FEATURE
“Visitor’s View: Negro Leagues Baseball Hall of Fame” by Alan Leftridge, introduced by Paul Caputo
Visitor's view of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, located at 1616 E. 18th Street in Kansas City, (816) 221-1920.
EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION:
I was hired by the National Association for Interpretation in February 2002. In my role as graphic designer, my primary responsibility at the time was the layout and design of the association’s premier publication, Legacy magazine. One of my first assignments was to prepare the March/April 2002 issue, which—purely by coincidence—featured one of my lifelong passions: the sport of baseball.
The cover story of that issue, “For Love of the Game: Interpreting Baseball” by Rich Pawling, explored living history interpreters who played an early version of the game. But my attention was especially drawn to a back-page essay written by Legacy’s first managing editor, Alan Leftridge. His “Visitor’s View” column recounted his experience at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.
Alan’s article introduced me to a site that interprets one of America’s most difficult and most essential stories. From the 1920s until the 1960s, the Negro Leagues existed out of necessity—Black players were excluded from Major League Baseball because of intolerance, hatred, and injustice.
Yet the story of Black baseball is also one of resilience and achievement. Negro Leagues teams were successful Black-owned businesses and pillars of the communities where they played. Sadly, while the integration of Major League Baseball was a necessary step forward for the nation, Jackie Robinson’s 1947 debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers also marked the beginning of a gradual end of Negro Leagues baseball.
Alan wrote about his visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum roughly a year after it opened. In the decades since then, it has been a major player in keeping important history alive and advocating for justice. The museum has not only preserved the lessons of this challenging chapter in American history, but has actively advanced the cause of players who were unjustly denied the chance to compete against their peers in Major League Baseball. In large part because of the museum’s advocacy, Negro Leagues statistics are now recognized in Major League record books, and players like Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell are part of the broader conversation about the sport’s history.
In more than two decades since I first learned about the museum from Alan’s article, I have visited three times and I have had the opportunity to speak with its dynamic president, Bob Kendrick, on multiple occasions.
Looking back, I now see how that early assignment—just a few weeks into my career—quietly shaped my understanding of what interpretation can do. It introduced me to a story that blends passion, pain, perseverance, and pride, and it showed me how powerful our work can be when we help people connect with complex histories. Alan’s short article in that 2002 issue of Legacy not only deepened my understanding of something I already loved, baseball, but it gave me an appreciation for the profession that would become such an important part of my life.
Paul Caputo
ORIGINAL ARTICLE:
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum: Documenting an Important Stitch in America's Social Fabric
By Alan Leftridge
"IF SATCH AND I was pitching on the same team, we'd clinch the pennant by the fourth of July and go fishing until World Series time," remarked the St. Louis hall-of-fame pitcher Dizzy Dean, speaking of Satchel Paige. This is one of several testimonials to the greatness of many black baseball players found in the displays and exhibits of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The museum opened in January 2001. lt is located in the same building as the American Jazz Museum in the historic jazz district of 18th and Vine in Kansas City, Missouri. Eighteenth and Vine was the center of African-American culture in Kansas City in the early to mid-1900s. As Jesse Fisher, quoted in an exhibit, said, "To come to Kansas City on a Saturday night was just like trying to walk through Harlem when there's a parade. Everybody that was everybody was at 18th and Vine." It is fitting that the museum is located in this area of the nation and this city because the Negro National League was founded in 1920 a block south of the museum at the former Paseo YMCA.
Alan Leftridge
The original cover from the March/April 2002 issue. Photo courtesy of Paul Caputo.
The museum covers roughly the area of a baseball infield. It contains two film exhibits, two video exhibits, fifteen interactive computer stations, and several static displays. All of these exhibits and displays encircle the centerpiece of the museum, a baseball field known as the "Field of Legends." The field is set to scale with life-size bronze statues of twelve famous black players from the Negro leagues, including Satchel Paige, Buck O'Neil, Josh Gibson, and Cool Papa Bell.
A time line interpreting the history of rhe Negro leagues is used to provide a chronological stream through a photo gallery and captures the events of the early days of the leagues until their end in the 1960s. The time line and photos helped me understand that more than sixty black baseball players were playing in the mostly white majors before 1900. A rising tide of racism and "Jim Crow" laws forced black players from the professional leagues.
Blended into the time line and photo gallery are several exhibits and static displays, including a hotel room representative of one in which the players would stay, a barbershop, bleacher seats, and turnstiles.
An exhibit I like is the 1940s Street Hotel. The exhibit includes two large stuffed leather chairs, a lamp, coffee table, and, most importantly, an antique radio. The radio plays era music, excerpts from well-known baseball broadcasts, and Abbott and Costello's "Who’s on First?" comedy skit. I found myself lost in an earlier time because of the sights, sounds, and feel of the exhibit.
The time line also helped me understand that originality was the only way owners could attract a wide following and be fiscally profitable. The time line indicates such innovations as the first professional night baseball game, held at Muehlebach Stadium in Kansas City in 1930, and the first "All-Star Game,'' the 1933 Negro Leagues East-West Game.
Innovation was a necessity and an underlying mission of the Negro Baseball Leagues. Innovation, along with World War II, the evolving social fabric of the nation, and the exposure of black athletic talent in the Negro Baseball Leagues brought an end to the segregation of Major League Baseball. News journalist Bernard Shaw notes in a video exhibit, "The Negro Leagues were so successful that they put themselves out of business."
The museum is important to understanding the social fabric of the United States. It provides a measure of affirmation for the accomplishments of many great black athletes who have received little recognition. Ted Williams said in his 1966 induction speech into the baseball Hall of Fame, "I hope that someday Satchel Paige and Josh Gibson will be voted into the Hall of Fame as symbols of the great Negro players who are not here only because they weren't given a chance." All Negro Leagues Baseball players are honored in this museum.
The original article from the March/April 2002 issue. Photo courtesy of Paul Caputo.
