Major League Baseball has for years acknowledged the contributions and the legacy of the thousands of Black athletes who played in the Negro Leagues.
On Wednesday, the league went a step further, saying it was officially “correcting a longtime oversight in the game’s history” and recognizing those professionals as Major League-caliber players. The league said it will also include their statistics and records as part of MLB history.
“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game’s finest players, innovations and triumphs against the backdrop of injustice,” Commissioner Robert Manfred said in statement posted to social media.
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