[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 121 (Wednesday, July 18, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5048-S5049]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                Commemorating the Negro National League

  Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, last night, the Major League Baseball All-
Star Game was hosted in Washington. In conjunction with that game, the 
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum hosted an event to honor the Homestead 
Grays, which was one of the teams from that league. There were great 
teams in that league. The Homestead Grays had won the Negro League 
World Series in 1943, which was 75 years ago. They had a great exhibit 
here in town about that team and about the history of that league.

[[Page S5049]]

  The museum, which was founded in 1990, is located in Kansas City, MO. 
It is dedicated to highlighting and preserving that important part of 
our sports history--the history of African-American baseball. Bob 
Kendrick runs that museum, and it is a museum I would encourage all of 
my colleagues to visit as the All-Star Game was in Kansas City a few 
years ago, and it was one of the venues for Major League Baseball.
  When people are in Kansas City, playing the Royals, managers and 
coaches often take their players there--players who haven't been there 
before and players who want to go back--just for them to have a sense 
of what it was like when there was the segregation of baseball and also 
some of the great players who played there. The chairman of the board, 
Stewart Myers, was here yesterday, and the vice chairman, Adam Sachs, 
was here yesterday.
  The museum is actually expanding and building the Buck O'Neil 
Research and Education Center on the Paseo in Kansas City. Buck O'Neil 
was a great Kansas Citian, but he had also been a great part of Negro 
Leagues Baseball. In June of this year, vandals broke into the YMCA, on 
which a lot of money had already been spent. It was where that part of 
the museum, the research center, was going to be housed. The vandals 
did more damage than they should have been able to do, and, 
unfortunately, there was some water damage in the building. Yet that 
effort continues.
  The Negro National League was created there in 1920 at that Paseo 
YMCA. There was an owners meeting, and the owners decided, It is time 
we really put more of a structure into this league. So they established 
a league. Before 1920, these African-American teams barnstormed around 
the country and played whomever they could play. After 1920, they could 
still barnstorm, but there was a league, there was a league 
championship, and there was a structure they had not had before.
  In 1947, as every baseball fan knows, the Brooklyn Dodgers decided to 
integrate baseball, and Jackie Robinson, who had played for the Kansas 
City Monarchs, was the first player to step into that challenge of 
integrated baseball. The league lasted another 13 years or so. I think 
the last team finally folded in the early 1960s.
  Some of the greatest baseball and the most exciting baseball ever 
played was played in this particular league--names like Satchel Paige, 
who said about himself that he was so fast he could turn off the light 
in the bedroom and be in bed before it got dark. He was a great 
pitcher, and he was a great runner. Buck O'Neil, Satchel Paige, Cool 
Papa Bell, Jackie Robinson, and 100 other names in that last 3 years of 
the 1940s who joined the Major Leagues are all part of that story.
  Missouri teams were an important part of that story. The Monarchs 
played for 37 seasons, and I already mentioned that Jackie Robinson 
played briefly for the Monarchs before he went to the Dodgers. They won 
a dozen league championships. They sent more players than any other 
team to the Major Leagues. The St. Louis Stars, who were on the other 
side of our State--originally the St. Louis Giants--played 12 seasons. 
They won the league championship in 1928, in 1930, and in 1931.
  The real focus of the exhibit here this week was on the Homestead 
Grays. Now, where did the Homestead Grays come from? I think I already 
mentioned they were celebrating the 75th anniversary of winning the 
Negro League World Series in 1943. The Homestead Grays were originally 
based in Homestead, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh.
  In 1940, in 1941, and in 1942, they played at least half of their 
games here in Washington. When the Washington Senators were traveling, 
the ballpark would be available, and the Homestead Grays would play 
games there. By 1943, they were playing about two-thirds of their games 
in Washington and generally had more people at their games than the 
Washington Senators had at their games. They won nine consecutive 
league pennants from 1937 through 1945.
  There was even an effort, when the Nationals team was brought here, 
to call the Nationals the Washington Grays because of that tremendous 
team that had played here. The team owners chose the Nationals because 
it was one of the Washington Senators' official nicknames. That is an 
important part of our history right there, and we are going to be 
celebrating the 100th anniversary of that league in 2020.
  I and Congressman Cleaver, who is on the other side of this building, 
are looking at ways to draw more attention to this great part of our 
story. It is sad because of the segregated elements of it, but it is a 
great story because of the entrepreneurship and the sportsmanship and 
the competitive nature of that league.
  Mr. NELSON. Will the Senator yield?
  Mr. BLUNT. I can tell the Senator is interested. I am pleased to 
yield.
  Mr. NELSON. Indeed, this Senator is interested. Would you believe 
that a lot of those retired players who are still living happen to live 
in Florida?
  Mr. BLUNT. Right.
  Mr. NELSON. Further, as the Senator correctly pointed out, once 
Jackie Robinson was able to break into the majors in 1947, it would be 
another 11 years--1958--before the last team in the Major Leagues 
integrated. Would you believe, for all of that period of time, these 
great baseball players who have contributed so much had no pensions?
  Further, it was years later in this Senate--in the last decade--that, 
finally, the Commissioner of Baseball was brought in front of the 
Commerce Committee in order to face the music about the fact that the 
retired players who had not played in Major League Baseball but in the 
old Negro leagues in America--because they couldn't get into Major 
League Baseball, even while the rest of the teams were being 
integrated, which took 11 years--had no pensions. Would you believe 
that Major League Baseball, through Bud Selig, finally agreed to give 
them onetime pension payments?
  This Senator is so grateful because that has helped so many of the 
residents in my State who are these great players. Senator Blunt has so 
accurately described their considerable talents on the baseball field.
  Mr. BLUNT. I think that is an important part of the history.
  There were a couple of players there last night who had played in the 
league, and of course there are fewer of those players all the time. I 
have had a chance, as you have had, to meet and talk to them over the 
years--to talk about the excitement of that kind of baseball and their 
ability to entertain both with their sportsmanship as well as just with 
their talent as sportsmen.
  I think it was a great league, and it is a great story. I don't know 
if the Senator has had a chance to go to the museum in Kansas City, but 
as a guy who knew those players and appreciates what that league was 
all about, I would certainly love to go there with the Senator 
sometime.
  Mr. NELSON. If the Senator will yield, as a matter of fact, I am 
looking forward to seeing that museum.
  It was one of the Senator's players on the Kansas City Monarchs--
``Peach-Head'' Bob Mitchell, retired, who was living in my State--who 
brought to the attention of his Senator the inequity that had occurred 
in their never getting pensions, even though they were certainly 
capable of getting into Major League Baseball but, because of 
segregation, could not.
  Mr. BLUNT. I am looking forward, along with others, to celebrating 
that century of history. It is an important part of the story to be 
told, and I am glad the Senator has helped add to it here today.