MLB finally recognizes Negro League players as Major Leaguers
It has taken 100 years, but Major League Baseball (MLB) announced on Dec. 16 that the Negro Leagues will be included in the organization’s history rather than being treated as a separate entity. “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,” MLB said in a statement. The Negro National League was formed on Feb. 13, 1920, at a YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri. The National Negro League struggled to make ends meet, and the
The Rise and Fall of Black Baseball: Remembering the Birth of the Negro National League – 100 Years Ago
By Donald James Racism in the early-to-mid 20th century – and other periods of time - was painfully ugly in the United States of America. Such hatred, along with laws of bigotry – written and unwritten - robbed African Americans of the same opportunities afforded to whites freely and unconditionally. And playing professional baseball in America – the national pastime since the 1850s - was no exception. In the early-to-mid 1900s, white Major League Baseball players such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Mel Ott and Ted Williams were deemed