Baseball updates its history; following football and basketball wouldn't be the worst thing

The first trading cards of Herschel Walker, Julius Erving and Joe Namath were created during their seasons in the United States Football League, the American Basketball Association and the American Football League, respectively. (Mark Podolski — The News-Herald)

For many, accepting change can be difficult.

In some cases everyone is happy.

Right or wrong is in the eye of the beholder.

Major League Baseball's May 28 announcement that it would recognize statistics from seven different Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 significantly changed the record books.

For example, and this is a big example, Josh Gibson's career batting average of .372 now ranks first all-time, ahead of Ty Cobb's .367 mark from the early 1900s.

Another great stat is Babe Ruth's career slugging percentage of .690, which is now surpassed by Gibson's .718.

There are others, but the point is that talent is talent and reportedly there was a lot of it in the Negro League.

Eight members of the Hall of Fame – most notably Jackie Robinson, Willie Mays, Satchel Paige, Roy Campanella and Larry Doby – began their careers in the Negro Leagues.

During the time of racial segregation in America, the Negro Leagues were the only option for black baseball players.

Is MLB's decision the right one? It's admirable, but it raises another issue. What about the Japanese league's statistics?

Ichiro Suzuki played 19 seasons in the major leagues and had 3,089 hits. During his career in Japan, he had 1,278 more base hits. In total, that's 4,367 hits – better than Pete Rose's record of 4,256.

For the purposes of this argument, let us focus on the American sports leagues.

MLB's decision to include players from the Negro Leagues in its record books obviously raises questions that are impossible to answer, but are well worth thinking about.

How Gibson – who played in the 1930s and 1940s – would have fared against players like Cleveland star Bob Feller is a big question.

In other cases of other sports – namely basketball and football – we have these responses from players in now-defunct leagues such as the American Football League, the United States Football League and the American Basketball Association.

We know that Joe Namath was an all-time football star in the NFL. We know that Julius Erving was an all-time basketball star in the NBA. Neither of them started their careers in the NFL or NBA. So why not refer to the all-time records in each sport as “pro football records” and “pro basketball records”?

Of course, some will argue that the AFL, USFL and ABA pale in comparison to their big brothers, the NFL and NBA, as some also claim.

How the AFL, ABA and USFL were run and financed has been well documented over the years.

The AFL existed from 1960 to 1970. The ABA existed for a decade, from 1967 to 1976. The USFL existed for a much shorter period, from 1983 to 1985.

The AFL and ABA essentially merged with the NFL and NBA. Many believe the USFL would have merged with the NFL, but financial problems during the league's life and a high-profile court case in which the USFL sued the NFL – arguing that the NFL had a monopoly on the sport of professional football – led to the demise of the fledgling league.

That being said, the biggest factor the AFL, ABA and USFL had on their side was the level of talent. At the top, it was top notch.

Namath began his career in 1965 as quarterback for the Jets when the New York team played in the AFL until 1969. In the last year before the NFL-AFL merger, Namath's Jets pulled off arguably the biggest upset in sports when they shocked the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.

Erving began his career in the ABA and, like Namath, played five years in the league before what was essentially an NBA-ABA merger that brought the Nets, Nuggets, Pacers and Spurs into the NBA.

Erving was an instant sensation in the NBA with the 76ers. He led Philadelphia to four NBA finals and won the title in 1983. In 1980/81, Erving was voted the NBA's most valuable player.

His 18,364 NBA points are not in the top 50 of all time. With his ABA points, Erving jumps to 30,026 points, putting him in 8th place all time behind Wilt Chamberlain. That sounds pretty good for a player with the status of “Dr. J.”

There are others from the ABA. Hall of Famers Rick Barry, George Gervin and Moses Malone started in the ABA. Malone was an NBA MVP. Barry was the Finals MVP in 1976 and Gervin won four scoring titles in five seasons, including three in a row.

It was impressive how much talent the USFL was able to attract in just three seasons.

The league convinced three consecutive Heisman Trophy winners to leave the NFL. These included Georgia running back Herschel Walker (1982 winner), Nebraska running back Mike Rozier (1983), and Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie (1984).

There were also four Hall of Famers who played in the USFL – quarterbacks Jim Kelly and Steve Young, defensive end Reggie White and offensive lineman Gary Zimmerman.

For the Browns, the split from the USFL was a huge boost and undoubtedly helped the team reach three AFC championship games in four seasons in the late 1980s.

Cleveland signed players such as former USFL linebacker Mike Johnson, running back Kevin Mack, offensive lineman Dan Fike, cornerback Frank Minnifield, kick returner Gerald “The Ice Cube” McNeil and others.

As far as the pro football record books go, a major single-season mark by a USFL player would rank first if it were ever truly recognized as a “pro football record.” But it is not.

In 1983, Rams rookie running back and future Hall of Famer Eric Dickerson ran for a season-record 2,105 yards.

In 1985, Walker played his final season with the New Jersey Generals before joining the Dallas Cowboys, rushing for 2,411 yards on 438 yards. Critics will say that the USFL's talent – when spread across the league – was below that of the NFL, and that Walker's total came in 18 games compared to Dickerson's 16 games in 1983.

It wouldn't be the first hallowed record to be broken amid controversy. Roger Maris held the single-season home run record (61) – now broken – for decades, but accomplished it in 1961 in eight more games than Babe Ruth's previous record of 60, set in 1927.

No one should claim that players like Namath, Erving, Malone, Gervin, Barry, Walker, Kelly, Young and others who played in the opposition leagues of the NFL and NBA were not good enough.

Yes, everyone had the choice to play in different leagues. Unfortunately, black baseball players did not have that choice during segregation.

The NFL and NBA would not have merged with the AFL and ABA if there had not been enough talent. When the USFL folded, a huge surplus of talent helped many NFL teams, including the Browns.

The history of professional football cannot be told without mentioning the AFL and the USFL. The same goes for professional basketball and the ABA.

Combining the player statistics from these leagues tells the whole story.