Commissioner Manfred Announces the Negro Leagues’ Status as ‘Major Leagues’

Today, Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred announced a change in the way the history of baseball will be viewed. MLB referred to it as “a longtime oversight” in the game’s history.

With two weeks remaining in the 100th year celebration of the birth of the Negro Leagues in 1920, MLB will officially recognize the Leagues’ status as Major Leagues. The official historical record of the game will now include all players of the Negro Leagues as Major Leaguers. Statistics and records will now be included with MLB statistics and records.

Jackie Robinson is perhaps the Leagues’ most well-known player today, but over 3,400 played in the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948. Other Negro League players, such as slugging catcher Josh Gibson and ace Satchel Paige, spent entire their entire careers, or close to it, in the Negro Leagues. MLB excluded Black players from joining its league for more than fifty years before Robinson broke the color barrier.

Now, the ‘Major Leagues’ will encompass a more complete outlook on the landscape of professional baseball.