CLEVELAND — Major League Baseball’s record books look a little different this week after the league began recognizing the statistics from seven different Negro Leagues that played in the first half of the 20th century.
It’s a move that hits home with one museum in northeast Ohio.
Located in a spot that used to be home to teams in both Major League Baseball and the Negro Leagues, the Baseball Heritage Museum thrives on its mission of highlighting baseball’s diversity.
“We pride ourselves on telling the stories of the marginalized and the less known historical actors in baseball’s history, namely the Negro Leagues,” said Ricardo Rodriguez, museum director at the Baseball Heritage Museum.
For parts of the 1930s and 1940s, multiple Negro League teams called Cleveland’s League Park home.
And now the stats from those and all Negro League games are being intertwined with the stats from Major League Baseball.
“It is one inclusive set of baseball statistics,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said the change is important for diversity in baseball, quoting MLB historian, John Thorn, by saying history is a process, not a product.
“This is a good example that we are looking back at the injustices that were served to players of color during that time and just trying to get that straightened out on the books,” Rodriguez said.
The museum features a wide array of historical jerseys, photos and even Rube Foster’s private flask. Foster was the founder of the Negro Leagues, known as the “father of Black baseball.”
Rodriguez said adding the Negro League statistics to the MLB records is a step in the right direction.
“Jackie Robinson did wonders for diversity and inclusivity in baseball, this is again another chapter in baseball’s history,” Rodriguez said.
And Rodriguez said it’s a move that’s been long overdue.
“Hindsight being 20-20, if we could have gone back and did it immediately, we could’ve, but this stuff again is a process,” Rodriguez said.