• Loading stock data...
Saturday, July 5, 2025

How Do You Keep Negro Leagues Baseball History Alive? Put It in a Video Game

  • For the second year in a row, ‘MLB The Show’ has incorporated stories and characters from the Negro Leagues.
  • The video game has generated a surge in visits and donations to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Oct 5, 2021; Kansas City, Missouri, USA; Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, points to the lettering outside of the museum Tuesday.
Evert Nelson/The Capital-Journal via USA TODAY NETWORK

For Bob Kendrick, what started as one of many ways to promote the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum became one of the most impactful during his tenure as museum president. Just don’t ask him to play the game.

“That didn’t go over too well,” Kendrick says on a recent episode of Front Office Sports Today. “The controller has too many buttons. The finger dexterity that these young people have is amazing.”

This is the second season in which the NLBM has collaborated with MLB The Show on a game mode that brings Negro Leagues legends to life. The Storylines series in MLB The Show 24 lets players control stars like Josh Gibson, Satchel Paige, and Cool Papa Bell. Each comes with a short backstory, narrated by Kendrick. While the scorekeeping of the Negro Leagues was not as meticulous or well preserved as Major League Baseball, a prodigious oral history has filled the gap.

Through MLB The Show, those narratives are reaching a new audience, many of whom have extended their interest beyond the game. 

“We have had scores upon scores of folks who have visited the museum because they saw the museum in the video game, and they wanted to meet the guy who was telling stories in the video game,” says Kendrick, who adds that the museum is seeing a significant uptick in individual donations, along with royalties from the game. 

“Who knew that a video game partnership would be one of the most meaningful, significant things this museum has ever done?” says Kendrick. “It has been almost surreal in terms of the tremendous success.”

The Negro Leagues grew out of baseball’s most shameful chapter: Until Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in 1945, Black people and other people of color were not allowed to play in MLB. While a harsher, more spiteful attitude toward this history would be entirely understandable, Kendrick, like Buck O’Neil before him, focuses on describing what the majors were missing out on through its overt racism.

“Buck O’Neil would say, if he had one game to win and any choice of any pitcher from any era, it would be the legendary Leroy “Satchel” Paige. You might beat him when he was out there messing around. But when he was locked and loaded? Forget about it.”

Behind the old tales of Satchel strikeouts, Gibson moon shots, and Papa Bell stealing home is a story that transcends baseball. The NLBM makes the case that Robinson’s signing with the Dodgers, which occurred 18 years before the March on Washington and a decade before Rosa Parks’s defiant bus ride, was the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement. It’s a moment in which baseball, which had participated in holding the country back, suddenly pushed it forward.

For a new generation, that history is now part of The Show.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Baseball’s Celebrity Row: Behind MLB’s First-Pitch Ritual

Often planned, sometimes spontaneous, the ritual throw is baseball’s celebrity row.
Jul 2, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers two-way player Shohei Ohtani (17) heads to the dugout prior to the first inning against the Chicago White Sox at Dodger Stadium.

MLB Changes Are ‘Showing Great Results’: Former CFO

Big stars playing in major markets “make a real difference.”

3,000 Hot Dogs, $20K in Prizes: Behind the Nathan’s Eating Contest

Nathan’s serves up thousands of hot dogs and $20,000 in prize money.

Geoffrey Esper Can’t Catch a Break at Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest

“Hot dogs is not one of my favorite competitions of the year.”

Featured Today

The Battle Over Wimbledon’s Ambitious Expansion Plan

A classic NIMBY standoff on one of the most hallowed grounds in sports.
Seattle Rough & Tumble
June 28, 2025

Women’s Sports Bars Are on the Rise. Survival Isn’t Guaranteed

Some women’s sports bars are cashing in. Others are clawing for funding.
June 27, 2025

Shitposters Have Taken the Reins of Pro Sports’ Official Voices

Meet the social media pros turning sports teams into internet trolls.
Jun 17, 2025; Sunrise, Florida, USA; Florida Panthers center Sam Reinhart (13) hoists the Stanley Cup after winning game six of the 2025 Stanley Cup Final against the Edmonton Oilers at Amerant Bank Arena
June 26, 2025

Stanley Cup’s International Summer Tour: Rules, Repairs, and Raucousness

No pro trophy tour compares to the NHL’s three-month global victory lap.

Thunder Favored, but Bettors Backing Pacers Big in NBA Finals

The most bet-on exact series outcome is the Thunder winning in five.
Fanduel
March 4, 2025

FanDuel Retains Sports Betting Crown With $14B in 2024 Revenue

The FanDuel parent company posts big increases in revenue and net income.
May 8, 2025

FanDuel Misses Projections As Betting Favorites Dominate 

FanDuel is hit by customer-friendly betting outcomes during March Madness.
Sponsored

Hottest Matchups Following NFL Schedule Release

The NFL released the 2025 regular-season schedule, and anticipation is already building in the ticket marketplace with four months to go.
February 20, 2025

Americans Bet $148 Billion on Sports in 2024, Up 23.6%

Both overall handle and revenue rose by more than 20% last year.
DraftKings app
February 14, 2025

Lawsuit Says DraftKings VIP Program ‘Preyed On’ Gambling Addicts

The company’s being sued for negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
August 20, 2024

Beloved ‘Backyard Sports’ Brand Says It Will Relaunch After Decade Hiatus

“Backyard Baseball” was a turn-of-the-century computer hit. 
DraftKings
August 2, 2024

DraftKings Announces Consumer Tax Starting Next Year

The company’s stock fell 5% Friday morning.