Larry Doby Jr., the son of the first Black baseball player in the American League, has mixed emotions about Major League Baseball’s decision to include Negro League statistics in its official database.
“I have to get with the new numbers,” he said after rattling off a series of statistics. Doby’s father, Paterson native Larry Doby, broke the American League color barrier and was the second Black ballplayer in MLB history.
“He was lucky enough to start there and lucky enough to get a chance to play in the big leagues. The guys that didn’t get a chance, this is validating for them, saying what you did was valid. It was major league. And that to me is where the focus should be — that they’re being recognized,” Doby said.
The Negro Leagues were formed in the 1920s by Black and Latino baseball players who were barred from playing in Major League Baseball. They have been considered a “major league” by MLB since 2020, and now any statistic accumulated over their seasons will count in MLB record books.
John Thorn, MLB’s official historian, said a 16-member panel reviewed statistics from Negro League teams before they were accepted.
“There are chuckleheads who are driven by racism and will respond negatively, but there are also people with principled objections,” he said. “Your Negro League seasons tended to be longer than the 154 games then played by the American League and National League. But most of their games were against semiprofessional barnstorming outfits because between league dates they had to fill their calendar.”
