Celebs tip caps to Negro Leagues heritage as 100-year tribute grows, even amid COVID

On June 27, all 30 teams across Major League Baseball had planned to honor the 100th year of the Negro Leagues with a league-wide celebration.

Players, managers, coaches and umpires were planning to wear commemorative patches to honor the centennial anniversary of the founding of the Negro Leagues. Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, said it would’ve been the first time every team honored the Negro Leagues at the same time in a show of solidarity.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, those plans were postponed.

The recognition of the Negro Leagues “would’ve been a watershed moment for our museum,” according to Kendrick. As a substitute gesture, he organized the “Tip Your Cap to the Negro Leagues” campaign to draw awareness to the accomplishments of Negro Leagues players ... and the museum.

“It was a way to generate awareness for the 100th anniversary and awareness for the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum,” Kendrick said. “We wanted to promote the centennial since so much of it had been lost.”

The campaign has gained traction. Four former presidents — Barack Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter — tipped their caps to the Negro Leagues Monday. Celebrities are participating in the challenge, including Bob Costas, Billie Jean King, four-star general Colin Powell, NBA legend Michael Jordan and the family of Jackie Robinson.

Current players, such as former Royals star Lorenzo Cain and Nelson Cruz, and have been posted on the website, as have former players such as Houston Astros manager Dusty Baker, Kansas City native Rick Sutcliffe, C.C. Sabathia and Hall of Famer Dave Winfield.

Anyone can participate in the campaign by taking a photo or video of himself or herself tipping their cap and sending it to photos@tippingyourcap.com. Photos and videos are posted on a website operated by the Negro Leagues Baseball’s Museum, where visitors are also able to make donations to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

In his video, Winfield, a 12-time All-Star, tipped his cap to his favorite team, the Kansas City Monarchs. Kendrick said Winfield has always been a supporter of the museum who understands just how important those players were to his success in the major-league level.

“I will always love and respect everyone that played in the Negro Leagues,” Winfield said in his Tip Your Cap video. “I hope that you’ll join the celebration this year, as well.”

Kendrick said the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum had a lot of events planned to commemorate the 100th season.

On Feb. 13, Kendrick went to KC’s Paseo YMCA to honor the men who started the Negro Leagues in that very spot in 1920. MLB commissioner Rob Manfred and Royals owner John Sherman, among others, also visited the YMCA, which is right around the corner from where the museum was established.

The next major event was scheduled for May 2, when Kendrick and others were planning a visit to Indianapolis to recognize the date and location of the first game played by the Negro Leagues.

Kendrick said the stories of the Negro Leagues are stories of perseverance and resilience, with lessons that can still be applied to today’s world. The COVID-19 pandemic was a roadblock, but he got to work, thinking of new ways to celebrate the accomplishments of Negro Leagues players.

Most of this year’s events have been rescheduled for 2021. While the celebration won’t fall on the centennial anniversary of the league, Kendrick believes that, collectively, they’ll still be a fitting tribute.

Kendrick likes to think the current Tip Your Cap campaign is building a groundswell of support from and in the baseball community. Ultimately, he hopes that this campaign will keep paying tribute to the rich history of the Negro Leagues — one that some Americans still don’t know much about.

“Most people didn’t know this story. They didn’t know a Negro Leagues existed, no less to the magnitude in which it existed,” Kendrick said. “As this museum celebrates its 30th year of bringing this story to life, this platform of a centennial celebration was absolutely going to heighten that recognition and awareness of this piece of baseball that is not in the pages of the American history books.”