ain’t easy to hit about .500 when you are willing to swing at every pitch – literally – no matter where it is. (I’m assuming that is incomplete record-keeping rather than an accurate stat.)

      Look at that 1938 season – he drew no walks and hit no homers, apparently having forgotten for a year that he was Josh Fucking Gibson. (In the previous and following seasons he hit 22 homers in only 171 at bats – a pace about equal to Barry Bonds at his roidiest. In one three-year stretch, his slugging averages were .907, .363, .865. If those stats are correct, he was the reverse Brady Anderson.)

      Maybe baseball-reference doesn’t have all the latest updates or something, but at its best, that record-keeping doesn’t seem to be reconcilable with the existing stats; and at its worst, it’s complete gibberish.

  1. The next overdue thing is to count AAFC records as NFL the way AFL ones are. I do have a dog in that fight. Some folks already in the HOF would see a big and deserved jump-up in their numbers. Graham, Motley, Mr. Lavelli (I knew him when I was in high school).

Comments are closed.