January 13, 2026

Dear Shadow Ball: I have a question about Negro League stats being entered into the Major League Baseball record book. It is my understanding that in 1969 four pro leagues’ records, in addition to the American and National Leagues, were entered into the record book. Were the Negro Leagues considered at that time by the committee and rejected, or were they completely ignored or overlooked (and we had to wait 50+ years for it to finally happen)?
— Chris Hansen, Ogden, Utah

 … this column exists for only one purpose and that is to answer your questions on Negro League baseball history. To that end, I need your help … if you are reading this column and enjoy it and want it to continue and you don’t already know everything about Negro League history … then please submit a question on any aspect of Negro League history. Your questions are the lifeblood of Shadow Ball—they shape where we go next.

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Dear Chris: I happen to know the answer to that question very well. On July 1, 2017, at the 47th annual convention of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) in New York City, I had the opportunity to pose that very question to two men who knew the subject as well as anyone alive: John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s Official Historian, and David Neft, the driving force behind the 1969 Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia. Neft was in the room in 1969 when MLB’s Special Baseball Records Committee (SBRC) designated six professional leagues — the National League, American League, Players League, Federal League, American Association, and Union Association — as “major.”

Both Thorn and Neft welcomed questions from the audience, and asking mine was one of the principal reasons I attended SABR 47. When my turn came, I asked: “Did the Special Baseball Records Committee consider, at all, the Negro Leagues to be a Major League?” Thorn answered immediately — exactly as I expected — with a single word: “No.” Both men then expanded on the criteria the SBRC used in 1969, and why the Negro Leagues were not even discussed. (If interested the Q & A occurs at the 47:32 point in this mp3 SABR47-David_Neft-John_Thorn-Baseball_Records_Cmte.mp3 | Powered by Box and lasts about three minutes. If you have time the hour-long conversation between Thorn & Neft is well worth the listen) Years later, Neft told The Ringer: “The one thing that I am absolutely certain about is that there never was any SBRC discussion about treating the Negro Leagues as major leagues.” Major League Baseball itself confirmed this in its December 16, 2020 press release announcing the elevation of seven Negro Leagues to Major League status: “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.”

In short: The Negro Leagues were not rejected in 1969 — they were ignored. This was before Robert Peterson’s seminal Only the Ball Was White (1970), before SABR’s Negro Leagues Committee (1971), and before the sustained scholarly work that finally brought the Negro Leagues into proper historical focus. On December 16, 2020, MLB corrected that omission by recognizing seven Negro Leagues as Major: Negro National League I, Eastern Colored League, American Negro League, East West League, Negro Southern League, Negro National League II, and the Negro American League.

Last week’s Shadow Ball Significa question Who was the last surviving Atlanta Black Crackers player?
Answer: Dr. Leslie Heaphy of Canton, OH, nailed it — Red Moore. Moore also led the franchise in career batting average, walks, and sacrifice flies. Born and died in Atlanta.

The Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week: Which Negro League team introduced night baseball five years before Major League Baseball adopted it?

Ted Knorr is a Negro League baseball historian, longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Negro League Committee, and founder of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference and several local Negro League Commemorative Nights in central Pennsylvania. You can send questions for Knorr on Negro League topics as well as your answers to the week’s Significa question to  shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com or Shadow Ball, 3904 N Druid Hills Rd, Ste 179, Decatur, GA 30033

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