MLB promotes Negro leagues to ‘Major League’ status

Those leagues were excluded in 1969 when a special committee on baseball records identified the six official “major leagues” of 1876.

“The MLB is of the opinion that the committee’s avoidance of the Negro leagues in 1969 was an error in seeking today’s status,” the league said in a statement.

The MLB said the input was considered from studies by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, a group of Negro League researchers and writers and other baseball writers and researchers.

The League works with the Elias Sports Bureau to review Negro League statistics and records and determine how to incorporate them into MLB history.

“All of us baseball lovers have known for a long time that the Negro leagues are the best players in our game, innovating and winning in the face of injustice,” Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement. “We now thank the players of the Negro leagues for counting where they are: as major leagues in the official historical record.”