It’s quite fitting that the Gem Theater sits across from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
The museum, nestled in the 18th and Vine District of Kansas City, is a gem and treasure trove of baseball history.
As part of the Diamond Baseball Tours Rockies Plus College World Series bus tour, this was a much-anticipated part of the trip. It was a tight schedule, but we were able to squeeze in about an hour or two in the museum.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was founded in 1990 by a group of former Negro league players, including Kansas City Monarch players Aldred Surratt, Buck O’Neil, Larry Lester, Phil S. Dixon, and Horace Peterson.
The museum started out in a small, single-room office inside the Lincoln Building in the 18th and Vine district. In 1994, it moved to a 2,000-square foot space. Three years later, the museum moved to its current 10,000-square foot home.
Probably the first thing you notice when you walk into the museum is the Field of Legends. You only catch a glimpse of the statues of the players, which are set up on a shortened baseball field. There is a screen separating you from the field, so it leaves you wanting to see more.
But you quickly forget that as you come across the statue of John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil Jr. watching the action on the Field of Legends. O’Neil was finally inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this past summer, as an executive.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum chronologically charts the progress of the leagues with several informative and interactive exhibits. Exhibits starts with memorabilia from the Negro National League of 1920 through the Negro American League, which lasted until 1962.
Visitors move through the museum, learning the history of black baseball. In one area of the museum, you’ll come across lockers for some of the legends of the Negro leagues. One can see game-worn uniforms, gloves, and other artifacts from stars such as Detroit Stars’ Norman “Turkey” Stearnes and Andrew Cooper. Josh Gibson, who was known as the Black Babe Ruth, is also featured prominently. Gibson played for the Homestead Grays, among others, and may have hit more than 800 home runs, although records are sketchy. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1972.
Stearnes was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, 21 years after his death in Detroit. His wife, Nettie Mae, was instrumental in helping to get her husband inducted.
One of 12 remaining Negro league stadiums was recently renovated in Hamtramck, MI, in part by the Hamtramck Stadium Grounds Crew. This was the same crew that helped clean up the former Tiger Stadium site before the Police Athletic League took over. The Navin Field Grounds Crew, as they were known originally, were made up of volunteers that kept the Michigan and Trumbull site clean after the city had neglected it. They even eventually held old time baseball games there.
After PAL took over the Tiger Stadium site, the volunteer crew set their sights on Hamtramck Stadium. It was rededicated this past summer as Turkey Stearnes Field. There is also a plaque honoring Stearnes outside the center field gate at Detroit’s Comerica Park.
At the PAL site, officially known as The Corner Ballpark, there is a display honoring Stearnes along the third base concourse.
Of the 12 remaining Negro league stadiums left, the majority hosted only occasional league games. Only Hinchcliffe Stadium in Paterson, NJ, and Rickwood Field in Birmingham, AL, were in use longer than Hamtramck Stadium.
Major League Baseball has recently announced plans to possibly host a Major League game at Hinchcliffe Stadium, similar to recent games at Iowa’s Field of Dreams.
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum was on the verge of financial collapse in 2008, but current president Bob Kendrick took over in 2011. By the following year, he helped the museum experience a profit of $300,000, it’s most successful year since 2007.
Kendrick is a frequent visitor to the museum. You may even get a chance to toss the ball around with him on the Field of Legends, which is at the end of your walk through the museum.
Geddy Lee, lead singer of the rock band Rush, made one of the largest single donations to the NLBM. Lee, an avid baseball fan of the Detroit Tigers and Toronto Blue Jays, donated nearly 200 autographed baseballs to the museum. Those signatures included names such as Hank Aaron, Cool Papa Bell, and Lionel Hampton.