Philadelphia – Ryan Howard was a rookie with the Philadelphia philis who only put baseball in notice with his lunar home runs when he met Buck o’neilA champion of black players during a monumental race of eight decades inside and outside the field.
Howard was presented to O’Neil as a modern day Josh GibsonOne of the best players of the black leagues that beat .466 for the Homestead Grays of 1943. Howard, who hit at least 45 homers four times in his career, was too embarrassed to accept the comparison.
“Mr. O’Neil said:” Do you have that power? “I said: ‘Yes, sir, I do it,” Howard said. “He told me: ‘Don’t be ashamed. Let him go out. It was great, just listen to the stories and be in his presence.”
O’Neil, who died in 2006, was a champion of the Black League Baseball Museum In Kansas City, Missouri. Howard, who won an MVP of the National League and a world series with the Philis, is ready to assume the cause of O’Neil when the former toleter joined the impulse to help the museum’s expansion project.
The Black Leagues Baseball Museum is raising funds for a new installation and campus of 30,000 square feet, with the aim of advancing in the mission of the museum of preserving the rich history of black leagues baseball and its impact on social progress in the United States.
Howard’s manager and San Diego Padres, Mike Shildt, announced their plans on Thursday to join “pitch for the future” of the black leagues to provide greater awareness about the legacy of the black leagues with an expansion of the museum.
The president of the Black Leagues Museum, Bob Kendrick, said he hoped to raise $ 30 million to complete the project.
“It is a tremendous indicator of the growth of your museum and the greatest interest in the subject we have generated over the years and has dictated the need for us to grow in all the phases of our operations,” Kendrick said. “This is a growth byproduct.”
The interest in the black leagues has shot lately due to its inclusion in Mlb the show And when the records of more than 2,300 players joined the major league baseball statistics. The museum that was founded on a small office space in a room in 1990 that attracts about 70,000 visitors every year, in addition to the main players that stop during road trips, has passed its space in 18th and Vine.
Kendrick said the current space “was not designed to handle large crowds at any time.”
“In a perfect world, Kansas City will organize the World Cup next year,” said Kendrick, “and we would love to follow the energy and emotion of the World Cup with a great inauguration of the Black League Museum in 2027. That could be a bit ambitious, but it is feasible.”
Howard toured the museum long before he was one of the dreaded Slugers in the National League.
“It was my way of paying tribute to the black leagues and former Black League players who did not have the opportunity to play in the big leagues,” Howard said.
Howard was always beaten by the field of legends, 13 natural size statues of the first black players included in the Baseball Hall in Cooperstown, New York, which deepened their understanding of the trip that the players took to reach the corridor.
“I think that is why it is important to keep the story in operation, keep it alive,” said Howard. “You must understand the history of black baseball and how it correlates with baseball, in general, and the major baseball leagues.”
The Institute of Diversity and Ethics in Sports at the Florida Central found during its latest published study that black players represented only 6.2% of players On the List of the Opening of the MLB in 2023, below 7.2% in 2022. For the first time since 1950, shortly after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of the big leagues, there were There are no black players born in the United States In the list of Houston Astros or Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series 2022.
Ex toleter of the New York Mets Darryl Strawberry Said during the weekend, MLB needed to focus on developing and marketing the game within the interior cities so that the percentage of black players increase substantially.
Howard said connecting young blacks with baseball has had their problems.
“It’s hard, try to help solve things,” said Howard. “I think there are more young black children who begin to return to baseball. You have to be able to turn on television and watch someone who looks like you.”
Howard was raised in Missouri and highlighted former black stars of St. Cardinals such as Willie McGee, Vince Coleman and Terry Pendleton who helped light their interest in sport. Howard and his MVP partner of the Jimmy Rollins National League were two black stars and fans with the Philis when they won their last World Series in 2008.
Shildt was a frequent visitor to the museum when he administered the Cardinals of San Luis and remained the expansion of the hope that the expansion would provide the necessary resources to educate a new generation of fans.
“There is a bigger story to tell,” said Shildt. “What has been carried out has been more based on the basis. They have been able to assemble it without the resources to tell the complete and general story.”
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