Topic summary
NA as a major league
Extracted from the Wikipedia article National Association of Professional Base Ball Players.
Major league status question
Whether to cover the NA as a major league is a recurring matter of difference in historical work on American baseball among historians, encyclopedists, database builders, and others. Major League Baseball does not recognize it as a major league, but the NA comprised most of the professional clubs and the highest caliber of play then in existence. Its players, managers, and umpires are included among the "major leaguers" who define the scope within baseball references such as Retrosheet.