As of Tuesday, Willie Mays had 3,283 Major League hits. But on Wednesday, his total now stands at 3,293.

Did he have a really good showing at the plate in a doubleheader last night? No, Willie Mays is 93 years old.

But on Wednesday, Major League Baseball announced it had approved the inclusion of the statistics from the Negro Leagues deemed as big-league in quality during the sport’s segregated era in the official MLB record book.

Mays is among the Negro Leagues players with Alabama baseball roots who have had their exploits on the diamond receive official status more than 70 years after they occurred.

For Mays, the changes to his record are extremely minor, since most of his stats already were in the official MLB record book through his 23 seasons in the National League. The 10 extra hits came from Birmingham Black Barons games in the Negro American League in 1948.

But for Black baseball stars from Alabama such as Mobile’s Satchel Paige and Edgewater’s Mule Suttles, the inclusion of Negro Leagues data means they stand among the greats of the game not just in the National Baseball Hall of Fame but the record book as well.

Before Wednesday, the MLB single-season record for slugging percentage was held by San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds at .863 in 2001. It now belongs to Homestead Grays catcher Josh Gibson at .974 in 1937, with Suttles second at .877 for the 1926 St. Louis Stars.

The career slugging percentage list now shows Suttles at No. 5 in Major League history at .621, trailing Gibson, Babe Ruth, Ted Williams and Lou Gehrig.

In 1944, Paige had a 1.01 earned-run average for the Kansas City Monarchs of the Negro American League. That is now the third-lowest single-season ERA in Major League history, behind Tim Keefe’s 0.86 for the Troy Trojans in 1880 and Dutch Leonard’s 0.96 for the Boston Red Sox in 1914.

“We are proud that the official historical record now includes the players of the Negro Leagues,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a press release. “This initiative is focused on ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible. Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinson’s 1947 Dodger debut.”

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.

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 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.

They joined the American Association of 1882 through 1891, Union Association of 1884, Players’ League of 1890 and Federal League of 1914 and 1915 as baseball circuits from the game’s past that are considered to have played Major League Baseball, which currently includes the American and National leagues.

Baseballreference.com includes 138 Alabama-born players who appeared in league games in the now-major Negro Leagues. Only six of those players went on to play in the American or National leagues after the integration of Major League Baseball, with Empire’s Dan Bankhead, Haleburg’s Monte Irvin, Talladega’s Dave Pope and Jefferson County’s Artie Wilson joining Mays and Paige.

The Negro Leagues numbers had their greatest impact on the MLB record book in the rate statistics, such batting average, on-base average, slugging percentage and earned-run average, and not single-season and career totals because of the shorter championship schedules played by the Negro Leagues teams. Only numbers compiled in league games were considered for the official record.

Paige’s 1944 season illustrates an issue the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee had to decide when folding the Negro Leagues stats into the MLB record book. Paige pitched 98.1 innings in league play in 1944. That would not qualify him for the record book today in the American or National leagues.

For single-season consideration, the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee decided, the minimum qualifying standard for a batter would be an average of 3.1 plate appearances per the average number of league games played by each team in the league (to account for the uneven schedules often found in the Negro Leagues). For a pitcher, it’s one inning per the average number of league games played by each team in the league. (This is an adaption of the current rules that call for those standards across a 162-game season in the American or National Leagues.)

Keefe pitched 105 innings in his record season, when Troy played in 83 National League games. The Monarchs played in 87 Negro American League games in 1944.

The delay between league recognition and statistical inclusion could be attributed to the incomplete or unverified nature of the Negro Leagues numbers at the time. Over the decades, organizations such as Seamheads, the Society for American Baseball Research and Retrosheet have filled in the blanks through research, although the Negro Leagues Statistical Review Committee had the task of determining how and what should be folded into the official MLB statistical database maintained by Elias Sports Bureau.

Researchers acknowledged the work on the Negro League stats is about 75 percent complete. As research continues, additional modifications will be made to MLB’s official register.

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