Disagree with MLB including Negro Leagues stats as MLB

Yes, I know Baseball Reference was doing it two full years ago, and I know that MLB players of today are celebrating Rob Manfred's action to make it official. That still doesn't make it right or smart. Or accurate. Or anything more than cheap marketing.

I mean, this IS the guy who gave us "ghost runners" at second base for regular season extra inning games, and before that had his famous "hunk of metal" comment. (The MLB World Series trophy, in reality, IS BETTER LOOKING than either the Lombardi or O'Brien trophies. The Stanley Cup is sui generis.) The pitch clock? MLB always had one for bases empty; nobody enforced it for decades.

One commenter on Reddit's r/MLB last week (not the post below, but that gets into it more) summed it up for me and, I think, many others.

First, the stats are bigly incomplete. (B-Ref admitted that 2 years ago, but did it anyway.)

Second, it's a whitewashing of baseball history.

On the first, B-Ref should have continued to list Negro League stats as they were, with WAR comparisons and other sabermetrics within the Negro Leagues. That's part of the problem with B-Ref. It claims the Negro League stats are "major league," but any sabermetrics it does have, AFAIK, are purely intra-Negro Leagues.

Related? As MLB admitted, park dimensions varied widely in the Negro Leagues, even versus MLB oddities of that era like Ebbets Field and the Polo Grounds.

The COVID-shortened season was still played in regular MLB ballparks, and should not have been an influence in the decision.

As for B-Ref? It could, at a minimum, do like its Basketball Reference cousin does with NBA and ABA stats, on career and season totals, give me three columns: MLB-only, Negro Leagues-only, and combined. But it won't.

Beyond the whitewashing, it comes off as another marketing stunt from Mr. Hunk of Metal. And, I don't care if even the often illuminating John Thorn backs this. It's wrong. And, it doesn't undo past wrong.

Plus, it assumes that all Negro Leaguers were MLB caliber.

They weren't.

So, I agree with a number of Reddit commenters in this r/mlb thread. It IS apples to oranges, especially on sabermetrics. And, yes, it does seem like a cheap marketing play by Commissioner Hunk of Metal. And, another reason to continue to have less and less interest in the history of baseball. So, no to both Major League Baseball and to Baseball Reference: Josh Gibson ain't the all-time batting leader.

Now, why B-Ref went down this road, other than MLB first discussing this idea after the COVID season, I don't know. It didn't have to. It's not owned by MLB. But, it did.