Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that the statistics of more than 2,300 Negro Leagues ballplayers from 1920-1948, including this era’s three living Negro Leagues players: Bill Greason, age 99; Hall of Famer Willie Mays, 93; and Ron Teasley, 97, are now part of a newly integrated MLB.com database.
The database combines seven different Negro Leagues from 1920-1948, along with the American League, the National League and other major leagues in history.
"This effort will allow fans to view the statistics and records of Negro Leagues alumni as easily as all other historical Major League players," stated MLB in a press release.
Several new Major League records are now newly held by Hall of Famer Josh Gibson (1911-1947), who is now MLB’s all-time career leader in batting average, slugging percentage and on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS). He also holds the all-time single-season records in all three of those categories.
Experts estimate that the available Negro Leagues records between 1920-1948 are nearly 75% complete. Future findings by the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database and other baseball researchers may result in additional modifications to the game’s all-time leaderboards.
MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred announced the elevation of the Negro Leagues to Major League status during the Negro Leagues centennial celebration in 2020.
