© Vince Compagnone / Los Angeles Times / Getty Major League Baseball announced Wednesday that the Negro Leagues have officially been recognized as a major league.
"All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game's best players, innovations, and triumphs against a backdrop of injustice," MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.
"We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as major leaguers within the official historical record."
This means that the statistics and records from seven leagues (1920-1948) and approximately 3,400 players will now be recognized as part of MLB history. Players like Josh Gibson and "Cool Papa" Bell - both of whom are in Cooperstown - will have their numbers officially added alongside the likes of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams.
Thirty-five former Negro Leagues players and executives have already been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
"In the minds of baseball fans worldwide, this serves as historical validation for those who had been shunned from the major leagues and had the foresight and courage to create their own league that helped change the game and our country, too," Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, said in a statement.
It was recently reported that MLB was considering the elevation of the Negro Leagues corresponding with their centennial.
MLB's color barrier wasn't broken until Jackie Robinson debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Larry Doby was the first Black player to play for an American League team when he made his Cleveland Indians debut later that year. Both had significant careers in the Negro Leagues prior to integration.
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