Stephen A. Smith blasts MLB for waiting to honor Negro Leaguers

Finally, after many years, Major League Baseball will honor the records of those who played in the Negro Leagues.

Many famous Negro Leaguers such as Josh Gibson, records will now be honored by MLB.

On “First Take” Stephen A. Smith called out Major League Baseball how long it took for MLB to bestow these honors.

“I’m tired of things transpiring posthumously,” he stated. “It would have been nice if Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige and other Negro Leaguers were alive and recognized while they were performing.”

He also pointed out one of the reasons people pause when it comes to MLB records because they didn’t include Negro League stats.

Stephen A believes this only took place after the murder of George Floyd.

“It took the murder of someone in 2020 to provoke this? That’s how I look at this,” he said.

He also wondered why weren’t Negro League players acknowledged until now. He thinks certain people wanted their contributions to be ignored and erased from the record books in order to just honor white players like Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. Gibson now owns some of those records held by both.

“You never wanted them recognized, you wanted history eviscerated, you wanted history erased, you wanted it to be ignored you wanted them to be perceived as being greater than some of the Negro Leaguers that were clearly better,” Smith said.

Smith acknowledged and praised MLB for finally doing the right thing, he just wondered why it took so long.

{First Take}