Outside The Confines: Negro Leagues stats are now on Baseball Reference!

Earlier this year a major announcement was made that baseball’s Negro Leagues would officially (finally) be recognized as major leagues. One of the major things that had long been a gap in assessing the true talent of Negro Leagues player had been a lot of missing information in terms of statistics.

Now, that gap has been vastly improved, as Baseball Reference has updated their database to include substantially more information on Negro Leagues players.

Here is some of the major coverage of this new update that will surely delight historical stats nerds everywhere.

• Baseball Reference has updated their stat information on major Negro Leagues players to now give a better all-around picture of these baseball legends. This is their official statement on the update.
• James Wagner looks at how this newly updated information literally re-writes baseball record books to give these men their due.
• Jay Jaffe looks at the update over at FanGraphs.
• Over at SI, Michael Shapiro reports on the update.

Now onto the other links!

• Alex Kirshner gets petty with baseball’s most disrespectful home runs.
• SABR brings us the 50 biggest off-field moments in baseball history.
• Eno Sarris and Brittany Ghiroli look at how we’re already beginning to see the effects of MLB’s crackdown on sticky substances. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Buster Olney suggests that Rob Manfred must crack down seriously on substance use now.
• Ken Rosenthal thinks we’re just on the cusp of learning the truth and scope of the sticky substance story. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• John Eric Goff has a more scientific look at the physics of this scandal.
• Anthony Castrovince writes about the new MLB guidance to deter substance use.
• Could we see a little history this year? Dan Szymborski thinks Vald Jr. has a shot at the Triple Crown.
• A little louder for the people in the back.

• Devan Fink would like to suggest that batters simply stop swinging against Jacob deGrom.
• What have been the worst bunts of the season (aside from all of them)? Ben Clemens has an answer.
• Stephanie Apstein looks at how the Mets are triumphing, in spite of still being viewed as a disaster franchise.
• Talk about unlikely stories, Bartolo Colon has thrown a complete game at age 48. Ben Pickman has the story.
• Stephen J. Nesbitt looks at the age-old rivalry between Gerrit Cole and Trevor Bauer that began at UCLA. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Fernando Tatis Jr is the first to 20 home runs, shares AJ Cassavell.
• Michael Clair has a fun weird story about how a $7,000 laptop ended up on a 90s baseball card.
• Looking for a summer baseball read? John Wertheim has an excerpt from the book Glory Days: The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever. (The Athletic subscription required.)
• Oh man, this is a brutal statement.

And tomorrow will be a better day than today, Buster. Make it so.