Josh Gibson Recognized as Baseball’s Career Batting Leader

“The condensed 60-game season for the 2020 calendar year for the National League and American League prompted us to think that maybe the shortened Negro League seasons could come under the MLB umbrella, after all,” Thorn said.

The record books now include statistics from the first Negro National League (1920-31), Eastern Colored League (1923-28), American Negro League (1929), East-West League (1932), Negro Southern League (1932), second Negro National League (1933-48) and Negro American League (1937-48).

An updated version of MLB’s database will become public before the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants play a tribute game to the Negro Leagues 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 the information available at the time of a player’s induction.

Standards for season leaders are the same for Negro Leagues as the other leagues: 3.1 plate appearances or one inning for each game played by a player’s team.

Josh Gibson slides into home plate during the 12th annual East-West All-Star Game of the Negro Leagues on Aug. 13, 1944, at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Gibson’s .466 average for the 1943 Homestead Grays of the Negro National League became the season standard. Also pictured, catcher Ted Radcliffe.

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Gibson’s .974 slugging percentage in 1937 becomes the season record, and Barry Bonds’ .863 in 2001 dropped to fifth, also trailing Mules Suttles’ .877 in 1926, Gibson’s .871 in 1943 and Smith’s .870 in 1929.

Bonds’ prior OPS (on-base plus slugging) record of 1.421 in 2004 dropped to third behind Gibson’s 1.474 in 1937 and 1.435 in 1943.

Willie Mays gained 10 hits from the 1948 Birmingham Black Barons, increasing his total to 3,293. Minnie Minoso surpassed 2,000 hits, credited with 150 for the New York Cubans from 1946 to 1948 that boosted his 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 that increased his total to 1,567.

Among pitchers, Satchel Paige gained 28 wins that raised his total to 125.

The committee met six times and dealt with issues such as when compiled league statistics didn’t make sense, for example a league having more wins than losses, and walks that were missing. Researchers had to identify whether players with the same name were one person or separate, tracking dates of birth, and identify people listed by nicknames. Documenting transactions and identifying ballparks in a time when neutral sites often were used is ongoing, along with uncovering statistics for independent teams.

Kevin Johnson and Gary Ashwill, researchers who had spent nearly two decades helping assemble the Seamheads Negro Leagues Database, were included in the project.

Thorn estimated 72 percent of Negro Leagues records from 1920-1948 are included and additional research might lead to future modifications to the all-time leader lists. Thorn said a four-homer game by Gibson in 1938 and a home run by Mays in August 1948 could not be included because complete game accounts have not been found.

“Without a box score, we can’t really balance the statistics,” Johnson said. “Those games are kind of in limbo at the moment.”

Some game details were obtained from newspapers that covered Black communities. Johnson said that while complete accounts were found for about 95 percent of games in the 1920s, coverage dropped off during the Great Depression in the 1930s and never fully recovered.