MLB adds Negro Leagues stats to record books, making Josh Gibson all-time leader in batting average, more (2024)

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MLB adds Negro Leagues stats to record books, making Josh Gibson all-time leader in batting average, more? ›

Josh Gibson, one of the greatest sluggers in the history of the Negro Leagues, is now listed as MLB's new all-time career leader in batting average at . 372, moving ahead of Ty Cobb

Major League Baseball has officially added players' stats from the Negro Leagues to its historical record, a move that allows Black players' contributions to be credited alongside their white counterparts.

Robinson was chosen, not so much because he was the best negro baseball player at the time; many gave that title to Josh Gibson. What Jackie had that Josh didn't was the fact that he had been raised in a diverse city - Pasadena, California.

The legendary Josh Gibson is widely considered the greatest power hitter in Negro Leagues history, launching prodigious blasts that earned him the nickname “the Black Babe Ruth.” But there was another great slugger behind him in the Homestead Grays' lineup, hitting cleanup and being dubbed “the Black Lou Gehrig.”

When the stars of the Negro Leagues and MLB played each other in barnstorming games, they pretty much battled to a draw. Dizzy Dean, who used to pitch against Satchel Paige in those games, said Paige was the best pitcher in baseball—anywhere.

Following the 2020 announcement that seven different Negro Leagues from 1920-1948 would be recognized as Major Leagues, MLB announced Wednesday that it has followed the recommendations of the independent Negro League Statistical Review Committee in absorbing the available Negro Leagues numbers into the official ...

The record for lowest career batting average for a player with more than 2,500 at-bats belongs to Bill Bergen, a catcher who played from 1901 to 1911 and recorded a . 170 average in 3,028 career at-bats. Hugh Duffy, who played from 1888 to 1906, is credited with the highest single-season batting average, having hit .

The table below shows the highest single season relative averages since 1900. The list is clearly dominated by Ty Cobb, who has 10 of the top 19 averages, including the highest of all: 1.594 in 1910.

What did Jackie Robinson think of Branch Rickey? ›

"I realized how much our relationship had deepened after I left baseball,” Robinson later said of Rickey. “Branch, especially after I was no longer in the sports spotlight, treated me like a son."

Jack Roosevelt Robinson (January 31, 1919 – October 24, 1972) was an American professional baseball player who became the first African American to play in Major League Baseball (MLB) in the modern era. Robinson broke the color line when he started at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on April 15, 1947.

Joshua Gibson (December 21, 1911 – January 20, 1947) was an American baseball catcher primarily in the Negro leagues. In 1972, he became the second Negro league player to be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Generally considered to be one of the top shortstops in Negro League history, Pop Lloyd enjoyed a 25-year career in which he regularly batted well over .

1) Smokey Joe Williams was a top-10 all-time pitcher.

Williams, though, ranks first in WAR among Negro League pitchers, with a 103.3 pitching WAR. Using Baseball Reference's data, that WAR mark would rank 10th all time among pitchers: Cy Young, 165.6. Walter Johnson, 152.1.

The NLBM's story began with the founding of the Negro Leagues in 1920, a pivotal moment in sports and cultural history. Founded by Andrew “Rube” Foster, a former player, manager, and executive, these leagues offered a haven for African American and Hispanic players during an era of segregation in Major League Baseball.

Below is a list of 52 players who played for major Negro league teams up to 1950 and eventually saw playing time for a Major League team. Of these, nine have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and two of them (Greason and Mays) are still alive.

The Negro American League was the only "major" Negro league operating in 1949. Within two years it had been reduced to minor league caliber and it played its last game in 1958. The last All-Star game was held in 1962, and by 1966 the Indianapolis Clowns were the last Negro league team still playing.

Indeed, Negro League games often carried a different look, sound and feel, and they introduced some important new things to baseball -- from the equipment worn on the field to the players' relationship with management to the way the game itself would go on to be played.