Kovacevic: Our city, Josh Gibson now whole with Negro Leagues' elevation ... almost

Ty Cobb ... then Josh Gibson. 

Gibson ... then Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig and Jimmie Foxx.

All Wednesday afternoon, Sean Gibson, great-grandson of the greatest catcher who ever lived, was marveling at the new math. At 11 a.m., with the single, stirring, surprising and yet woefully overdue swipe of the pen, Rob Manfred, commissioner of Major League Baseball, decreed on the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues' inception that they'll now and forever be deemed an official major league:

And just like that, Sean's great-granddad had broken through his own color barrier. Second all-time in batting average to The Georgia Peach, .365 to Cobb's .366. A notch up in slugging percentage over the Bambino, .690 over Ruth's .689. The lists, still segregated, won't be for much longer.

Sean Gibson and I communicate quite a bit. He's a good man who does good work in the community as executive director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, most of it in the Hill District that was home to much of Josh's career. Sean reached out to me after this news broke and, after we shared a few thoughts, I couldn't help but poke as to how he felt about baseball's most hallowed record.

Should Josh, whose home runs totaled anywhere from 800 to 1,000 depending on the legend at hand -- his plaque in Cooperstown reads 'almost 800' -- be considered the new king?

“I’ll leave that to the historians," came Sean's cool reply. "But, based on several of the conversations I’ve had with people who know these things, the number of competitive baseball games they played in the Negro Leagues, he probably isn’t No. 1. However, he’ll be second behind Cobb in batting average, fifth in on-base, top 10 in several other categories. That really shows how complete a player he was.”

No doubt. And the home run view is fair. Teams in the Negro Leagues, always seeking creative ways to pay the bills, would go on year-round barnstorming tours, playing teams of all calibers all over the country, and statistics could be as scant as the competition. Most records for the Negro Leagues peg Gibson with 238 home runs, a far cry from the current record-holder's 762 or Hank Aaron's more legitimate record of 755 or Ruth's 714.

But hey, Gibson didn't cheat. If anything, he was cheated. Everyone in the Negro Leagues was. And if he and the rest had been allowed into MLB, they wouldn't have had to go year-round barnstorming and could've benefited from other perks.

It makes for a good discussion. And a welcome one.

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The discussion should've begun and ended in 1969, when MLB's Special Baseball Records Committee fairly identified and labeled four additional other "major leagues" for historical purposes, dating way back to the 1800s. That included the American Association, the Pittsburgh franchise's original home beginning in 1882.

But nothing for the Negro Leagues. Until now. All seven related leagues, including those that were home to the two iconic local franchises, the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, now have all of their team records, standings and player statistics added into the official MLB register.

"All of us who love baseball have long known that the Negro Leagues produced many of our game's best players, innovations and triumph against a backdrop of injustice," Manfred added to his announcement. "We are now grateful to count the players of the Negro Leagues where they belong: as Major Leaguers within the official historical record."

John Thorn, MLB's official historian, issued his own statement, and clearly from the heart, calling the 1969 omission of the Negro Leagues "clearly an error that demands today's designation." He added, "The perceived deficiencies of the Negro Leagues' structure and schedule were both born of MLB's exclusionary practices, and denying them Major League status has been a double penalty. Granting MLB status to the Negro Leagues a century after their founding is profoundly gratifying."

I don't have much to add that I haven't written in the past. The men and women who made the Negro Leagues what they were from 1920-48 didn't need to be 'elevated,' if I can pick on the one inelegant term used in MLB's statement. The brand of baseball was big-league in every way, evidenced by the 35 Hall of Famers who resulted -- Gibson, Oscar Charleston, 'Cool Papa' Bell, Satchel Paige, Monty Irvin, Willie Mays -- and evidenced by the thousands upon thousands who paid to watch it far and wide.

All that kept them from being 'elevated,' of course, was racism and, within that, the commissioner, Kennesaw Mountain Landis, silently but consistently resisting the inclusion of Blacks until his death in 1944. The year Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Brooklyn, by no coincidence, came soon after in 1947.

This action doesn't right the wrongs of the past. It also doesn't rewrite history. The painful fact that, for decades, we kept players from participating in our national pastime because of the color of their skin will and should linger forever in American sporting and cultural lexicons. 

But it's something.

For those who played, who built the Negro Leagues, who found countless creative ways to keep them afloat -- read up on the Indianapolis Clowns someday -- it's at least a posthumous form of validation, even if its living members wouldn't have sought that.

Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and longtime curator of the cause in general, predictably put it best: "For historical merit, today it is extraordinarily important. Having been around so many of the Negro League players, they never looked to MLB to validate them. But for fans and for historical sake, this is significant. It really is. We're extremely pleased with this announcement. And for us, it does give additional credence to how significant the Negro Leagues were, both on and off the field."

Man, I'm happy for Bob. Longtime readers will recall he gave our site this passionate, Pittsburgh-centric tour of the place before a Pirates-Royals game I was covering in K.C.:

He didn't need to go that extra mile, but he told me he was happy to do so because of our city's unique connection to the Negro Leagues. The more I've learned about Bob -- as we've stayed in touch -- the more I know of his passion. He's the central figure for the community, the compass. He's in touch with the living players. He's known so many of those who passed. He's steeped in the stories of each. He's the one everyone seeks out for interviews and perspectives.

If he says the players and their families are happy, then they're happy. And that's awesome.

