NNEW YORK – Josh Gibson became Major League Baseball’s career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb’s .367, as Negro League records for more than 2,300 players were incorporated on Tuesday after a three-year research project.
Gibson’s .466 average for the 1943 Homestead Grays became the season standard, followed by Charlie “Chino” Smith’s .451 average for the 1929 New York Lincoln Giants. They surpassed Hugh Duffy’s .440 for the team. of Boston of the National League in 1894.
Gibson also became the career leader in slugging percentage (.718) and OPS (1.177), surpassing Babe Ruth (.690 and 1.164).
“This initiative aims to ensure that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible,” baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “His on-field accomplishments will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s Dodger debut in 1947.”
A special committee on baseball records decided in 1969 to recognize six major leagues dating back to 1876: the National (launched in 1876), the American (1901), the American Association (1882-1891), the Union Association (1884), the Players ‘ League (1890) and Federal League (1914-1915). He excluded the National Association (1871-75), citing an “erratic schedule and procedures.”
MLB announced in December 2020 that it would be “correcting a long-standing oversight” and adding the Negro Leagues. John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, chaired a 17-person committee that included Negro League experts and statisticians.
“The condensed 60-game season for the 2020 calendar year for the National League and American League led us to think that perhaps the shorter Negro League seasons could fall under the MLB umbrella after all,” Thorn said.
An updated version of the MLB database will be made public before the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants play a Negro Leagues tribute game on June 20 at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
Baseball Hall of Fame President Josh Rawitch said statistics on Cooperstown plaques would remain the same because they reflect information available at the time of a player’s induction.
The standards for season leaders are the same for the Negro Leagues as they are for the other leagues: 3.1 plate appearances or one inning for each game played by a player’s team.
Gibson’s .974 slugging percentage in 1937 becomes the season record, and Barry Bonds’ .863 in 2001 falls to fifth place, also behind Mules Suttles’ .877 in 1926, Gibson’s .871 in 1943, and Smith’s .870 in 1929.
Bond’s previous OPS record of 1.421 in 2004 fell to third place, behind Gibson’s 1.474 in 1937 and 1.435 in 1943.
Willie Mays collected 10 hits for the 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, increasing his total to 3,293. Minnie Minoso surpassed 2,000 hits, credited with 150 for New York Cubans from 1946-1948, which increased her total to 2,113.
Robinson, who broke MLB’s color barrier with the 1947 Dodgers, was credited with 49 hits with the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs, which increased his total to 1,567.
Among pitchers, Satchel Paige had 28 wins which brought his total to 125.
The committee met six times and addressed issues such as when the league’s compiled statistics did not make sense, such as a league having more wins than losses and dropped walks. Researchers had to identify whether players with the same name were one person or separate by tracking birth dates and identifying people listed by nicknames. Documenting transactions and identifying estimates in an era when neutral sites were often used is ongoing, along with statistics discovery for independent teams.
Kevin Johnson and Gary Ashwill, researchers who spent nearly two decades helping to assemble the Seamheads Negro Leagues database, were included in the project.
Thorn estimated that 72% of Negro League records from 1920-1948 are included and additional research could lead to future modifications. Thorn said a four-home run game by Gibson in 1938 and a home run by Mays in August 1948 could not be included because complete accounts of the game could not be found.
“Without a score, we can’t really balance the statistics,” Johnson said. “These games are in limbo at the moment.”
Records include the first Negro National League (1920-31), Eastern Colored League (1923-28), American Negro League (1929), East-West League (1932), Southern Negro League (1932), second Negro National League ( 1933). -48) and American Negro League (1937-48).
Some details of the game were obtained from newspapers covering black communities. Johnson said that although complete accounts have been found for about 95% of games in the 1920s, coverage dropped during the Great Depression in the 1930s and never fully recovered.
This story originally appeared on Time.com read the full story
