MLB Reportedly Will Incorporate Negro League Statistics into Historical Records

Major League Baseball will officially incorporate Negro League statistics into its historical records, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today. An official announcement is scheduled for Wednesday.

In Dec. 2020, MLB recognized seven professional Negro Leagues in operation from 1920-1948 as "Major League," per Scott Boeck of USA Today.

"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," commissioner Rob Manfred stated then. "We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record."

That decision in turn included 3,400 players added to MLB history.

Incorporating Negro League stats into the MLB records would notably put catcher Josh Gibson atop a few lists.

Gibson, who was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972, played in 602 games, per records from Baseball Reference. He hit .373 with a 1.176 OPS, both of which would be first of all time. Ty Cobb is the current batting average leader at .366, while Babe Ruth tops the OPS list at 1.1636.

In addition, Gibson will now stand alone atop a few single-season lists: batting average (.446, with the 1943 Homestead Grays) and slugging percentage (.974, with the 1937 Grays).

Gibson is unquestionably one of the game's all-time top players, sporting a 162-game average of 45 home runs and 197 RBI during his 14-year career (1930, 1933-1940, 1942-1946).

But now many other Negro League stars who never had the opportunity to play in the majors will see their stats included in the history books, such as Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and Buck Leonard, among many other greats.