Negro League marks 100th anniv.

As the country reckons with various racial injustices throughout its history, baseball — which prides itself on being “America’s Pastime” — must do the same.

The 100th anniversary of Rube Foster founding the Negro National League, and the accompanying #Tipyourcap social media campaign, provides an opportunity to do so. Four past presidents, Hank Aaron, Michael Jordan and countless celebrities have already “tipped their caps” to honor the past.

Had Major League Baseball integrated prior to 1947, the names of Cool Papa Bell, Oscar Charleston, Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Satchel Paige, Biz Mackey and Foster would be listed alongside Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Walter Johnson and Ty Cobb.

Gibson could have surpassed Ruth as the slugger of his generation. Perhaps Paige would top several pitching categories in the record books. Instead, the names of the Negro League legends are reserved to be memorized by the diehards, pushed to the periphery once again.

It doesn’t have to be that way, though, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on 18th and Vine Street in Kansas City, Missouri, is a haven of baseball’s segregated history.

On display are artifacts and authentic jerseys that potentially could have been lost to time. The bronze sculptures around an indoor diamond is among the many neat features. The most knowledgeable baseball fan could spend hours in this shrine and leave with a wealth of new information.

The museum began as a one-room exhibit in 1991, but under the leadership of the late O’neill — the museum’s first chairman — it moved into its current location in November 1997.

During the league’s spread in the 1930s and 40s, more than a handful of cities across America — Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Cincinnati, Louisville, Mobile, New Orleans, Raleigh, Detroit, New York, Philadelphia — housed teams, leading to the sport’s growing popularity in minority communities.

When MLB began allowing Black players to sign professionally, the league couldn’t survive and ceased to exist after 1962.