Historic Negro Leagues promoted to Major League status so players’ achievements will be officially recognised

MLB says move corrects ‘longtime oversight’ in game’s history

Historic Negro Leagues promoted to Major League status so players' achievements will be officially recognised (Getty Images)

Major League Baseball says that it will now include the records of Negro League players and teams in its official statistics.

Black players were barred from playing in MLB until Jackie Robinson broke the race barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

Baseball’s commissioner Rob Manfred described the move as “correcting longtime oversight in the game’s history.”

MLB will now recognise the “statistics and records” of nearly 3,4000 players who took part in seven leagues between 1920 and 1948.

“All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game's best players, innovations and triumph against a backdrop of injustice,” said Mr Manfred.

“We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record.”

It means that a pitcher like Satchel Paige may add nearly 150 wins to his professional record.

The Negro Leagues were excluded from MLB records in 1969 when the Special Committee on Baseball did not recognise it.

"It is MLB's view that the Committee's 1969 omission of the Negro Leagues from consideration was clearly an error that demands today's designation," the league said in a statement.

Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, praised the decision.

“The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is thrilled to see this well-deserved recognition of the Negro Leagues,” he said