Negro Leagues Baseball Museum keeps story alive – The San Diego Union-Tribune

To most baseball fans, the Jackie Robinson story is about a beginning.

To Bob Kendrick, it also represents an ending.

“Breaking the color barrier brought the eventual demise of the Negro Leagues,” said Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947 when he debuted for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He opened the door for those who followed. The Negro Leagues continued another 13 years before ceasing operation.

Kendrick spoke on Saturday morning at the San Diego Central Library as part of the Talking Baseball event presented by the San Diego Chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR).

He wasn’t hear to lament the loss of the Negro Leagues, however. He was here to celebrate its existence, to salute its players, to tell its story.

“These athletes loved the game of baseball so much that they would endure tremendous social adversity just to play this game as they traveled the highways and byways of our country.”

The centerpiece of the Negro League Baseball Museum is its Field of Legends, which recognizes 10 players of particular renown — infielders Buck Leonard, Pop Lloyd, Judy Johnson, Ray Daniels and Martin Dihigo, outfielders Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston and Leon Day, catcher Josh Gibson and pitcher Satchel Paige.

Kendrick entertained the audience with a few words about each player. He could have spent the entire afternoon speaking about their exploits. And he could have spent the weekend telling stories about Paige.

He didn’t have the time in this forum. Too bad. A visit to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Mo., is a must for any baseball fan. The All-Star FanFest also provides an opportunity to learn more about the Negro Leagues with a tremendous exhibit sponsored by the museum.

Visitors will find that it’s about much more than just baseball.

“For me, the story of the Negro Leagues embodies the American spirit unlike any story in the annals of American history,” Kendrick said.

“It also spawned what we think

is the beginning of the civil rights movement in this country. Very few folks have drawn that parallel to Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier with the civil rights story. …

“In 1947, this is before Brown vs. Board of Education. This is before Rosa Parks’ refusal to move to the back of the bus. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a sophomore at Morehouse College when Robinson signs his contract to play for Brooklyn. President Truman would not integrate the military until a year after Jackie.

“So for all intents and purposes this is what started the ball rolling for social progress. Baseball. … Baseball had been vilified for not allowing blacks to play, but when it opened its doors our country followed suit.”

Kendrick concluded his talk with this thought:

“What the Negro Leagues teaches us is very simple. In this great country of ours, if you dare to dream and you believe in yourself, you can do and be anything you want to be.

“They just wanted to play ball. They did so with the passion, the perseverance, the pride, the courage, the determination that demonstrated in the face of that adversity would change our game, but, more importantly, would change our country.”

Speaking of ol’ Satch

Paige stories never get old (especially the ones referring to his age).

Kendrick shared a few:

— Willie Mays told Kendrick once that he faced Paige when he was 17 years old.

“The first time I face Satchel, I got a double off him,” Mays said.

Kendrick said that was probably true because Paige didn’t know who he was. Things were different the next time Mays came to the plate.

“Satchel threw three straight right by me,” Mays said. “I never saw them. And he must have been 55 years old then.

“As he was walking off the mound, he said, ‘Now go sit down little boy.’

Said Kendrick: “This is the legendary Willie Mays and he’s recalling with a glow being struck out by Satchel Paige.”

— Kansas City A’s owner Charles Finley brought Paige out of retirement in 1965 when the pitcher was 59 years old (or 69 years old, depending on whom you ask) to pitch one more time. He pitched three shutout innings against Boston, allowing just one hit (by Carl Yastzremski).

“Charlie was one of the game’s great promoters and Satchel was one of the game’s great self promoters,” Kendrick said, “so it was a match made in heaven.

“They played this whole age thing to the hilt. … Finley had a rocking chair in the bullpen for Satchel — and a nurse.”

— “What really made Satchel so special was pinpoint control,” Kendrick said. “Even as an old man, he never lost the ability to throw strikes.

“He didn’t warm up in the bullpen like most pitchers do, using home plate. Who know what Satchel would use? A stick of foil chewing gum wrapper. He would set the chewing gum wrapper on the top of home plate and wherever the catcher moved the chewing gum wrapper on the plate, Satchel would throw it right over the chewing gum wrapper. And as Paige would say, he’d work both corner of that chewing gum wrapper.”

— Paige had names for his pitches. Not fastball, slider or curve but things like “The Midnight Crawler,” “The Two Humper,” “The Bat Dodger and “The Hesitation Pitch.” When he was asked what his best pitch was, Paige said, “That would be my ‘B’ ball. It be where I want it to be when I want it to be there.”

kirk.kenney@sduniontribune.com / on Twitter: @sdutkirKDKenney