Major League Baseball has reclassified the Negro Leagues as a major league The league said Wednesday it was 'correcting a longtime oversight in the game's history' by elevating the Negro Leagues on the centennial of its founding MLB will include records from the seven Negro League circuits between 1920-48, which began to dissolve after Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947 Those seven leagues were excluded in 1969 when the Special Committee on Baseball Records identified six official 'major leagues' dating to 1876 It's not yet clear if the statistics of Negro League legends such as Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, and Satchel Paige will challenge hallowed MLB records