MLB Recognizes Negro Leagues as part of Major Leagues
I’m not a baseball fan. I’ve seen a few games in my life. A couple of Mets night games at Shea in the late sixties, including one where I got to see Willie Mays play against them. Somewhere I still have a program from one of those games. A Reds game in Cincinnati in the eighties, I don’t remember who they played. A Cubs game with Jonah at Wrigley. First game of a double header but it was cold so we left, which was a pity because the second game was way more exciting, I think including a home run or two by Sammy Sosa. A couple of Orioles games in Camden Yards with the Ripken brothers (and their father coaching).
But baseball fan or not, I know that what happened today is a big deal. We’ve known forever that the Negro Leagues were as good as the majors. We know this because of what happened when pickup games happened between Negro Leagues and Major League players and we know it because of how the first Negro Leagues players to make it to the majors did in the majors.
What happened was that MLB commissioner Robert Manfred announced that Negro Leagues are now recognized as Major Leagues by Major League Baseball. What that means is that Negro League stats now count, which of course affect the player and team rankings.
One thing it means is that the aforementioned Mr. Mays is credited with seventeen more hits, because he played in the Negro Leagues before he played in the majors. Another thing it will mean is that Satchel Paige’s stats won’t have an asterisk. And, from what I read, it will probably mean that the 1931 Homestead Grays will probably be considered the greatest team in baseball history.
Took a while. Same week as the Cleveland Indians decided not to be the Cleveland Indians any more. Long arc of history and all that. Too long sometimes.
12/16/2020 @ 9:52 pm
And it all happened on my dad’s birthday, which I find absolutely perfect.
12/17/2020 @ 1:41 am
Admitting Baseball’s Negro Leagues to the majors is just the beginning….
The next seismic shift in American societal elitism and iconic systemic and institutional racism will be the admission of Howard University into the Ivy League.
12/17/2020 @ 10:03 am
Here’s a bit of baseball and HBCU trivia that is central to your post:
[As the Black Harvard,] Howard was home to three incarnations of the Washington Senators of baseball, as well as the Redskins and the part – time home of the Negro National League’s Homestead Grays.
https://www.vibe.com/2013/01/howard-black-harvard
From 1940 until 1942, the Grays played half of their home games in Washington, D.C., while remaining in Pittsburgh for all other home stands.[1] As attendance at their games in the nation’s capital grew, by 1943, the Grays were playing more than two-thirds of their home games in Washington.[1]
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_Grays
12/17/2020 @ 10:21 am
My dad and I went to see Stachel Paige twice when he played for The Portland Beavers.
” There’s nobody like him boy. He’s the best ever.”
12/17/2020 @ 12:24 pm
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/negro-leagues-are-elevated-to-major-league-status-what-does-it-mean-for-baseball
PBS news just did a feature on this, interviewed a Black sportswriter (I don’t follow sports so did not know his name). It was an interesting interview. The sportswriter’s feelings were mixed about joining Negro League records with major league baseball’s, mostly because there was no uniform standard for record keeping and many discrepancies. Ex. Josh Gibson was said to have hit 800 home runs, but the official Negro League record book says 113.
(There’s a transcript of the interview if you don’t want to watch the vid)
12/17/2020 @ 12:35 pm
One of the reasons there are discrepancies is that not all Negro League teams stuck to league play. They needed to play local teams to earn money. Some of this was during the Depression.
12/17/2020 @ 6:49 pm
Better late than never. Ditto the naming of a Native American as Sec of the Interior.