(Still from that auction.)
I guess Baseball-Reference ceases to count the Negro Leagues as major leagues after 1948, presumably due to lowering of the talent level on account of increasing integration.
I am surprised that they don't therefore count the 1950 Negro Leagues as minor leagues, however. Seems inconsistent, IMO.
So we don't have any stats readily available on how Frank Barnes (pictured here) performed as a Kansas City Monarch in 1950, before he was sold to the Yankees, thus becoming the first black player in the history of the Yankee organization. Nor do we know how Barnes fared from 1953-1955 when he was (presumably) back in the Negro Leagues, before eventually making it to the bigs with the Cardinals.
We have a posed shot of Barnes back in the thread, but this is IMO an improvement. De-browned and sharpened, of course.