Baseball Hall to have retired players in May 25 tribute to Negro Leagues All-Star Game
mostly or entirely in the Negro Leagues, including Buck O’Neil, Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Monte Irvin and Cool Papa Bell.
“The stories have been told and we think we know the stories but the more we dig into the stories, we find out there’s something that hasn’t been told,” four-time 20game winner Dave Stewart said.
Major League Baseball has recognized seven Negro Leagues from 1920-48 as having big league status, but incorporating those numbers has not yet been completed.
“As a kid growing up, I thought Negro League baseball was backyard, barnstorming baseball. These guys were the best athletes in the game and in the world at the time,” Sabathia said. “These guys were the LeBron James of that time.”
In 1997, the hall celebrated the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking the major league color barrier with “Pride and Passion: The AfricanAmerican Baseball Experience.”
“The way in which the world views baseball, Black baseball, race relations has changed in 25 years,” Hall president Josh Rawitch said. “It’s also really important to the curatorial team and everybody else involved that it’s not just stories of struggle and challenges, it’s also a celebration.”
Sabathia, a six-time AllStar and 251-game winner, is eligible for the 2025 Hall of Fame vote. He went to Cooperstown two years ago with son Carter for a youth game.
“That was the first time I really, really, really thought about it, and I was like, damn, I really want to be in the Hall of Fame. I never thought about being in the Hall of Fame when I was playing,” Sabathia said. “Walking into the plaque room was like — for me was like walking into a church.”