MLB recognition of Negro Leagues records ‘quite significant,’ says museum president

Paul Guggenheimer | Thursday, December 17, 2020 4:34 p.m.

Mark Rucker | Getty Images

Satchel Paige of the Kansas City Monarchs talks with Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays before a game in Kansas City in 1942.

On Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced that it will finally recognize Negro Leagues records and statistics between the years 1920 and 1948, the year after Jackie Robinson broke the big league color barrier.

It means Negro Leagues star and Hall-of-Famer Josh Gibson, who played for the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, will likely have his name in the Major League record books for having the highest single season batting average, .441.

What other records may change and why cut off incorporating Negro Leagues statistics after 1948?

The Tribune-Review’s Paul Guggenheimer put these questions to Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, in a video interview from Kansas City.