Today MLB officially integrated Negro League statistics into the MLB record books, throwing a wrench into some beloved statistical leader lists.
I have mixed feelings about it.
On one hand it's great that some of these Negro League greats will finally get some attention from casual fans (I guarantee you I, and most serious fans, know more about them then the majority of the people praising AND panning the move). It's also hard not to be moved by a line of propaganda MLB put out, and I'm paraphrasing, that these men were separated by a historical wrong, and now they stand united in correction of that wrong. That really hit me in the feels.
Too bad it's just a copywriter's spin and not reality.
Yes, these men were wrongly kept out of the majors. They deserve their place in Cooperstown, as individuals and as a whole.
But, by the very nature of the wrong, they did not play in MLB. To play pretend and say their numbers in a given year are now magically part of the same, as if they were given the chance to compete head to head the whole time . . . To me, you aren't correcting a wrong, you are hiding that it ever happened.
Not to carry it to an extreme, but man, just minimize Jackie Robinson some more why don't ya?
I question too the stated impetus for this. 2020 was mentioned more than once in the apologetics MLB released to explain their decisions, mainly in how they used the abbreviated Covid season as a ruler by which to rationalize incorporating the annual Negro League numbers - their seasons that averaged only 60 or so legitimate games a season (the rest of the schedule being devoted to barnstorming games and exhibitions). Seems to me there was a lot more going on in 2020 than baseball OR Covid, and it sure is odd that's when MLB hit the gas.
Have other, defunct leagues been merged into the MLB records? Sure, from the 19th century, when the whole idea of professional baseball - heck, professional sports - was new and everybody was wilding. Even then, there were whole professional leagues that didn't make the cut and were excluded from the records when they were evaluated as being below MLB standards.
The talent pool in the Negro Leagues was tremendous, but it was a talent pool forced by society to compete in leagues (plural) that were not up to par. I'm sorry, it's true. Put their stars in MLB and they'd shine, but the league as a whole? No.
That shortened season I mentioned? Lyman Bostock played 23 games in 1941. Now from what I gather, he WILL be excluded from contention for the '41 record, but that should NEVER have been an issue that needed to be addressed in the first place.
Those who dare to criticize this move are - contain my shock - being labeled racist. Odd that, since my social media feed has been filled FOR MONTHS with African Americans dragging Caitlin Clark because she is great AND white, and for nothing more than that. That isn't the case here where the move, well intentioned or not, is a questionable one.
Whatever. As I said, I'm on the fence about this. I think it was done in good faith, but I think it teeters on covering up, not correcting, a historic error. That said, I can take it or leave it.
What do you think?
