Barack Obama bowed his cap. So did three other former presidents and a host of prominent civil rights leaders, artists, and great athletes in a virtual salute to the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Black Leagues in baseball.
The campaign launched Monday with photos and videos of, among others, Hank Aaron, Rachel Robinson, Derek Jeter, Colin Powell, Michael Jordan, Obama and former Presidents George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter at tippingyourcap.com.
At the receiving end of those tributes are many of the best students in the Black Leagues: Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, “Cool Papa” Bell and Jackie Robinson, who started with the Kansas City Monarchs and then broke the color barrier in The major leagues with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Not long after, with many of their best players gradually following Robinson’s path, the Black Leagues ceased operations.
As part of the tribute, singer Tony Bennett showed his heart by tilting a San Francisco Giants cap. California’s Billie Jean King opted for the Los Angeles Dodgers. President Clinton said he chose a Chicago Cubs cap to honor Ernie Banks, the late Hall of Famer who started in the Black Leagues.
“This limit is also for Hillary, when the Cubs finally won the championship,” Clinton said, referring to his Chicago native wife and former Democratic presidential candidate. “Long before that, the black leagues improved baseball and improved the United States.”
The celebration moved online after a major league tribute to baseball’s black pioneers scheduled for June 27, along with the MLB games, was shelved due to the coronavirus pandemic. At first, the president of the Black League Baseball Museum, Bob Kendrick, was concerned that his long-standing plan to honor the men and women who fought against the odds of a game of their own would have to be postponed, at best. cases.
“In our game, there is nothing more honorable than tipping your cap,” Kendrick said. “And once I realized that National Appreciation Day was going to be on the way, I thought, ‘OK, maybe we can do it next year.'” But that really didn’t.
“So I thought, ‘How about a virtual tip of the cap?’
Kendrick paused, then laughed. “And let me say here and now, there is no way I could have done it myself. I couldn’t be more proud of the answer.”
Kendrick received the promotion he was seeking from communications specialist Dan McGinn and former NLBM supporter Joe Posnanski, a sports journalist for The Athletic and author of “The Soul of Baseball,” who recounts his year-long journey promoting the museum and the Kansas City-based stories. behind him with a legendary Black League star, the late Buck O’Neil.
O’Neil was the driving force behind the museum for decades. The NLBM has expanded several times since Rube Foster, an executive as skilled as a baseball pitcher, founded the first Black National League in a YMCA at the same site in 1920.
Kendrick said his favorite tribute came from the Jackie Robinson family.
“It’s Rachel tipping her cap, but there are four generations of Robinson women in that video talking about our common cause and it evokes the kind of excitement at a time when our country really needs it,” she said.
“And you know,” he added a moment later, “It’s funny how all of this worked. I always felt that if there was going to be talk about race in sports, the Black Leagues should be at the center, because that’s the story: They triumphed over adversity.
“I met many of them, and not a single boy I met had any ill will, at least to the point where they let them block their path. Everyone else thought the major leagues were better, but you couldn’t convince them,” concluded. “They just wanted the opportunity to demonstrate that they could play this game as well as any other.”
They did so, forging a rich legacy that will resonate with a new generation, thanks to something as simple as the virtual tip of a cap.
.
