Gibson, Negro League stars to have stats incorporated into MLB's records

Josh Gibson, who spent his entire career playing in the Negro Leagues as a member of both the Pittsburgh Crawfords and Homestead Grays, will join the league's other former players in having their statistics officially incorporated into MLB's record books. The official announcement is scheduled for Wednesday, according to a report from USA Today. 

In adding Negro League statistics from 1920-48, Gibson will now become Major League Baseball's all-time career leader in batting average (.372), slugging percentage (.718) and OPS (1.177). He'll replace Ty Cobb as the all-time leading in career batting average and moves ahead of Babe Ruth in the other two categories. 

Gibson, who was a career .372 hitter with 166 home runs in over 600 career games, also holds single-season marks in all three of those categories, ones that will hold up as records when stacked up against MLB players. Gibson hit .446 in 1943 and, in 1937, he posted a .974 slugging percentage with a 1.474 OPS. 

Considered one of the all-time great catchers -- and now overall players -- in the game, Gibson was the second Negro League player to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.