Since 1911, when Ty Cobb hit .419 for the Detroit Tigers to lift his career batting average to .359 and replace Nap Lajoie as Major League Baseball’s leader, the Georgia Peach had held that record, retiring in 1928 with an all-time .367 mark.

But on Wednesday, Cobb moved to No. 2 in career batting average in Major League Baseball history, supplanted at the top by Josh Gibson’s .372 lifetime mark, even though Gibson hasn’t played since 1946.

On Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced the inclusion of statistics from selected Negro Leagues seasons into its official record book, and Gibson became the single-season and career leader in batting average, slugging percentage and OPS.

A member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame since 1972, Gibson had a legendary career. Now he has the statistical clout to back it up. In addition to the MLB record for career batting average, Gibson also is the record-holder for:

· Single-season batting average: Gibson batted .466 for the Homestead Grays in the Negro National League in 1943 to replace the mark of .440 by Hugh Duffy for Boston in the National League in 1894.

· Single-season slugging percentage: Gibson had a .974 slugging percentage for the Homestead Grays in the Negro National League in 1937 to replace the mark of .863 by Barry Bonds for the San Francisco Giants in the National League in 2001.

· Single-season OPS: Gibson had a 1.474 OPS (.500 on-base batting average plus .974 slugging percentage) for the Homestead Grays of the Negro National League in 1937 to replace the mark of 1.421 by Barry Bonds (.609 on-base average plus .812 slugging percentage) for the San Francisco Giants in 2004.

· Career slugging percentage: Gibson had a .718 slugging percentage from 1930 through 1946 to replace the mark of .690 by Babe Ruth from 1914 through 1935.

· Career OPS: Gibson had a 1.177 OPS (.459 on-base average plus .718 slugging percentage) from 1930 through 1946 to replace the mark of 1.164 (.474 on-base average plus .690 slugging percentage) by Babe Ruth from 1914 through 1935.

In December 2020, Major League Baseball recognized a selection of seasons from the Black leagues that existed during the game’s segregated era as big-league in quality.

The 2020 announcement recognized 48 seasons from seven Black leagues from the days of segregated baseball as having Major League status – the Negro National League of 1920 through 1931, Eastern Colored League of 1923 through 1928, American Negro League of 1929, East-West League of 1932, Negro Southern League of 1932, Negro National League of 1933 through 1948 and Negro American League of 1937 through 1948.

After almost three-and-half years of research, review and verification, the statistics from those seasons were folded into the Major League record book on Wednesday, although research to date presents about a 75 percent complete statistical picture of the leagues.

Because Negro League seasons were shorter and less standardized than the parallel seasons of the American and National leagues, the impact on the record book of the new numbers lie in the rate statistics, such as batting average, and not in season or career totals.

While Gibson’s Baseball Hall of Fame plaque says he hit “almost 800 home runs,” his official record puts his total at 174. That’s because the official numbers include only home runs hit in league games, and Gibson has 653 league games on his record.

In determining how to include the new numbers in the MLB baseball register, the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee had to determine qualifying minimums for rate statistics.

The minimum standard for single-season leaders has been 3.1 plate appearances or one inning pitched per scheduled game. This was applied to the new Negro Leagues numbers with one addition: The minimums were applied to the average number of games played by each league team.

For career rate marks, the current standard was 5,000 plate appearances and 2,000 innings pitched, meant to approximate 10 full qualifying seasons (although it’s a little short of that on plate appearances and a little more than that on innings pitched). Because the Negro Leagues seasons being used usually ran from 60 to 80 league games, the minimum for the new numbers was set at 1,800 plate-appearances and 600 innings – again about 10 60-game seasons.

Major League Baseball will continue its recognition of this era of the sport’s history with “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues.” The event will feature the St. Louis Cardinals and San Franciso Giants in a National League game on June 20 at the historic Birmingham ballpark.

Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.