The Negro Leagues Have Been and Always Will be Major Leagues

Dec 16 ## Dec 16 The Negro Leagues Have Been and Always Will be Major Leagues

By Bill Thompson, @BillCubbieBlue

It’s not every day that I fire up the old computer and start to type out positive words about Rob Manfred. To be fair, he’s an abhorrent figure within baseball and has, in his role as Commissioner of Baseball, done far more harm than good for the game. That being as true as the day is long, this time Manfred did something right. He took a step that may not seem like a big deal to some but is in actuality monumental.

This week Rob Manfred announced that after years of erasure and a refusal to give them the time of day, Major League Baseball will officially recognize the Negro Leagues as major leagues.

MLB is correcting a longtime oversight in the game\u2019s history by officially elevating the Negro Leagues to \u201CMajor League\u201D status. pic.twitter.com/gPSaTbD5Ud > > \u2014 MLB (@MLB) December 16, 2020\n","url":"https://twitter.com/MLB/status/1339247106104717312","resolvedBy":"twitter","floatDir":null,"authorName":"MLB","version":"1.0","resolved":true,"type":"rich","providerName":"Twitter","providerUrl":"https://twitter.com"}" data-block-type="22" id="block-yui_3_17_2_1_1608148733467_31460">> MLB is correcting a longtime oversight in the game’s history by officially elevating the Negro Leagues to “Major League” status. pic.twitter.com/gPSaTbD5Ud > > — MLB (@MLB) December 16, 2020 For those unaware, MLB is an organization while the title “major leagues” is more of a classification of a league’s skill level. Up until this past Wednesday, the only leagues recognized as major by MLB were the National League, American League, American Association (the late 1800s version), Union Association, Players’ League, and Federal League.

Whenever someone, who isn’t me, talks about any sort of MLB record they are referencing something that took place in those leagues. For years, specifically, since a panel of five, all-white, paid by MLB historians made that distinction in 1969 no other league in the history of professional baseball has been recognized as major.

The elephant in the room has always been the Negro Leagues. Specifically the grouping of Negro Leagues that non-MLB historians have labeled as major leagues for decades. These Negro major leagues were the Negro National League (1920-1931, 1933-1948), Eastern Colored League (1923-1928), American Negro League (1929), East-West League (1932), Negro Southern League (1932), and Negro American League (1937-1948).

Scores of historians, who are not on MLB’s payroll, have written about why these leagues were major and why they deserved such a classification to the point where their fingers bled from clacking away at their typewriters and keyboards. Yet, despite all the research, analysis, and anecdotal evidence that showed these leagues were major, MLB still denied their existence at the very top of the professional baseball mountain.

That all changed on Wednesday when Manfred stated that the Negro Leagues were now recognized as major leagues and the process of adding their stats and records into the existing MLB database had begun. As someone who has championed the Negro major leagues for most of my adult life, I have plenty of thoughts on this turn of events. There are negatives associated with this, questions that need to be answered, and uncertainty over how this will all be handled. However, there is also cause for celebration which is what I am focusing on right now.

Every fiber of my being knows that the Negro Leagues never needed MLB’s seal of approval to be major leagues. This announcement doesn’t suddenly make Josh Gibson, Joe Williams, or Bullet Rogan major league players. They have been that from the moment they put on a Homestead Grays or Baltimore Elite Giants (or any other) uniform. Today’s news doesn’t change that, nor does it right any of the wrongs MLB perpetrated against the Negro Leagues and players of color.

All that being true, it is still a momentous occasion for the greater baseball community. For the overwhelming majority of casual baseball fans, it matters a great deal that MLB has recognized the Negro Leagues in the manner that they have. It’s a day that should have happened oh so long ago, but it finally arrived and that is reason to be happy.

This announcement is, without a doubt, a positive thing. A step forward is still a step forward and for once, Rob Manfred has done something good for the game of baseball. The Negro Leagues are major leagues now, were in the past, and always will be moving forward. That MLB has finally come off their high-horse and recognized that indisputable fact is something every baseball fan should celebrate.

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