Major League Baseball's record books twisted and turned on Tuesday evening, the result of MLB's move to officially incorporate Negro Leagues' statistics into the big league database.
Josh Gibson leapt up the all-time charts, surpassing Barry Bonds, Babe Ruth, and countless other adversaries to take his place as baseball's greatest-ever hitter in terms batting average, slugging, and OPS. He wasn't the only one to cement his place in the margins of baseball's library, though. A whole host of hitters and pitchers rose up the rankings, including Oscar Charleston, Buck Leonard, and Satchel Paige.
Given the mystique of baseball's stats, plenty are wondering if some of the game's most-revered benchmarks, including MLB's home-run record, would be affected. At present, Bonds — one of the sport's most polarizing figures — sits alone at the mountaintop with 762 HRs. Could another competitor — former home run king Hank Aaron — take the throne again?
Aaron enjoyed a brief but fruitful spell with the Indianapolis Clowns, one of the Negro Leagues' best and brightest sides, but did he do enough to supplant Bonds atop the home run tower?
Here's a look back at Aaron's three-month run in the Negro Leagues, one that could bring him even closer to Bond's record mark.
MORE: Why MLB is incorporating Josh Gibson, other Negro Leagues' stars' stats into official records
Hank Aaron Negro Leagues stats
According to Wikipedia, the Howe Sports Bureau credits Aaron, who signed with the Clowns in 1951 and spent part of the 1952 season with the Negro Leagues powerhouse, with a .366 batting average, five home runs, 33 RBI, 41 hits, and nine stolen bases in 26 official games.
However, Howe Sports Bureau is not one of the three researchers tasked by MLB with uncovering Negro Leagues statistics. Seamheads, RetroSheet, and the Elias Sports Bureau have not verified Howe Sports Bureau's claim. As such, the numbers are not deemed official by MLB.
It's hard to gauge quite how successful Aaron was at Negro Leagues level. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum claimed that Aaron hit .467 in the Negro American League in 1952.
MORE: Josh Gibson's Negro Leagues stats
Once more, though, MLB has not verified such a total. As far as the Major Leagues is concerned, Aaron's professional career began with the Eau Claire Bears, the Braves' former Northern League Class-C farm team, and his MLB career began in 1954 when he was called up to the Milwaukee Braves in the major leagues. He retired in 1976 with a then-record 755 home runs and still-record 2,297 RBIs, as well as 3,771 hits and a career .305/.374/.555 slash line.
That's not to say that Aaron's numbers can't receive a boost. MLB's official historian John Thorn estimates that about 75 percent of Negro Leagues games were documented, per the New York Times. That means there's a treasure trove of additional box scores to parse through. Perhaps Aaron could near Bonds' record if there were some verified accounts of his performances uncovered in the coming few years.
At present, though, Bonds remains the big-league's all-time leading home run hitter, and even if the Howe numbers are added to Aaron's final tally, he would still be two home runs short of Bonds' record. However, Aaron's all-time MLB records of 2,297 RBIs and 6,856 total bases would receive boosts, making those numbers even more unlikely to be surpassed in the future.
