MLB adds Negro League stats, raising Josh Gibson

Negro League stars Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson — Josh Gibson is now MLB career and season batting leader

(Image credit: Mark Rucker / Transcendental Graphics, Getty Images)

What happened

Major League Baseball finished incorporating the Negro League's 1920-1948 statistics into its record books on Tuesday following three years of research. When the new rankings are unveiled Wednesday, The Washington Post said, "the Top 10 lists" for several "hallowed statistics" will "change dramatically," notably boosting Homestead Grays powerhouse Josh Gibson (pictured above with Satchel Paige).

Who said what

Gibson, who died in 1947 at age 35, will overtake Ty Cobb as MLB's career leader in batting average (.372 versus .367), Hugh Duffy in single-season batting average (.446 versus .440), and Babe Ruth in slugging percentage (.718 versus .690) and OPS (1.177 versus 1.164). "When you hear Josh Gibson's name now, it's not just that he was the greatest player in the Negro Leagues," Sean Gibson, Gibson's great-grandson, told USA Today, "but one of the greatest of all time."

The stats integration is a belated "acknowledgment that, had Black players been allowed to compete with their white counterparts in MLB's early decades, its leader boards would look very different," the Post said.

What next?

MLB will make its new database public before a special Negro League tribute game on June 20.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.