It was a long time coming, but Major League Baseball has finally added stats from the historical Negro League to its own.
Every fan (indeed, even non-fans) know who Jackie Robinson is. He was the first black player to play for the MLB back in 1947 when he was picked up by the Brooklyn Dodgers.
But what most people don’t ask is, “OK, well what about all the other black players?” The answer is, they played in the segregated Negro League.
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Negro League Baseball
The archaically-named Negro League was a series of leagues for black players only that ran in the early 20th Century.
The infamous “color line” in major league baseball – that is, the segregation – was never “officially” official, but was more an organic outgrowth of American society at the time.
And so, you had separate leagues for black players and white players – even though the Negro League was still considered professional baseball.
In 2020, the MLB took its first steps towards integrating the history of the leagues (even if the players were separated) by officially recognizing the Negro League as a major baseball league.
The MLB said at the time:
This long overdue recognition is the product of evaluation throughout this year, which included consideration of: discussions with the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and other baseball entities; the previous and ongoing studies of baseball authors and researchers; the 2006 study by the National Baseball Hall of Fame (the Negro League Researchers and Authors Group); and an overall historical record that has expanded in recent years.
Stats and 3,400 players from the league were now recognized – but still, the stats weren’t yet integrated.
Now they are, and the record books are seeing a bit of a shake-up.
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Josh Gibson – GOAT?
There are both major and minor changes to the record books thanks to integrating the Negro League’s stats. Fox News points out that while Willie Mays only added 10 more hits to his resume, pitcher Satchel Paige went from just 28 wins to a whopping 125.
But that’s nothing compared to the “Black Babe Ruth,” Josh Gibson.
Gibson is now the proud owner of these stat lines:
- Highest career batting average of all time: .372 (Sorry, Ty Cobb!)
- Highest career slugging percentage of all time: .718 (Sorry, Babe Ruth!)
- Third highest career on-base: .459
Yeah, this man could swing, baby. But that’s not all!
- Single season batting average: .446
- Single season slugging average: .974
Simply put, Josh Gibson was the real deal. Today, teams would be begging to hand him a billion-dollar contract. Of course, you can take these stats with a grain of salt, as Gibson played in far fewer games than the Babe or Ty Cobb. But those stats are nothing to mess with, and you’d probably be hard-pressed to bat a .400 against a bunch of kids.
Sadly, Gibson died a young man at just age 35 in 1947.
That’s the same year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier. Should it have been Gibson instead?
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