LOADING ERROR LOADING Major League Baseball will officially be including statistics for the Negro Leagues in its record books on Wednesday, USA Today has reported. While the segregated leagues produced some of the best baseball players in the sports’ history, thousands of players who played in iterations of the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 have been omitted from professional rankings — until now. Advertisement MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred celebrated the news in a statement on Tuesday.
“This initiative is focused on ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible,” he said, per Yahoo Sportss . “Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s 1947 Dodger debut.” The change means that catcher Josh Gibson will now be considered one of the best hitters of all time, recording a single-season batting average of .
466 in 1943. Josh Gibson gets tagged out by the catcher during 1944's East-West All Star Negro baseball game at Chicago's Comiskey Park. Gibson will now hold the record for best single-season batting average.
Bettmann via Getty Images Gibson, who played for the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays between 1930 to 1940 and then from 1942 to 1946, also leads all-time records for slugging, as well as topping the combined on-base and slugging category. Both rankings w.
