When the Cardinals step over the chalk line and walk into history at Rickwood Field in the first inning Thursday night, they follow the footprints of giants in their game, they run basepaths blazed by Negro League pioneers and all-time greats, and they do so with the tailwind of recent landmark decisions that assert they are not the first Major League players to take that field.
A confluence of events meets in Birmingham, Alabama, when the Cardinals and San Francisco Giants play Major League Baseball’s Tribute to the Negro Leagues game at Rickwood, the oldest professional ballpark in the United States.
The game comes within weeks of Major League Baseball rewriting the all-time leaders by embracing into its records the statistics from Negro Leagues that existed from 1920 to 1948. That announcement, made in late May, vaulted legendary player Josh Gibson’s .372 career batting average ahead of the title’s long-time owner, Ty Cobb. Gibson’s .466 average in 1943 is now the single-season record.
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The inclusion of the stats is the outgrowth of MLB recognizing in 2020 the Negro Leagues as Major Leagues, like the AL or NL. And it came just weeks after the National Baseball Hall of Fame opened its exhibit, “The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball,†and celebrated it by hosting the East-West Classic, an exhibition tribute to the Negro Leagues All-Star Game that featured retired MLB players like Ozzie Smith and Ryan Howard.
Gerald Early, the Merle Kling Professor of Modern Letters in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, is a lifelong baseball fan and author who was a curatorial consultant on the exhibit in Cooperstown, New York. He was asked what it means to have all of these events, though not officially connected, come together.
“If you want to have a larger theme — it’s all about reconciliation,†Early said. “This country’s past has been marred by segregation and racism, and to have these things happening as they are I think is a great thing as far as coming to grips with our history. It is a very good thing that Major League Baseball is creating this recognition — this well-earned recognition. … All of these things coming together are a way for us as Americans to learn our history, to learn to live with this history, and by learning make us better.â€
Early’s forthcoming book, “Play Harder: The Triumph of Black Baseball in America,†will be published next spring in association with the Hall’s exhibit. Early was approached by the Hall to help create the exhibit, one of the most technologically modern at the Hall.
Work began in June 2022 for a group that included former players, Hall of Famers, historians and others, and it often took Early to Cooperstown. The exhibit includes artifacts like Cool Papa Bell’s cleats. To tell the stories beyond the items, Early and others mined quotes from players, owners, fans, newspaper coverage and writers because he felt it was important to give voice to the history.
The Post-Dispatch spoke with Early recently about the exhibit, his book, the Rickwood game and more, with all these historic threads coming together to strengthen the connection between today’s game and all the leagues that helped create it. The conversation is published here in chronological order, with the exception of the above quote, and it is edited only for length and clarity.
Question: When you described going beyond the stats and artifacts to sharing a “view of baseball†and its cultural significance in the exhibit, could you expound on that goal?
Answer: Baseball is a game that has meaning for people who are hardcore fans of the performance, of the players, of the performance of the teams. But baseball has a wider significance to the culture, a wider significance to our country beyond the fans. It means something to people who are not even fans. That is what I mean by a larger kind of story, or a larger kind of view.
What does this game mean to the country itself?
What does it mean to people who have no engagement with this game, and how has this game affected the country? Because this game has affected the country beyond the people who follow it.
I wanted to make sure that story got in there. Particularly for the Black people playing baseball because Black people played baseball for a long time under a certain kind of duress, you might say, a set of disadvantages. And that means something that the game was that important to a minority group of people to want to be engaged in this game and to play this game with the persistence that they do.
Q: And that is true for so many, from players, fans, to owners …
A: Yes, it goes beyond the players. It goes to the owners who wanted this to happen. It goes to the Black press that was supporting it and promoting it. It goes to other Black businesses in the Black community that were also promoting it and supporting it and trying to create a fan base for the game. The fact that they were able to work these elements to bring (the Negro Leagues) about is a very impressive story. I think it’s a story that all Americans — it shouldn’t matter what race you are — all Americans should be proud of that.
That this game meant that much to these people to put that amount of effort in.
Q: How does the exhibit share that?
