Negro Leagues Baseball Museum to reopen
NEW YORK -- The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum will reopen on Tuesday after closing for 10 days following a positive Covid-19 test for two staff members on Nov. 19.
The museum went through deep cleaning during those 10 days, and NLBM president Bob Kendrick was happy to announce that the entire staff is healthy and ready to work. It marked the second time NLBM has closed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was shut down for almost three months from March 15 to June 12.
“It feels good to open the museum,” Kendrick said via telephone. “We were having such a great run before we hit that roadblock. We are excited to open. We wanted to make sure that we were being as cautious as we possibly could for the health, safety and well-being of our staff, as well as our very valued patrons.”
NLBM will continue to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues through 2021, but for now, things will be a little different when fans visit the museum on East 18th Street, between Vine and Highland, just across from the Gem Theater in Kansas City, Mo. There will be limited hours (11 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and noon to 4 on Sunday) and increased sanitizing every day. Occupancy will be limited to 150 to 200 people at a time.
Kendrick said there is a lot to look forward to. Starting next week, for example, NLBM will display the Barrier Breakers exhibit. It will show a portrait of every player who broke the color barrier for every Major League team. There are 15 players who have that distinction, starting with Jackie Robinson, who became the first African American to play Major League Baseball for the Dodgers.
“It goes from Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 through Pumpsie Green 12 years later with the Boston Red Sox,” Kendrick said. “Jackie’s story has been well documented, but it should not diminish the second and --in this case -- the 15th player who broke the color barrier. They all went through their own trials and tribulations as they were trying to blaze a path to pursue their Major League careers. After Jackie, the rest of the players -- for the most part -- have been footnotes in baseball history. We believe these players should be more than a footnote.”
The NLBM is a privately funded, non-profit organization; annual renewing memberships to support the museum are available ranging from $25 to $1,000. Membership includes free admission for the year, a 10 percent discount on merchandise from the NLBM Extra Inning Store and advance information on special events. Members also receive a gift and additional benefits at each level of support.