Team publicity photo for the 1919 Chicago American Giants, a team that played in the Negro leagues.
Credit: Public Domain

Forty-eight years after his death, the baseball star Jackie Robinson just got 38 more hits. In December 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) decided to grant major-league status to the Negro leagues—recognizing Negro league accomplishments as equal to those in the American and National leagues. The Negro leagues were professional baseball leagues formed for Black players, who were barred from playing alongside whites because of racial segregation. The leagues operated from 1920 to 1962.

Negro league teams were a source of pride for Black communities, where competition was just as fierce and the level of play just as high as in the segregated American and National leagues. Baseball historians agree that many players in the Negro leagues would have shone in the white leagues. Black entrepreneurs operated many of the teams and employed Black people from the local community as ticket-takers, ushers, and vendors.

The MLB plans to review the statistics and records of the approximately 3,400 players who played in the Negro leagues from 1920 to 1948 and incorporate them into major league historical records. The records from the Negro leagues are fragmentary, so the MLB will work with historians and statisticians to search for and review data from the period. The process will be ongoing, with records being updated as new box scores come to light.

In 1945, before the Brooklyn (now Los Angeles) Dodgers fielded Robinson, he played 26 games with the powerhouse Kansas City Monarchs, posting a blistering .384/.445/.606 slash line. Two years later, Robinson became the first Black player in the modern history of the MLB. The stats of some other early crossover stars, such as Larry Doby and Satchel Paige, will be greatly bolstered. Players who spent their entire careers in the Negro leagues, such as Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, and Buck Leonard, will gain entry into the major league record books.

Satchel Paige pitched 18 seasons in the Negro leagues before entering Major League Baseball in 1948 at age 42. Credit: AP/Wide World

The decision makes some amends for a double injustice inflicted upon Black baseball players. First, they were barred from playing on major league teams. Then, their achievements were downplayed or dismissed because of a lack of MLB play. No Negro league stars were enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame until the induction of Paige in 1971.

The inclusion of Negro league statistics in the official baseball record books comes too late to offer any consolation to most of the leagues’ veterans. However, it recognizes these players’ incredible talent and their importance in the fight for racial equality and the history of the game. These records will testify to their dogged determination to play America’s pastime in the face of great injustice.

February 9, 2016

On Feb. 9, 1971, African American baseball pitcher Satchel Paige (1906-1982) was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Paige’s election was unique at the time, as he was the first player elected for his career numbers in the Negro leagues instead of his numbers in Major League Baseball (MLB). Paige began his career in the 1920’s, long before baseball was racially integrated in 1947. Despite being barred from MLB’s big stage, Paige gained rapid fame for his pitching prowess as well as his electric personality and enthusiasm for the game. Paige at last made it to the big leagues in 1948, when he helped the Cleveland Indians win their last World Series championship.

Satchel Paige
Credit: © AP Photo

Leroy Robert Paige was born on July 7, 1906, in Mobile, Alabama. He earned the nickname Satchel from carrying satchels at the Mobile railroad depot as a boy. He began playing baseball professionally in 1924, and often pitched against major leaguers in exhibition games. In 1937, New York Yankee star Joe DiMaggio called him the greatest pitcher he ever faced. Paige pitched for touring black teams and teams in the Negro leagues for more than 20 years.

Paige was past his prime when he joined the Cleveland Indians in 1948 and became the first black pitcher in the American League. At age 42, he was the oldest rookie in MLB history. Paige won 6 games and lost 1 that season and helped Cleveland win the pennant. He appeared in one game for the Indians in their World Series victory over the Boston Braves. Paige pitched again for Cleveland in 1949 and for the St. Louis Browns from 1951 to 1953. He made a final appearance in 1965, pitching in one game for the Kansas City Athletics. Paige’s career major league record was 28 victories and 31 defeats.

Brooklyn Dodgers Jackie Robinson (1962) and Roy Campanella (1969) were the first two African American players elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Robinson and Campanella earned their entry on the strength of their MLB numbers, not their brief careers in the Negro leagues. In the late 1960’s, MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn created a committee to nominate African American players for the Hall of Fame based on their Negro league careers alone. Paige was the unanimous first choice. Paige died in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 8, 1982.