MLB Elevates Negro Leagues to Major League Status

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that the league is "correcting a longtime oversight in the game's history by officially elevating the Negro Leagues to 'Major League' status." This according to a press release from Major League Baseball.

With this action Major League Baseball wants to ensure that future generations of baseball fans will remember the approximately 3,400 players of the Negro Leagues from 1920-1948. Major League Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred is quoted in the release as saying:

All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s best players, innovations and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice. We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record.

As Commissioner Manfred says, by correcting this gross oversight the statistics and records of players from the Negro Leagues will become a part of Major League Baseball's History.

Major League Baseball's Official Historian, John Thorn, says the perceived deficiencies of the Negro Leagues' were born out of Major League Baeball's exclusionary practices. And denying the Major League status has been a double penalty.

Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City is quoted in the release as saying:

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is thrilled to see this well-deserved recognition of the Negro Leagues. In the minds of baseball fans worldwide, this serves as historical validation for those who had been shunned from the Major Leagues and had the foresight and courage to create their own league that helped change the game and our country too. This acknowledgement is a meritorious nod to the courageous owners and players who helped build this exceptional enterprise and shines a welcomed spotlight on the immense talent that called the Negro Leagues home.

You can learn about the Negro Leagues and their role and influence in Major League Baseball by visiting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City. The Museum is located at 1616 East 18th Street, Kansas City. Admission is $10.00 for adults, $9.00 for seniors 65+ and $6.00 for kids ages 5 -12.