Negro League Baseball Museum exhibit to open

The Negro League Baseball Museum’s “Béisbol” exhibit, which it developed in 2014 to honor and explore the connections of African American baseball history to Hispanic cultures, communities, and countries, opens Wednesday at Mid-America Science Museum.

Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, will be featured at two events hosted by the exhibit’s sponsors, the Gateway Community Association and the Ouachita Speaker Series of Hot Springs Village. (See related article in Sports.)

In the first event, Kendrick will speak at 7 p.m. today at the Woodlands Auditorium in Hot Springs Village. The cost is $20.

He will also deliver the keynote at the opening reception for the exhibit from 3: 30-5: 30 p.m. Wednesday at the museum, 500 Mid-America Blvd. The cost is $12 for adults; all Hot Springs School District students are admitted free with a school ID.

Kendrick will talk about the importance of the exhibit, and the Negro League Baseball Museum, to the baseball community, a news release said.

The exhibit will be at the museum through April 11.

“This is a deep, rich history with origins in the late 1800s. The exhibition features profiles of significant baseball players, a timeline of American and Hispanic baseball history, and detailed baseball histories of several countries,” the release said.

The exhibit was made possible by sponsors that include Regions Bank, Alliance Rubber, the Hot Springs Area Community Foundation and the museum.

Kendrick was named president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in March 2011. “Founded in 1990, the NLBM is the world’s only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America,” according to the release.

Amy Thomason, president of the Ouachita Speaker Series, said it hosts six speakers who engage the audience on a wide variety of topics.

“The vision is to bring stimulating, provocative and thought-provoking speakers to the Village for people to enjoy, be inspired by and to create a time for lively interaction between speaker and Villagers,” Thomason said.

Robin Wise, president of the Gateway Community Association, formerly the Pleasant Street Neighborhood Association Inc., said in the release the neighborhood organization represents the largest primary African American historic neighborhood adjacent to downtown in the state of Arkansas with homes dated back to 1920s.

Call Jean Lacefield at 501-6232659 or email jeanlacefield@yahoo.com, or call Thomason at 501-209-1950 for the Woodlands Auditorium event.