I love this, too: The team championships now rate with any that've been won in baseball.

So locally, that means the city of Pittsburgh -- meaning the city proper -- adds two championships, since the Crawfords won Negro National League titles in 1935 and 1936. With nothing remotely resembling an asterisk. The Negro World Series didn't come into play until 1942, so the Crawfords won as far as they could win. And, since their specific league is now a major league, that's like adding another ring for the Pirates, Steelers or Penguins. 

Don't buy it?

GETTY

The 1935 Pittsburgh Crawfords, champions of the Negro National League, at Ammon Field, Hill District.

OK, consider this: The 1935 Crawfords would've pummeled the 1935 Pirates and, I'd bet, anyone in the majors. They had five -- five! -- future Hall of Famers, including Gibson, Charleston and Bell, they went 51-26-3 in the regular season, then outlasted the New York Cubans, 4-3, in the championship series. They're seen by some historians as the most formidable collection of talent in the sport's history.

I brought this up with Sean Gibson, too, as he's always been outspoken about that team.

“It's one of the greatest teams of all-time," he'd say. "Five Hall of Famers at once. I don’t know that there's another team in all of baseball history that can make that claim.”

Stack 'em up. That's 20 team championships in the major sports now for our city:

• Pirates: 7
• Steelers: 6
• Penguins: 5
• Crawfords: 2

(I'm adding the Pirates' two National League championships in 1901 and 1902, since those came just before their owner, Barney Dreyfuss, created the World Series by challenging the American League winners in Boston to a best-of-nine in 1903. Because those Pirates in 1901 and 1902 couldn't win any more than they won, they hold the same spot those Crawfords did in 1935 and 1936. It's always been beyond bizarre to me that the Pirates themselves count five championships when it's obviously seven.)

And if one adds the Grays into this equation -- six Negro National League titles before the Negro World Series was created in 1942, then three of the latter titles -- and it's a bonanza, even if Homestead obviously isn't in Pittsburgh and even if the Grays spent more than a decade in Washington, D.C.

Regardless, it only adds to our city's extraordinary legacy in baseball and sports.

Oh, I'll add this, as well: Manfred taking the action without any significant push -- the decision surprised Sean Gibson and nearly everyone else invested in the Negro Leagues -- is a rare bright spot in an otherwise embarrassing start to his tenure. That's as far as I'll go with that guy.

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This landmark decision is as far as the conversation will go for some, I'm sure. Not for me.

Although painstaking, private research that began in 2006 helped give firm statistical support for Manfred -- meaning newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, anything available -- there's much to do on that front. The extraordinary website Seamheads.com has built a database that's buried once and for all the doubts about the validity of these players and teams, with only legit league competition weighed. What once was myth now is math.

Even so, the Elias Sports Bureau, MLB's official statistical agency, now has to undertake an unprecedented process of integrating team and individual records in a way that's fair for everyone. I can't even imagine the geekery involved in this, but it'll probably be a blast for whoever handles it. No one who's made it this far would want to quit now.

But there's also the not-so-small matter of resonating legacies.

The Pirates could begin that process by restoring or recreating some semblance of the Negro Leagues statues tribute that used to usher people into PNC Park's left-field entrance along General Robinson Street. No one's ever taken the fall for the callous removal of those statues a few years ago, but Frank Coonelly was the team president, so there's no way it came off without his blessing.

Coonelly's gone, which is excellent. So right another wrong. Pittsburgh baseball should be treated with respect at Pittsburgh's baseball stadium. Travis Williams can see to that.

This one's bigger: Sean Gibson's focus these days is on having MLB's MVP awards renamed in Josh Gibson's honor. To that end, he's begun an active, aggressive campaign centered on the website JG20MVP.com. 

The first step was taken care of for him, incidentally, with the Baseball Writers Association of America voting last month to remove Landis' name -- I was among those who voted for removal -- because of his reluctance to allow Black players into the majors. So there's a vacancy, and all concerned, including the BBWAA, have expressed a willingness to be patient with suggestions.

Sean's case, as made on his site: "Josh was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 1972, despite never wearing a Major League uniform. However, renaming the MVP in memory of Josh Gibson is not just about him. It speaks to the redemption of the Negro Leagues and the salvation of its stars who were denied their dream of playing ball at the highest level. All they wanted to do was compete against their peers. For those from 1947 onward, this was their legacy. For those who came before, the Josh Gibson MVP Award would be an act of redemption. And poetic justice."

Good luck arguing against that. And further good luck since Sean plans to seek -- and he'll hopefully receive -- the Pirates' support in pushing with him.

If anything, as Sean pointed out himself, this move by Manfred might facilitate choosing Josh for the MVP awards, or one of the two awards, should separate names be assigned to the National and American League MVP awards for the first time. 

How satisfying would that be? 

“Oh, it would be huge," he replied. "It’s been brought up to me a lot. The No. 1 accomplishment for Josh was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, and naming the MVP award would be No. 2. For our family ... I was only 3 when he was inducted, so this will be the most exciting thing for our family in our lifetimes." 

After a pause, he added, "The MVP isn’t just about Josh Gibson. It’s about the hundreds of players Josh can carry on his shoulders who didn’t have a chance to play in the major leagues because of Kennesaw Mountain Landis. It’s about all those players' families and legacies, as well.”

Sean's got a petition for this. Imagine an MVP award named for a true Pittsburgh treasure.