TAMPA, Fla. — The patriarch rarely spoke of his previous life. Henry Kimbro, a workaholic dad of three who ran a gas station and cab company in his native Nashville, Tenn., had no time for chit-chat or reminiscing.

Even his own kids, throughout prepubesence, were unaware they lived with one of the most feared leadoff hitters in the rich history of the Negro Leagues.

“I didn’t find out until I was in high school, and he wouldn’t tell me,” said Dr. Harriet Kimbro-Hamilton, the second-oldest of three children born to Kimbro and his Cuban wife, Erbia.

“I was at his gas station that he had ... and a lot of the older ballplayers, all of his old cronies that he played with, they would come by. So one of them named Butch McCord came up to me and said, ‘Did you know your dad was a hell of a ball player?’ I was like, ‘Who are you talking about?’ He said, ‘Your dad.’ ”

In a sense, Kimbro’s lack of pretension reflected the league in which he flourished for a dozen years — understated and woefully under-represented.

Until now.

In May, Major League Baseball announced that Negro Leagues stats — specifically from seven different Negro Leagues from 1920-1948 — officially have been added to its historical record. As a result, Josh Gibson, arguably the best-known Negro League player, is the all-time major league batting champion (.372) and career leader in slugging percentage (.718).

And Henry Kimbro? A quarter-century after his death, he is recognized as the MLB batting champion for 1947, when he hit .385 for the Baltimore Elite Giants. A dude named Ted Williams is fifth (.343).

“It does (mean something) because they’re finally getting the recognition that they deserved,” said Maria Drew, Kimbro’s youngest daughter and the assistant director of admissions at St. Petersburg College. “It’s kind of twofold because it’s sad, because most of these guys have passed on and they will never know that that is the case.”

But at least posterity will know. For Drew and her siblings, that’s a significant step for at least two generations of Black players who statistically were marginalized, segregated and often subject to harsh discrimination.

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