The Future of Negro League Players in the Hall

[Scocs]

It might ultimately come down to a LOT of petitioning on OUR part since these Negro leaguers don't have anyone else....

[Jason19th]

Originally Posted by Scocs

It might ultimately come down to a LOT of petitioning on OUR part since these Negro leaguers don't have anyone else....

I think that this is actually the real problem here. We - collectors and historians -
Are the only ones who seem to have any interest in the negro leagues as a whole. There is a chapter in the Great Experiment called Paul Bunyan in technicolor about Satchel Paige. To me this type of focus actual is a bit of a disservice to the league and players ad a whole. We make players like Paige and Gibson and foster to be myths from an shadow history. We talk about epic and unreal feats like Gibson hitting a ball that landed the next day or Bell being so fast that he could turn off the lights and be in bed before it got dark. But we don't talk about the league as a real league. As a business that employed thousand and brought millions into the black community. As a league that kept stats and had championships and all star games. What I am basically saying is that maybe we need to worry less about getting more players in the hall and more about getting more of the real history into the hall and the public perception

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by Jason19th

I think that this is actually the real problem here. We - collectors and historians -
Are the only ones who seem to have any interest in the negro leagues as a whole. There is a chapter in the Great Experiment called Paul Bunyan in technicolor about Satchel Paige. To me this type of focus actual is a bit of a disservice to the league and players ad a whole. We make players like Paige and Gibson and foster to be myths from an shadow history. We talk about epic and unreal feats like Gibson hitting a ball that landed the next day or Bell being so fast that he could turn off the lights and be in bed before it got dark. But we don't talk about the league as a real league. As a business that employed thousand and brought millions into the black community. As a league that kept stats and had championships and all star games. What I am basically saying is that maybe we need to worry less about getting more players in the hall and more about getting more of the real history into the hall and the public perception

I mentioned it earlier, but I think if we got a group a people involved a project scouring old newspapers, the data is out there to be able to build a better picture of some of the career information.

I've wanted to research some of the barnstorming tours that Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Satchel Paige and others led. (Actually just won a program to the 1953 Jackie Robinson tour at the Huggins and Scott auction that ended last night...)

[Jason19th]

Jeff - I was very lucky to be a part of a pbs show called history dectectives where they did a 15 min segment on a program I have regarding Jackies 1946 barnstorming tour - you can google Jackie Robinson and history detectives for the clip - I have limited wifi right now so I will not be able to send the link

[Topnotchsy]

Originally Posted by Jason19th

Jeff - I was very lucky to be a part of a pbs show called history dectectives where they did a 15 min segment on a program I have regarding Jackies 1946 barnstorming tour - you can google Jackie Robinson and history detectives for the clip - I have limited wifi right now so I will not be able to send the link

Just got a chance to watch it and the segment is awesome! That's a program I'd love to find a copy of one day.