For Negro Leagues Museum President, Stat Recognition is Bigger Than Baseball

The addition of Negro Leagues baseball players’ statistics to MLB’s record books is bigger than baseball, Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick said Wednesday.

It’s a part of American history.

Negro Leagues players were added to the MLB record books this week after a multi-year project by MLB, which decided in 2020 to reclassify the Negro Leagues as a major league. The undertaking involved researching and sifting through documents and scorecards from the past.

Kendrick said the verified statistics only accounted for a piece of many players’ history, but that didn’t diminish the decision’s significance.

“This story is far more grandiose than mere statistics,” he said. “This story, in many ways, is bigger than the game of baseball, even though it is a tiny part of the great story of the game of baseball.”

Catcher Josh Gibson became MLB’s leader in career batting average, slugging percentage and OPS, surpassing names like Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds.

Phil Dixon, an author and historian of Negro Leagues baseball, has been on a 40-year journey to uncover and tell the stories of Black baseball players. He said the move to include Negro Leagues stats was “one of the brighter days for Black baseball players from the past.”

“It gives us a chance to expose a lot of really fine athletes to American baseball history,” Dixon said in an interview. “Because they truly were professionals in an era where they weren’t given the opportunity to be such.”

Dixon and Kendrick were both members of the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee that collected the new stats. Dixon said the decade-spanning work to collect and remember the stories of Black baseball players is far from over.

“The work continues,” he said. “But this was an important day.”

Kendrick said newly introduced statistics don’t diminish the success of great white players. Rather, it elevates stories of Black players who have long been overlooked, he said. In his opinion, Gibson has long been the best baseball player to put on a uniform, regardless of what certain history books have said or omitted.

“I know that there are some who still subscribe to the belief that if it didn’t happen in the white major leagues, then it didn’t happen,” Kendrick said. “This museum has been here for 35 years to tell you: Yes, it did happen.”

Commissioner Rob Manfred said on MLB’s website the initiative was focused on ensuring future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of Negro Leagues players.

“Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history,” he said.

An updated MLB database will become public on June 20, before the St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants play a Negro Leagues tribute game in Birmingham, Alabama.

“Sometimes it takes these kinds of efforts that will hopefully open the minds, hearts and the imaginations of those who will eventually want to learn more about the history of the Negro Leagues,” Kendrick said.

Echoing Manfred, Kendrick said the impact of the statistics goes beyond batting average and slugging percentage. He hopes it will continue to open doors to teach people about a part of baseball history that has long been forgotten.

“It is absolutely a watershed moment for both Black baseball and Negro Leagues history,” Kendrick said.

The importance of the Negro Leagues can be boiled down to three stories, Kendrick said: the importance of economic empowerment, an unprecedented level of leadership, and the story of social advancement in the country.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, is a steward of the story of Black baseball, Kendrick said. The museum will open a new exhibit from June 7 through Oct. 30 celebrating the history of the Kansas City Monarchs.

“This is also the story of America at her worst,” Kendrick said. “But it’s also the story of America at her best. As I’ve oftentimes said, you won’t let me play with you in the major leagues, then I’ll create a league of my own.”

Cuyler Dunn is a student at the University of Kansas School of Journalism and a reporter for the Lawrence Times and Eudora Times. He is an incoming summer intern at Kansas City PBS/Flatland. This story first appeared on Kansas Reflector as part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.