Baseball’s racist legacy today as MLB finally recognizes ‘Negro Leagues’
A WW commentary
By Monica Moorehead posted on December 21, 2020
Major League Baseball first announced on Dec. 9 that it would finally incorporate all of the players, statistics and records from the “Negro Leagues” (NL) into its present-day records. Many said it was about time and that this recognition is long overdue. Both sentiments are justified.
Pennsylvania’s Homestead Grays, founded in 1912.
Yet the truth is that this announcement was another reminder of one of the most heinous periods in U.S. history: the segregationist Jim Crow era.
The NL, with over 3,400 Black players, existed from 1920 until 1948. The legendary Jackie Robinson had broken the color barrier of the MLB in 1947 when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers.
MLB Finally Recognizes Negro League Players as Major Leaguers
MLB Finally Recognizes Negro League Players as Major Leaguers
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It has taken 100 years, but Major League Baseball (MLB) announced on Dec. 16 that the Negro Leagues will be included in the organization’s history rather than being treated as a separate entity.
“It is MLB’s view that the Committee’s 1969 omission of the Negro Leagues from consideration was clearly an error that demands today’s designation,” MLB said in a statement.
The Negro National League was formed on Feb. 13, 1920, at a YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri. The National Negro League struggled to make ends meet, and the Indianapolis Clowns were the last NNL team to suit up for games as a traveling squad until halting operations in 1989.
The Negro Leagues are now part of official MLB stats But don t expect major changes in the record books wpsdlocal6.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wpsdlocal6.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The 1913 Homestead Grays were champions of Homestead and won a remarkable 42 straight games. Playing games at Homestead Park and Exposition Park, the Grays defeated industrial, sandlot, and semi-pro teams in Western Pa. Nearly 25 years later, the Grays would go on to win an unprecedented nine consecutive league pennants and three Negro League World Series titles. (Credit: Detre Library & Archives at the Heinz History Center)
This move comes 70 years after the Negro Leagues dissolved.
By Brooklyn White, ESSENCE
The MLB has announced it will finally recognize former Negro League players as part of the major leagues. Over 70 years after the Negro League ended, the organization will now include the records and statistics of all 3,400 players as part of MLB history.
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There s a handful of numbers throughout baseball history that are so important, so revered, so iconic that they require no additional explanation.
714 and
.406 or
42 is part of that club too. You immediately know what all of those mean.
For nearly 50 years,
660 has been one of those numbers, too. Willie Mays hit the 660th and final regular-season home run of his career on Aug. 17, 1973, at Shea Stadium as a member of the Mets off Cincinnati s Don Gullett. Sure, he hit one in the playoffs ( 71), and three more in All-Star Games ( 56, 60, and 65), and assuredly countless more in Spring Training and other exhibitions, but 660 is the number. It s on his Hall of Fame plaque. It s on some of his autographs. It s written on the wall at Oracle Park. When someone passes 660, it s a big deal. It s as associated with Mays as the 24 he wore on his back.