Museum prez envisions a Negro Leagues campus

Another View

Bob Kendrick keeps alive the spirit of the late Buck O’Neil, the first Black coach in Major League Baseball, and who before that was a Black baseball player and manager. O’Neil in his later years became known more for his storytelling, overall sunny optimism, as well as being a staunch advocate for the Negro Leagues. He was finally inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2022, 16 years after his death in 2006 at age 94.

“Being around Buck O’Neil for all those years,” Kendrick fondly recalled, “every chance I get to talk about this history is a welcome opportunity. It gets us another step closer to moving Negro Leagues history in a mainstream fashion.”

The Minnesota Twins brought Kendrick, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president, to town earlier this month as keynote speaker for its annual diversity celebration. It was yet another chance for Kendrick to talk Negro Leagues. He was named NLBM president in 2011, but he was with the Kansas City institution for a lot longer.

“When I walked into that one-room office 30 years ago, that was the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum back then,” said Kendrick. We sat at the Twins ballpark in between his umpteen scheduled appearances that the team set up for him during his two-day visit. “I didn’t realize it at that point in time, but I had just walked into what would become my passion,” he said.

Like his mentor and friend O’Neil, Kendrick is prodigious in extolling the greatness and historical significance of the Negro Leagues. As was O’Neil, Kendrick is passionate and charismatic as he tells endless and entertaining stories, as well as constantly educating everyone about the history of Black baseball wherever he goes.

“O’Neil told me something many, many years before he passed away,” Kendrick recalled. “‘If you find a job that you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.’ That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy.”

As museum president, Kendrick runs its day-to-day operations and development along with fundraising for the not-for-profit organization.

“Obviously my job is to go out and raise money,” continued Kendrick. “And anytime you gotta raise money, that’s always challenging.” Currently, his goal is to raise the necessary funds to build a new 30,000-square-foot building “adjacent to the Passo YMCA” in Kansas City.  “The Passo YMCA is the birthplace of the Negro Leagues.”

This new education and research center “will be attached to the historic YMCA and create what I call a Negro Leagues campus…an international headquarters for both Black baseball and social history,” stressed Kendrick, located at 18^th and Vine, where the NLBM currently stands. “This is a civil rights social justice museum seen through the lens of baseball.”

Kendrick’s voice is now heard on the new “MLB The Show 23,” video game, along with archival footage and related illustrations from the Negro Leagues. Eight Negro Leaguers are also featured in the new game.

“I’m so excited about the things that are happening around me,” exclaimed Kendrick.  “Many young people and young adults are falling in love with the Negro Leagues through this gaming platform. I’m having young kids of all colors come into the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and want to seek me out, because I’m narrating.”

Black baseball before major league integration was an economic engine for the communities that had Negro Leagues teams. “Stars stayed in the same neighborhood. I saw [them] every day at the same barbershop. I worshiped with them, ate at the same restaurant because that’s what segregation did,” said Kendrick. 

“I also wanted to emulate them. But not just for their athletic ability. I wanted to emulate them as men.

“The Negro Leagues is one of those great American success stories that should always be shared,” stressed Kendrick. “I’ve been blessed to do this work.”