Legendary HBCU Players Who Played In The Negro League Will Have Their Statistics Included In Official MLB Records

Major League Baseball will integrate Negro League statistics in the game's official records.

Josh Gibson / Aug 02, 2012; Washington, D.C., USA; Statue of Josh Gibson in the outfield concourse before the game between the Washington Nationals and the Philadelphia Phillies at Nationals Park. The Washington Nationals won 3-0. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports | Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports

Legendary figures who endured the racist Jim Crow Era of the Deep South while playing on yester-year's Chitlin' Circuit and barnstormed with white teams in the 1940s will finally have their statistical contributions included in the annals of Major League Baseball.

Tuesday's historic decision by the MLB will recognize Negro League legend Josh Gibson as the best slugger in professional baseball's history.  

Gibson became the record-holder for several MLB batting marks, most notably the single-season batting average (.466 in 1943), slugging percentage (.974 in 1937), and on-base plus slugging (1.474 in 1937).  

Steve Musgrave's \"Satchel Paige\": The Hall of Famer is shown as a monumental figure. Reds Hall of Fame and Museum chief curator Chris Eckes says this is the single biggest piece of art in the \"Shades of Greatness\" exhibit. Img 2133 / The Enquirer/Dave Clark via Imagn

"We looked for historians, statisticians, and stakeholders who all could be expected to have concern that MLB would get the process and the product right,"   "We were not looking for 'like minds' but instead potentially contentious ones."

Many will see the Negro League player named Tetelo Vargas (.471 in 1943), but he had only 136 at-bats on the season. The MLB qualification is 3.1 at-bats per scheduled game; thus, Josh Gibson's 302 plate appearances qualified.

While most were uneducated, several were HBCU legends in baseball, football, track and field, and other sports before joining the Negro Baseball League. The Newark Eagles of 1946 had HBCU student-athletes like Andrew "Pat" Patterson (Wiley College) and outfielder Bob Harvey (Bowie State). Joe Black (Morgan State, Brooklyn Dodgers) was the first black pitcher to win a World Series Game.

One important note. The integration of the Negro League statistics as the Major League Baseball official statistics will not have asterisks.