Willie Mays, Josh Gibson, And Other Baseball Legends Officially Enter Major League Record

By Nathan Young on November 19, 2024

Willie Mays played his last Major League Baseball (MLB) game in 1973, but that hasn’t stopped 10 more points from now being freshly added onto his record. MLB’s recent decision to include statistics from the Negro League in its record books means Mays, along with a number of other baseball legends, have finally secured positions on Major League leaderboards. So, Mays’ record now stands at 3,293 total hits, which includes ten hits he made with the Birmingham Black Barons in 1948. The league made the decision to incorporate players from seven Negro Leagues active between 1920 and 1948, which equates to roughly 3,400 more players now included in the major league’s historical records.

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Willie Mays: one of the best baseball players of all time

Mays, a native of Westfield, Alabama, signed his first professional baseball contract with the Birmingham Black Barons, a Negro League baseball team, at just 16 years old in 1948. Until 1947, Black players had been excluded from Major League Baseball; this segregation was known as the color line, something which was finally broken by Jackie Robinson when he became the first African American player to join the Brooklyn Dodgers. A few years later, in 1951, Mays graduated highschool and signed with the New York Giants, with whom he played an impressive 23 major league seasons. At the end of his first season, Mays was named National League Rookie of the Year, and he continued to go from strength to strength.

As a member of both the Giants and the New York Mets, Mays racked up a total of 3,283 hits. He’s now one of just 33 members of the 3,000 hit club, and his career total is the 13th highest among all MLB players. But, Mays’ records and achievements don’t just end there. For example, he won the National League MVP award twice, once in 1954 and again in 1965. Mays was also a 24-time All-Star, and a twelve-time winner of the Golden Glove, which is awarded to the league’s best defenders. On top of those accomplishments, Mays also once hit a four home-run game, which makes him one of just eighteen players to ever do so.

Josh Gibson now holds multiple MLB records

The recent change to MLB records also means that famous power hitter, Josh Gibson, has displaced records of several players to become one of the greatest MLB players of all time. Gibson, a Georgia native, overtook Ty Cobb’s record batting average of .366 with a score of .372. Gibson now also holds the record for slugging percentage (.718), which means he overtook Babe Ruth’s position at the top (Ruth previously held a record .690). Gibson’s consistently strong performance on the field as a member of the Homestead Grays earned him the nickname “Black Babe Ruth”, but, unfortunately, Gibson passed away following a stroke three years prior to the breaking of the color line. It’s therefore only right that Gibson, one of the greatest baseball players of all time, is now officially recognized by the major league.

More stat changes for baseball legends

Satchel Paige, another Alabama native, also now rightfully holds the title of greatest pitcher in history after the recent stat changes. His 97 wins in the Negro League have been combined with the 28 wins he accomplished with the Cleveland Indians, which means he officially holds 125 in total. Minnie Miñoso, the first Black player on the White Sox, also now has his Negro League numbers included in his major league stats. Miñoso now has over 2,000 career hits, which makes him one of just 294 players with this accomplishment in MLB history. His 150 achieved with the New York Cubans between 1946-48 pushed his numbers up to an impressive 2,113.

The new change to MLB stats “not only rights a social, cultural and historical wrong, it’s defining baseball as a game for Americans without exclusion”, said John Thorn, MLB historian and chair of the the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee. “Baseball is a game of consistency, and it’s also a game of change. We may be slow to change, but when we do, it can be profound”.