Negro Leagues In Spotlight
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Museum fills historical void
Posted: 5:41 PM Jun 17, 2004
Last Updated: 5:41 PM Jun 17, 2004

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Baseball fans looking for something to do between CWS games might want to head over to the Durham Western Heritage Museum for a glimpse of the game's past in the form of the Negro Leagues exhibit.

Buck O'Neil was one of the stars of the Kansas City Monarchs and today he's chairman of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

O'Neil stays busy resurrecting the history of the league around the country.

He says, "It was a history really lost because it actually wasn't documented anyplace. I don't care if kids could be at Yale. You go to the professor and say, 'what about Babe Ruth?' Go to the library and you can read all about Babe Ruth. You say, 'what about Josh Gibson?' Professor would say, 'who?' They just didn't know."

Omaha's Durham Western Heritage Museum is working with Kansas City's Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to present an exhibit on display downtown during the College World Series. One of the goals is to educate baseball fans about the true history of baseball.

Bob Kendrick, with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum says, "Our history books will tell us that the first professional night baseball game took place in 1935, Crosley Field in Cincinnati, Ohio: St. Louis Cardinals and the Cincinnati Reds. The history book is wrong. The first professional night game took place in 1930 in Lawrence Kansas and it featured our very own Kansas City Monarchs."

The Western Heritage Museum is hoping for a crowd in the interest of getting the whole story out about America's Pastime.

The museum's Randall Hayes says, "Baseball is about the players, the games, and the teams. And some of the greatest players who ever played, most people don't know about. Our mission was to educate the public about great players of baseball in America."

The Negro League Exhibit will be on display through June 27th.

  • Western Heritage Museum
  • Negro Leagues Museum

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