Why ‘Ted Lasso’ will feature Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, and what it means
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- ‘Ted Lasso’ will prominently feature the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in 2025.
- Series creator Jason Sudeikis connected with NLBM president Bob Kendrick in 2022.
- Museum’s exposure through the show aims to boost awareness of Negro Leagues legacy.
The first time Bob Kendrick and Jason Sudeikis met was Thanksgiving 2022, when Kendrick was honored to flip the switch for the 93rd annual Plaza Lighting Ceremony.
No surprise that the two affable Kansas City treasures “kind of hit it off,” as Kendrick put it on Monday.
Perhaps especially since they were likeminded enough to coincidentally each be wearing variations of KC Monarchs caps — which apparently sparked at least part of the conversation that included exchanging phone numbers.
“I talked about my dream of one day doing a dramatic TV series on the Negro Leagues,” said Kendrick, the president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. “He was really intrigued by that. And that’s still something that I’m steadily pitching, and I think it’s going to eventually happen.”
Sure hope so, because it would be an amazing way to spread the tale that’s such an essential part of American history.
In the meantime, though, the precious institution is about to enjoy another form of exponential growth in awareness by way of Sudeikis, the Shawnee Mission West grad instrumental to the mega-hit “Ted Lasso” series.
Because the NLBM and history it commemorates — each embodying hope and belief — will enjoy what Kendrick called “a starring role” in the show that made hope and “Believe” a catch-term just when we needed it most at the height of the pandemic and beyond.
While Kendrick is sworn to secrecy about details of what was filmed Sunday at the museum for Season 4 of the hit Apple TV+ show, he understands the international scope and scale and attention that will come with being part of what he called Sudeikis’ “Kansas City junket.”
(Among perhaps other locations, the show also has been filming at Gates Bar-B-Q on Main Street, Country Club Plaza, CPKC Stadium, home of the Kansas City Current of the National Women’s Soccer League, and in a Blue Springs neighborhood.)
You can only wonder how this might strike NLBM founder Buck O’Neil, who liked to say this about Kansas City:
“I knew I was coming to the heart of America; I never knew I was coming to the center of the universe.”
As he considered Sudeikis’ presence of mind to include the NLBM, in fact, Kendrick said the thoughtfulness of the “native son … absolutely resonates” all the more because it makes him think of Buck.
Even as Buck became nationally known, particularly by way of Ken Burns’ “Baseball” documentary, supporting Kansas City and its non-profit endeavors always remained important to him.
“He always understood that him giving back in that manner was going to enhance the quality of life for those who call Kansas City home,” Kendrick said. “I see that same spirit in Jason.”
All the more so after being asked to come watch the filming most of the day Sunday.
“I was really impressed with the respect and dignity and the thoughtfulness that went into what I saw during the course of the shoot,” he said. “Which really gave me full belief that not only did he have an appreciation, but he had an understanding.”
For that matter, so did the cast and production crew — many of whom bought merchandise.
As much as Kendrick enjoyed his time with Sudeikis and Co., including watching a good portion of the England-Spain women’s European Championship game, he won’t directly be part of what was filmed. Alas, he declined a cameo role.
But you can expect that the NLBM overall will be prominent.
And with that will come an entirely different frontier of exposure that figures to further increase visitor numbers and fundraising opportunities. All the more significant as Kendrick continues the $30 million capital campaign to build a new museum with triple the space of the current 10,000-foot facility.
Two years ago, during a group Zoom interview with Sudeikis and other cast members, for instance, questions were submitted from news outlets all over the world: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, India, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.
Based on his social media interactions going “ballistic” after he posted a picture of him with Sudeikis acknowledging the filming, Kendrick reckons the platform will be vast and largely a new audience.
“It’s going to open up this museum and its history to a lot of folks who probably had not thought about that history in any great detail,” he said. “And it’s going to give it significance in their eyes.
“So I have no doubt that there will be a legion of ‘Ted Lasso’ fans who will become endeared to this story because they saw it on the show.”
The opportunity is particularly appealing because it speaks directly to one of the greatest challenges of the job and the mission: how to keep history that’s increasingly distant, Kendrick said, “meaningful and relevant to an ever-changing generation.”
Among ways the NLBM has stayed so present in recent years include MLB recognizing and integrating Negro Leagues statistics into the record books and the Negro Leagues being featured in the video game “MLB The Show.”
“I didn’t realize (MLB The Show) was going to be as big as it is (for the museum),” he said. “And you kind of get the same feeling with this episode of ‘Ted Lasso.’ ”
As it happens, this works both ways.
Not only will Ted Lasso fans come to love the NLBM, but it turns out Ted Lasso will be gaining more fans by way of the NLBM.
Or at least in the form of Kendrick, a human whirlwind who seldom makes time for anything but sports on TV and somehow has never seen Ted Lasso — a show he’s long heard wonderful things about and that’s easy to picture him loving because of all he represents, too.
That programming gap didn’t come up during the filming, he said, laughing.
“Now,” he said, “I’m going to sit down and watch the whole four seasons.”
Including the upcoming one that evidently will just about put Kansas City at the center of the universe like Buck always knew it was.
This story was originally published July 29, 2025 at 5:00 AM.