Josh Gibson's 'record' average, in just 78 games By JohnW53 on Feb 15, 2021, 5:48am CST + Late last year, Major League Baseball announced its intention to declare several Negro Leagues as official big leagues. Last week, a committee of the Society for American Baseball Research recommended that 7 leagues be recognized: the Negro National League I (1920-31), Negro National League II (1933-48), Negro American League (1937-48), Eastern Colored League (1923-28), American Negro League (1929), East-West League (1932) and Negro Southern League (1932). MLB also said it would incorporate team and player statistics from the Negro Leagues into the existing records, which include data from the American and National leagues, American Association (1882-91), Union Association (1884), Players League (1890) and Federal League (1914-15).