Negro Leagues Museum could be in trouble
January 30, 2010
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP)—The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a unique window intoa vital chapter of American history that the late Buck O’Neil helped open 20years ago, could be in trouble.
Attendance and revenues are down, and a decision by new management todistance itself from O’Neil has splintered many of its most loyal supporters.
What’s more, the recession has cut deeply into donations. After posting itsfirst loss two years ago of about $30,000, the museum is looking at what onestaffer termed “a monster loss” that could approach a quarter of a milliondollars when the final accounting for 2009 is complete. For a relatively smallmuseum that has always depended on the kindness of others, $200,000 is seismic.
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Much of the revenue loss is traceable to a drop in licensing revenue. No oneis predicting the museum’s imminent demise, but everyone agrees the trend mustbe reversed.
“For museums all over the country, dollars are becoming hard to find,”said Greg Baker, who took over as executive director a little more than a yearago. “We are challenged by that. We’ve got to raise money to keep going and ifwe don’t, we’ll end up closing our doors.”
If it shuts down, the country will lose the only museum dedicatedexclusively to black baseball’s unique contribution to American culture and thevital role those men played in the long and painful march toward equality.
“This place is cherished by too many people to let that happen,” historianand filmmaker Ken Burns said. “It would be a cultural tragedy.”
O’Neil, a two-time Negro Leagues batting champion and longtime manager ofthe Kansas City Monarchs, died 3 1/2 years ago at 94. Extraordinarily charismatic,he crisscrossed the country the last 15 years of his eventful life, spinningentertaining tales of long gone African-American stars while making friends andraising money for the museum.
He and a few others began the museum in a little office in 1990. With thehelp of Burns’ epic film on the history of baseball, the museum grew into a10,000-square foot facility in Kansas City’s historic 18th and Vine district.
Crammed with photographs, artifacts, memorabilia and interactive exhibits,it tells the story from the late 1800s until the late 1950s after the majorleagues became fully integrated. Just down the street is the old YMCA buildingwhere Rube Foster formed the Negro Leagues in 1920.
But O’Neil’s passing robbed the museum of its eloquent goodwill ambassadorand almost immediately, controversy and infighting set in among management.
Most divisive has been Baker’s decision to back away from the museum’sstrong connection to O’Neil. Some board members have resigned. Plans to move themuseum to the old YMCA building and build the Buck O’Neil Education and ResearchCenter have been put on hold in spite of a $1 million donation for that specificpurpose by Julia Irene Kauffman, daughter of the late founder of the Kansas CityRoyals.
“On hold, languishing, nearly forgotten—all are terms that are applicablehere,” said Mark Bryant, a Kansas City attorney and board member from 2004-09.
Like many, Bryant is disturbed by the shift from the memory of the museum’smost beloved ambassador.
“I believe that more than any other person, the success of the museum wasthe result of the efforts of Buck O’Neil,” Bryant said. “If we enjoy areservoir of good will, locally and nationally, it was built on the back of BuckO’Neil.”
Burns agrees.
“I am extremely disappointed in the tact it is taking,” he said. “It isfoolish, absolutely foolish in the extreme to think you would not take advantageof the meaning of Buck’s life to help this museum which he struggled so hard tohelp create.”
O’Neil’s voice has been removed from the museum’s telephone greeting. Butwhat has most angered many people was the decision to de-emphasize his annualbirthday celebration in November. The all-day party used to draw as many as 500people to the museum. But last year, a fraction of that showed up and the eventwas not used as a fundraiser.
Baker insists he does not intend to forget O’Neil and is trying to widen themuseum’s circle of friends. Toward that end, he has involved the families ofother Negro League stars in museum activities. Sean Gibson, the great-grandsonof Hall of Famer Josh Gibson and the head of the Josh Gibson Foundation inPittsburgh, presented a plaque at the museum’s annual Legacy Awards dinner onSaturday night.
“You might say people are still in shock that Buck is gone,” Baker said.“They are still languishing there. When you lose somebody like that, sometimesit takes a little time to bounce back. I think they will eventually see this isa really, really good strategy to help keep this museum moving and advancing. Ifyou love Buck, how can you separate the museum from Buck? I’m not Buck O’Neil.There was only one Buck O’Neil.”
The history of the Negro Leagues, as O’Neil often pointed out, is much morethan a baseball story.
Many historians believe the modern civil rights movement began even before1955 when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person and promptedMartin Luther King to stage the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. They point toJackie Robinson breaking the major league racial barrier shortly after World WarII as the real spark.
But long before America had heard of Jackie Robinson, men like SatchelPaige, Oscar Charleston and Cool Papa Bell graced segregated baseball fieldsthroughout the country. Gibson was the only man to hit a ball clear out of oldYankee Stadium. They often beat all-star white teams in exhibition games thatwould pack the house and showed that black players were as skilled andentertaining to watch as whites.
By paving the way, they made sure mainstream America was ready to acceptRobinson—a former Negro Leaguer who played for the Monarchs—when finally hemade his courageous debut with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.
As it turned out, Robinson’s breakthrough to the majors hastened theeventual death of the Negro Leagues. But, as Buck O’Neil would admonish, wasteno pity on the Negro Leaguers.
“Feel sorry for the people who never got to see us,” he once said. “Wewere good.”
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