Negro League’s Major League Designation Is the Right Move

Major League Baseball is considering retroactively raising the Negro Leagues to the status of “major leagues” for purposes of (among other things) baseball records, according to a report by Ben Lindbergh at The Ringer. The specific impact of this is that Negro League records would be considered MLB records the same as if they had been set in the National League. On the whole, this is a good thing, and MLB should do it. But it is not without some problems.

The good news is “majoring” the Negro Leagues would be a further step — following the enshrinement of Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame — to remedy a true historic injustice and increase the recognition of players who were long denied their proper due. The more complex questions involve the practical difficulty of reconstructing Negro Leagues records to the point where they are reliable, and the thornier question of whether retroactively adding the Negro Leagues to MLB would obscure the extent of their original exclusion.

About the Author

Dan McLaughlin

Dan McLaughlin is a senior writer at National Review Online and a fellow at National Review Institute.

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Major League Baseball is considering retroactively raising the Negro Leagues to the status of “major leagues” for purposes of (among other things) baseball records, according to a report by Ben Lindbergh at The Ringer. The specific impact of this is that Negro League records would be considered MLB records the same as if they had been set in the National League. On the whole, this is a good thing, and MLB should do it. But it is not without some problems.

The good news is “majoring” the Negro Leagues would be a further step — following the enshrinement of Negro Leaguers in the Hall of Fame — to remedy a true historic injustice and increase the recognition of players who were long denied their proper due. The more complex questions involve the practical difficulty of reconstructing Negro Leagues records to the point where they are reliable, and the thornier question of whether retroactively adding the Negro Leagues to MLB would obscure the extent of their original exclusion.