MLB announces pensions, stats integrations for Negro League players

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MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – Major League Baseball (MLB) officials announced two changes to the recognition received by those who played in the Negro Leagues.

On Wednesday, May 22, MLB announced the expansion of financial programs to support living Negro Leagues players, and on Tuesday, May 28, the organization announced it will integrate Negro League statistics into historical records. For living players, this news is one they have waited decades for.

"For the last 30 years, I have been trying to get benefits for the living players," Dennis Biddle said.

Biddle is one of the youngest people to have played in the Negro Leagues when he pitched for the Chicago American Giants from 1953-54. After his two-year stint in the leagues, he became a social worker in Milwaukee. After retiring, he found his calling: helping his peers get the recognition they deserve.

He currently serves as the president of Yesterday's Negro League Players Foundation. Biddle founded it in 1996 with Sherwood Brewer, an all-star second baseman and teammate of Jackie Robinson in the Negro Leagues.

With the help of his wife Patrice, Biddle has worked tirelessly over the years to get Negro League Players MLB pensions.

"We were writing letters," Patrice Biddle explained. "I would be up typing letters, and they would either send one back or not, and we'd get another one."

In the late 1990s, Negro League players were deemed eligible for pensions if they played for four seasons. Biddle said that requirement disqualified many people, like himself. Now, the MLB will allow those who played in fewer than four seasons to receive the financial benefit.

"I'm grateful that the major league is going to do this. I just wish some of those players were still living so they could be recognized. I know they would be proud," Biddle said.

The integration of Negro League statistics is a move the couple is also excited to see come to fruition.

"I think the stats will give their legacies more validation, more recognition, and more celebration," Patrice Biddle said.

As he approaches his 89th birthday, Biddle said he is ready to publish his second book because it finally has the perfect ending.

"Now that I got the [pension] announcement, I can close out the book. I fought a good fight," he said.

Biddle will be honored by the Milwaukee Brewers for his contribution to Major League Baseball in August. On June 20th, Biddle and 60 other living Negro League players will be honored in Birmingham, Alabama, with a special MLB game.

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