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Somewhere, iconic journalist Sam Lacy, who died in 2003 at 99, is watching his life’s work come to fruition as the Negro League baseball stars he wrote about are finally getting their day in

the sun. In 2020, Major League Baseball formally recognized several Negro Leagues, which existed between 1920 and 1948, as major leagues. Based on the independent Negro Leagues Statistical

Review Committee’s recommendations, MLB took the final step on May 29 and added the Negro Leagues’ statistics to the official historical database. It is a victory for Black ballplayers whose

excellence has historically been overlooked and intentionally ignored. It is a victory for the fans who watched those games and rooted for their heroes on warm summer days when baseball

offered a respite from Jim Crow and separate but unequal. And it is a victory for Lacy, the driving force behind efforts to tear down segregation in baseball. I had the honor of working with

him during my tenure as editor of the _Baltimore Afro-American_ newspaper. For years, Lacy attempted to get MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis to reverse the ban that prevented Black

players from participating in the MLB. Landis ignored him. When Lacy became sports editor of the _Afro_, he continued his fight against segregation. Other Black papers followed his lead.

After Landis died in 1944, Lacy reached out to Brooklyn Dodgers team president and general manager Branch Rickey. It was Rickey who signed Jackie Robinson to the Brooklyn Dodgers

organization in 1945; Robinson joined the Dodgers in 1947. The new baseball database includes the Negro Leagues clubs’ won-lost records and their players’ statistics. The stats are drawn

from seven leagues: the first Negro National League (1920–1931), the Eastern Colored League (1923–1928), the American Negro League (1929), the East-West League (1932), the Negro Southern

League (1932), the second Negro National League (1933–1948) and the Negro American League (1937–1948). To pay tribute to the Negro Leagues, MLB has scheduled a regular season game between

the St. Louis Cardinals and the San Francisco Giants on June 20 at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama. The stadium was once the home of the Birmingham Black Barons, who counted outfielder

Willie Mays among its stars. Mays, who died June 18 at 93, played 22 years in MLB, and recorded 3,283 hits in those 23 seasons. His 10 Negro League hits increase that total to 3,293, the

12th best in history. And Robinson’s career hits total rose from 1,518 to 1,567. Other notable Negro League players who also played in MLB will see a boost in their stats. ORESTES “MINNIE”

MIÑOSO Cuban star Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso’s total hits record climbs to more than 2,000, placing him among the elite in the sport. Miñoso is regarded as the Jackie Robinson of Latino

players, according to Puerto Rican–born Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda, who praised Miñoso in his 1998 autobiography. Ninety-seven Negro League wins were added to Satchel Paige’s​ MLB record.

In 1942, Paige, playing for the Kansas City Monarchs, warmed up at Yankee Stadium before a Negro League game. Matty Zimmerman/AP Photo SATCHEL PAIGE Pitcher Satchel Paige’s record adds 97

Negro League wins to the 28 he earned in MLB with Cleveland, bringing his total to 125. “There is no question that Satchel Paige was the greatest pitcher ever. If someone would say, ‘Name

one fact that is beyond dispute,’ this would be it,” says George Walker, 88, a Hugoton, Kansas, native, who as a youngster saw the Kansas City Monarchs play. He just missed seeing Paige, as

he had left for Cleveland. “We all knew who Paige was. Even the great pitcher Bob Feller would have said as much.”