Between 1920 and 1948, Black baseball players were excluded from major league teams, so they formed their own group, the Negro League. While Major League Baseball (MLB) carefully charted the stats of its white players during this period, many top players in the Negro League went unacknowledged. Now, on the Negro League’s 100th anniversary, the MLB has welcomed its players into the majors retroactively. Its star players will assume their rightful place on the leaderboards, shifting and diversifying the names that appear there. Listen to hear a Negro League museum founder react to the long-overdue announcement, and learn about the painstaking process he used to compile stats on Black ballplayers.
Story Length: 4:37
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June 6, 2019
3:54
The Women in Baseball section of the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY has recently acquired some new members. Corrine Mullane and her daughter Molly Mullane-Cavagnaro are the first ever mother-daughter duo enshrined in the library. The women are honored in the Hall of Fame because of their continued service as “Ball Dudettes” for the San Francisco Giants. Listen to hear about how Corrine got started and how the mother-daughter duo made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Read MoreApril 9, 2019
4:15
In a small town in Texas, near cattle pastures and crop fields, is the Nokona baseball glove factory. The family-owned business is now the only baseball glove manufacturer left in the U.S. While Nokona gloves are not as well known as some other major brands, Nokona does have a respected and established position in the youth baseball market. Listen to hear more about the last baseball glove factory in the United States of America.
Read MoreJune 1, 2017
7:20
After two decades in the major leagues, Red Sox legend David Ortiz has retired, and now he is releasing a memoir about his life and career. Throughout his career, David Ortiz, or “Big Papi”, hit 541 home runs and won three World Series championships with the Boston Red Sox. Listen to learn more about David Ortiz’s journey from his childhood in the Dominican Republic to major league baseball in the United States.
Read MoreApril 19, 2014
6:26
On April 15, 1947, African American baseball player Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball in his first game for the Brooklyn Dodgers. He was an interesting choice by the Dodgers to break the race barrier in baseball because he was an older player and not seen as the best player in the Negro league. Listen to learn how Robinson’s strong character, as much as his talent, helped to successfully integrate baseball.
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