A: The exhibit does it by zeroing in on certain personalities connected to the game so that you get a sense of the people who were important to the game. Of course, Jackie Robinson, obviously, but also people like Effa Manley (Newark Eagles’ owner and Hall of Famer), and earlier people like Rube Foster (Hall of Famer nicknamed the ‘Father of Black baseball’), Bud Fowler (groundbreaking player in 19th century and Hall of Famer). The commitment by these people to want to play and want to organize — that’s the key word. They wanted to organize something.
Q: The title of your upcoming book, ‘Play Harder,’ comes from a description Leon Wagner (a Cardinals outfielder in 1960) gave for how he reacted in the minors to racism and threats. Why choose that phrase?
A: That expression, ‘play harder,’ was something in my research I discovered many Black players said this. They felt they had a certain kind of challenge, of having to prove themselves to play this game. Which is why the saying of ‘play harder’ became almost a motto among people. The inspiring thing about this is people didn’t let the adversities stop them. They just said, ‘OK, fine. I’m going to go harder to overcome.’ I think it’s a story that is actually inspiring in that way.
Q: When you discuss how baseball’s history is far-reaching beyond players and fans of the game, you have used the word ‘citizenship’ — if you’re a part of the national pastime, it’s a way to be a part of the nation. Am I saying that right?
A: I think that’s pretty much the point. Black people wanted to play the game because they liked the game and felt here is a way for us to show we’re Americans, to show we are a part of the nation, that we’re playing this game, and that we’re good at playing this game. There was a pride in that to show a mastery of the game. This is the American game, and we’re going to show that we can play as well as anyone else. It had a lot to do with citizenship. It had a lot to do with belonging to the nation.
Q: In that way, what does it mean for the Negro Leagues to be, officially, a Major League?
A: One of the reasons why the Negro Leagues started — Rube Foster got it off the ground — was they saw it as a proving ground. He said, ‘Oh, I’m preparing people who will ultimately play in the major leagues.’ The goal was always to get Black players to play in the major leagues.
So, I think this latest recognition of the Negro Leagues is long overdue, and the Negro Leagues deserve this recognition because they operated under a lot of disadvantages. And they persevered. I believe this recognition of them as a Major League is something that those men and women who were involved in that league — they’re owed that.
It should make everybody in the country happier to know Black baseball is getting its recognition and Black baseball produced such an excellent product.
Q: The exhibit is a walk through history, Josh Gibson’s statistics are historic, but the game at Rickwood is something present — it will impact this year’s standings. How powerful could this event be by highlighting history but then making history on that field with a modern game?
A: That’s a good point. It’s very important that Major League Baseball is not just having a historic game or a re-creation game. They’re having an actual, live game that counts in the standings. It’s an important way for Major League Baseball to pay homage to the Negro Leagues as well as to show that, by having the game there, there is a continuity between what happened before and what we have now.
There is continuity. There is connection.
And we’re part of a tradition.
What happened with the Negro Leagues is part of our traditions with baseball right now. That is important for people to understand, and it makes Major League Baseball that much richer understanding that Negro League baseball is part of its tradition. To have a real game, that’s the importance. It makes it a kind of living history. We’re not just trying to replicate the past. We’re also trying to show this history is part of what we do today.
Q: How did this research, this work, change your relationship with baseball?
A: Well, I was a fan. I always enjoyed baseball. I like baseball a lot. The whole thing with this book and the whole thing of being involved with the exhibit for me was a way of giving back, of showing my appreciation by doing this work and also a way for me to kind of contribute something. It’s a small contribution, but I hope that it might have some meaning for people. As I said to people: I have a connection with the Hall of Fame. When I was a kid, I thought I might make the Hall of Fame. I was 8 or 9 and, ‘Oh, I’ll make the Hall of Fame by being a great baseball player.’ Of course, I turned out to not be a great baseball player.
But to find this connection for the Black players and the ex-players and (have them) show so much appreciation for the exhibit, that is extremely gratifying.
It’s made me feel an even deeper connection to baseball, to feel even more than that — that baseball is something that’s important to our culture. It’s done that for me.
Q: I wondered if it’s possible researching and telling these stories about baseball, and its flaws, strengthened your fondness, your fandom.
A: Yeah, I think so. I’ve always gone to games. I was a Cardinals season ticket holder for a while. I’ve really always enjoyed the game very much. All this research, all this work, all these books by people gave me a deeper appreciation of it.
I’m certainly a more informed fan.
I really think I’m a better fan now.