MLB reclassifies Negro Leagues as major league The league said it was “correcting a longtime oversight in the game's history” by elevating the Negro Leagues on the centennial of its founding. Author: Associated Press Updated: 1:19 PM EST December 16, 2020 NEW YORK — Major League Baseball has reclassified the Negro Leagues as a major league and will count the statistics and records of its 3,400 players as part of its history. 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. The Negro Leagues consisted of seven leagues, and MLB will include records from those circuits between 1920-48. The Negro Leagues began to dissolve one year after Jackie Robinson became MLB's first Black player with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.