Negro Leagues reclassified as major league
Willie Mays will add some hits to his record, Monte Irvin’s big league batting average should climb over .300 and Satchel Paige may add nearly 150 victories to his total.
Josh Gibson, the greatest of all Negro League sluggers, might just wind up with a major league record, too.
The statistics and records of greats like Gibson, Paige and roughly 3,400 other players are set to join Major League Baseball’s books after MLB announced Wednesday it is reclassifying the Negro Leagues as a major league.
MLB said Wednesday it was “correcting a longtime oversight in the game’s history” by elevating the Negro Leagues on the centennial of its founding. The Negro Leagues consisted of seven leagues, and MLB will include records from those circuits between 1920- 48. The Negro Leagues began to dissolve one year after Jackie Robinson became MLB’s first Black player with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
Those leagues were excluded in 1969 when the Special Committee on Baseball Records identified six official “major leagues” dating to 1876.
“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,” the league said in a statement.
The league will work with the Elias Sports Bureau to review Negro Leagues statistics and records and figure out how to incorporate them into MLB’s history. There was no standard method of record keeping for the Negro Leagues, but there are enough box scores to stitch together some of its statistical past.
For instance, Mays could be credited with 17 hits from his 1948 season with the Alabama Black Barons. Irvin, a teammate of Mays’ with the New York Giants, could see his career average climb from .293 to .304 if numbers listed at Baseball-Reference from his nine Negro League seasons are accurate. And Paige, who currently is credited with 28 major league wins, should add at least 146 to his total.
College football
RECRUITING >> As Alabama, Ohio State, Clemson, Oregon, Notre Dame, Oklahoma and Florida prepared to play for conference championships,
they signed top-10 recruiting classes for 2021 they hope to fuel their next title contenders.
The most unusual college football season in memory brought the convergence Wednesday of the start of the early signing period with the end of the regular season, which includes 10 conference championship games this weekend.
“I could be here all day talking about how different this is,” Ohio State coach Ryan Day said on the Big Ten Network.
The pandemic has altered much about the college football season and recruiting this year, but somethings never change. Alabama is on the way to having the highest-rated class in the country. The Buckeyes are not far behind. And it starts at the top.
According to 247 Sports’ composite player rankings, there are 34 fivestars recruits in the class of 2021.
As of late Wednesday afternoon, Alabama had signed five of them and was expected to land at least one more. Ohio State landed five fivestars, including defensive end Jack Sawyer from nearby Pickerington North High School.
Georgia, which has been pushing Alabama in the Southeastern Conference but not yet been able to get over the hump, has four five-stars in the fold.
USC RB’S STATUS >> Leading rusher Vavae Malepeai is unlikely to play for No. 13 Southern California in the Pac12 championship game against Oregon on Friday night.
USC coach Clay Helton said Wednesday that Malepeai sprained a ligament in his knee during the unbeaten Trojans’ 43-38 victory over UCLA last weekend.
AZUSA PACIFIC DROPPING FOOTBALL >> Azusa Pacific is ending its football program this month after 55 years of Division II and NAIA competition.
Athletic director Gary Pine said the decision was prompted by other fouryear schools in California dropping the sport over the last 30 years, giving Azusa Pacific fewer in-state opponents to play, which led to higher travel costs.
In 2019, the Cougars had to fly to all six of their road games, making them the only Division II or III school in the country forced to do that.
College basketball
FLORIDA STAR MAKES PROGRESS >> Florida forward Keyontae Johnson’s prognosis is “trending in the right direction, but we still have a lot of questions,” the school’s athletic director said Wednesday.
Scott Stricklin told WRUF radio that Johnson continues to make progress after collapsing on the court during a game at Florida State. Stricklin visited Johnson at UF Health on Tuesday afternoon.
“He was actually awake. He was actually sitting up in a chair,” Stricklin said. “You could tell he’s still been sedated, so he was still a little groggy. But he thanked me for coming by. It was good to see him and sitting up. He had family in there, his parents and others.”
Stricklin said he has received even better news since regarding Johnson’s recovery.
“I’m told he’s even progressed a lot since then, that he’s having good conversations with his doctors, with his coaches,” Stricklin said. “He’s smiling and laughing, still undergoing more tests. I think the tests that have gotten back so far have been positive from a medical standpoint.”
Tennis
AUSTRALIAN OPEN DELAYED >> The Australian Open is set to begin Feb. 8, three weeks later than planned, as part of a pandemic-altered 2021 tennis calendar released by the men’s professional tour Wednesday.
The ATP said that men’s qualifying for the season’s first Grand Slam tournament is being moved to Doha, Qatar, from Jan. 10-13.
That will be followed by a period of about 2 1/2 weeks set aside for travel to Melbourne and a 14-day quarantine period for players and their coaches or other support staff. A 12-team ATP Cup, the relocated Adelaide International and an additional men’s tournament will be held in Melbourne to give players a chance to prepare for the hard-court Australian Open.