My trip around the midwest started its trajectory back home through Kansas City, where I waited for The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to open at noon on Sunday. We had received invitations to visit time and again throughout the years, but this was my first time on historic 18th and Vine. The link: www.nlbm.com.
I have an interesting connection to the Negro Leagues as retired player/owner/entrepreneur Ted Rasberry was one of my clients at the Walgreens at Boston and Kalamazoo. He and I talked baseball here and there while he waited for his prescriptions to be filled and he slyly let me know one day that he was a former player. I fan girled on him in that moment, appropriately feeding his ego. Props to him for all he did for youth sports in Grand Rapids, and I'm glad to say there is a field and a youth league named after him. Whitecaps have honored him during Negro League games with replica jerseys. I thought of all the autographs on those clipboards we filed and then threw away. Oh, I found an excellent bio here. Godspeed, Mr. Rasberry.
I was glad to see the museum was thriving. While empty when I first arrived at 11:30, there was soon a crowd waiting to get in. The site is a combination of Negro League and Jazz museums, along with a special exhibit in the lobby celebrating the voice of Kansas City by way of the black press. More on that later.
Buck O'Neil statue to greet visitors when they first arrive. He is honored as the league's best manager.
Panoramic of the indoor field with bronze statues to celebrate the best players at each position.
Negro Leagues honored the ladies who played, including Mamie Johnson, Toni Stone, and Connie Morgan.
Hats and jerseys honoring each of the teams recognized in the league. This is tricky with rogue offshoots, exhibition teams, and more that laid claim to history.
The Geddy Lee autographed baseball collection was donated by the bassist several years ago. An ardent fan of baseball (and a Detroit Tigers fan growing up as the Blue Jays did not yet exist), Lee secured many signatures from former players throughout the years and donated the collection to the museum for prosperity. Wikipedia states the initial donation was 200 baseballs; I tried to count all the balls on display, easy to say the collection has grown, and there are at least 350 on display now.
Surprising champions for the players in the Negro Leagues were the reporters for the communist/socialist newspapers. Short documentaries were on display throughout the museum, chronicling the power of the press on MLB to integrate back in the 1940s.
Freedom, on display
Speaking of the press... in the lobby is an exhibit on the history of 18th and Vine, which includes the history of the civil rights movement and the power of the black newspapers in Kansas City. After watching the documentary, a man and woman got up to make an announcement: their mother, who was present, was an activist in the 60s, and had gone to jail in Birmingham with Dr. Martin Luther King in the 60s! They were all in town to celebrate her birthday and stopped in to celebrate what she had accomplished, and for some in the family, it was their first time seeing the documentary.
I was awestruck at her bravery. How hard it must have been to stand up for what is right when those in power say you are wrong. I shook her hand, and words failed me. What do you say to someone that powerful, that graceful, that majestic? I merely said, "Bless you," and she replied, "Thank you, honey" with a squeeze. I met greatness that day and one of my flaws when awestruck, I completely forgot her name.
It cannot be a coincidence that when I returned to my car to continue my journey home, the first song on the Beatles Channel was Blackbird. To think, I encountered one of the muses that inspired Paul McCartney.
I add that I am probably mourning the election with you ma'am. You deserved better than this.
