Major League Baseball announced on Wednesday that in the “long overdue recognition”, the official statistics of the game would include the records of the players and teams of the Negro Leagues.
Before Jackie Robinson broke the professional baseball race barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, black players were banned from MLB play, which prevented many baseball fans from seeing some of the best hitters, pitchers and fielders of the 20th century.
“All those who love baseball have known for a long time that the Negro Liga had many of the best players, innovations and victories in our game against a backdrop of injustice,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
“We are now grateful to the Negro League players for counting where they belong: as the main liguers in the official historical record.”
Officials said records and figures for the 3,400 players who participated in seven leagues for black players between 1920 and 1948 would be included in the MLB record.
“Today is a day of extraordinary significance for historical significance. Having been around so many players in the Negro League, they never looked to the MLB for recognition, “Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, said in a statement. But for the sake of fans and historical fact, it really is, it really is. ”
M.L.B. There are now two leagues, the National League, founded in 1876, and the American League, which began playing in 1901. Their champions have met in the World Series almost every October since 1903.
And along the way, many other upstart leagues challenged AL and NL without lasting success.
The American Association (1882-1891), the Federal League (1914-15), the Union Association (1884) and the Players’ League (1890) – the contributions of those four other groups, were recognized in a 1969 report by the MLB’s Special Committee on Baseball. Records.
But a statement from the MLB on Wednesday stated that “the exclusion of the Negro legislation in question was clearly a mistake that demands today’s designation.”
“The alleged shortcomings in the formation and scheduling of the Negro leagues are born out of the MLB’s exclusionary methods, and denying them a Major League status is a double penalty,” MLB official historian John Throne said in a statement. “It is a great pleasure to give the Negro League MLB status a century after its inception.”
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