Major League Baseball will officially be including statistics for the Negro Leagues in its record books on Wednesday, USA Today has reported.

While the segregated leagues produced some of the best baseball players in the sports history, thousands of players who played in iterations of the Negro Leagues from 1920 to 1948 have been omitted from professional rankings until now.

MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred celebrated the news in a statement on Tuesday.

This initiative is focused on ensuring that future generations of fans have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who made the Negro Leagues possible, he said, per Yahoo Sports . Their accomplishments on the field will be a gateway to broader learning about this triumph in American history and the path that led to Jackie Robinsons 1947 Dodger debut.

The change means that catcher Josh Gibson will now be considered one of the best hitters of all time, recording a single-season batting average of .466 in 1943.