How Bob Kendrick helps Negro League history come alive

The Berry Tramel Show: Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, has helped bring the Negro Leagues’ statistics into the official baseball record, and its players into MLB: The Show, the most popular baseball video game.

By Berry Tramel

| Feb 21, 2024, 3:00pm CST

By Berry Tramel

Feb 21, 2024, 3:00pm CST

Bob Kendrick is president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and is one of the leading caretakers of baseball history in America, promoting not just the Negro Leagues’ past, but that history’s value in going forward in both baseball and American society. Kendrick has overseen the museum’s success story in becoming a beacon of Major League Baseball culture. Negro League statistics are now a part of the official MLB record, and Negro Leaguers even have joined the likes of baseball’s prominent video game. Kendrick will be in Oklahoma City to promote the Rookie League Foundation on Feb. 28-29.

Episode highlights:

2:50: Bob Kendrick on promoting baseball and softball to inner-city youth via the Rookie League Foundation.

8:16: Bob Kendrick on Oklahoman Bullet Joe Rogan and the 100-year commemoration of the first Negro Leagues World Series, played in 1924.

13:51: On the Negro Leagues being included in the MLB: The Show video game.

17:16: On Major League Baseball recognizing Negro Leagues statistics in the official baseball records.

21:26:On the history of the Negro Leagues that still could be uncovered.

Producer: Jacquelyn Musgrove

Creative Director: Michael Lane

Social media: Bobby Howard

Director of Content: Mike Sherman

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Berry Tramel is a 45-year veteran of Oklahoma journalism, having spent 13 years at the Norman Transcript and 32 years at The Oklahoman. He has been named Oklahoma Sportswriter of the Year by the National Sports Media Association. Born and raised in Norman, Tramel grew up reading four newspapers a day and began his career at age 17. His first assignment was the Lexington-Elmore City high school football game, and he’s enjoyed the journey ever since, having covered NBA Finals and Rose Bowls and everything in between. Tramel and his wife, Tricia, were married in 1980 and live in Norman near their daughter, son-in-law and three granddaughters. Tramel can be reached at 405-760-8080 or at [email protected].