Josh Gibson has made history in Major League Baseball by becoming the career leader with a .372 batting average, surpassing Ty Cobb's .367, after a three-year research project incorporated Negro Leagues records for over 2,300 players. Gibson's .466 average for the 1943 Homestead Grays now stands as the season standard, followed by Charlie 'Chino' Smith's .451 for the 1929 New York Lincoln Giants, overtaking Hugh Duffy's .440 for the National League's Boston team in 1894.
Gibson also claimed the career lead in slugging percentage (.718) and OPS (1.177), moving ahead of Babe Ruth (.690 and 1.164). This initiative aims to ensure that future generations have access to the statistics and milestones of all those who contributed to the Negro Leagues.
