Speaker 1: And now an exclusive interview with David Bassey for Dodger Talker.
Speaker 1: We're joined right now by a very special man, a
Speaker 1: man that is keeping the voices alive of the Negro Leagues,
Speaker 1: and he is the president of the Negro League Museum.
Speaker 1: He is the best dressed man in Kansas City. That's
Speaker 1: the one and only Bob Kendrick. Bob, thanks a lot
Speaker 1: for joining us.
Speaker 2: Oh, Dave, it was great to see you man. Thanks
Speaker 2: so much for having me on the show.
Speaker 1: Well, the franchise of Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Don Newcomb,
Speaker 1: just to name a few. I mean, it is special
Speaker 1: to come to Kansas City and see the museum.
Speaker 2: Well, and there's a bridge between the two cities, because
Speaker 2: a lot of people don't know, Dave, that Jackie Robinson's
Speaker 2: illustrious professional baseball career began right here in Kansas City
Speaker 2: with the great Kansas City Monarchs in nineteen forty five
Speaker 2: in the Negro Leagues.
Speaker 3: Now, he was only here for five months, but.
Speaker 2: As I tell people, the five months he's been in
Speaker 2: Kansas City, he fell in love with everything that Kansas
Speaker 2: City is famous for.
Speaker 3: Barbecue and zaz I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And Jackie was a big man of jazz and
Speaker 1: baseball and all that. And Roy Campanella three time MVP.
Speaker 1: He was a big player in the negro Leagues as
Speaker 1: well well.
Speaker 2: Narah and the Dodgers had a litany of great stars
Speaker 2: that came out of the negro Leagues. Camp He joined
Speaker 2: the team in the negro Leagues called the Baltimore Elite Giants.
Speaker 2: Now it's spelled Elite, but it's pronounced elite because you
Speaker 2: make those negro leaguers mad if you call him the
Speaker 2: Elite Giants. Well, Campy joins the elites as a fifteen
Speaker 2: year old catcher. Can you believe a fifteen year old
Speaker 2: kid catching professionally in the negro Leagues? But as I
Speaker 2: tell my guests, he was not your typical fifteen year old.
Speaker 2: He was a fifteen year old man style, but he
Speaker 2: was fifteen nevertheless, and the great Raleigh biss MACKI took
Speaker 2: him under his wing and taught him the art of catching.
Speaker 2: And I don't have to tell Dodger fans. Roy Campanella
Speaker 2: will become a three time MVP with the Brooklyn Dodgers
Speaker 2: before a tragic car accident left him paralyzed and cut
Speaker 2: short what was still Hall of Fame career.
Speaker 1: When we come to the Negro League Museum and you
Speaker 1: tell the stories of the negro Leagues, are you mesmerized
Speaker 1: as much as we are, even though you've told the
Speaker 1: stories many times? Oh?
Speaker 3: Man, this never gets old for me. It doesn't.
Speaker 2: And every time I get a young athlete of any
Speaker 2: sports discipline, but particularly my young Major League baseball players,
Speaker 2: it just fills me with great joy to walk them
Speaker 2: through that museum, to share the stories, many of these
Speaker 2: stories that the lay great Buck O'Neil and other legendary
Speaker 2: negro leaguers shared with me, and in doing so, I
Speaker 2: feel like I'm keeping them alive in my mind and
Speaker 2: in my heart. But the thing that I share that
Speaker 2: the threat that they have with those who played in
Speaker 2: the negro Leagues is real simple love of the game.
Speaker 3: You play this game because you love it. And I
Speaker 3: know sometimes as fans we.
Speaker 2: Can get a little fickle because we equate everything to money,
Speaker 2: and so these guys are afforded an opportunity to make
Speaker 2: a great living, but it's still about the love of
Speaker 2: the game. They are still playing a game that they
Speaker 2: played for free, and if they had to play it
Speaker 2: for free, they would still play it for free. But
Speaker 2: as I remind them, you will never see a greater
Speaker 2: example of love of the game than you do when
Speaker 2: you walk through the Negro League's Baseball Museum. They had
Speaker 2: to love it in order to endure the things that
Speaker 2: they had to endure.
Speaker 1: What's the lasting legacy of Jackie Robinson with the Negro
Speaker 1: Leagues and just how special is it for him to
Speaker 1: be not only the face of American sports history, but
Speaker 1: American history period.
Speaker 3: Absolutely?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we take great pride that Kansas City
Speaker 2: and the Negro Leagues gave America arguably its greatest hero
Speaker 2: in Jackie Robinson. And for those who subscribe to the
Speaker 2: belief that one individual cannot invoke change, well you need
Speaker 2: to look no further than Jackie Roosevelt Robinson because when
Speaker 2: he walked out on that field as a member of
Speaker 2: the Brooklyn Dodgers, he was called everything but my mother
Speaker 2: would say, but a child of God when he walked
Speaker 2: out there, and he handled himself with such grace, class
Speaker 2: and dignity. But the other side of the ledger is
Speaker 2: that he was also shouldering the weight of twenty one
Speaker 2: million black folks who were counting on him to succeed. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's an enormous amount of pressure for any one
Speaker 2: individual to have to bear, and he did it with
Speaker 2: tremendous grace, class, and dignity. We should never forget Jackie Robinson,
Speaker 2: and Baseball has made it such. The Dodger organization has
Speaker 2: made it such that baseball fans likely won't ever forget
Speaker 2: Jackie Robinson. And certainly, as long as that museum is
Speaker 2: there operating here in Kansas City, his story will always.
Speaker 3: Be at the forefront.
Speaker 2: But so will those other trailblazers, those who built the
Speaker 2: bridge that allow Jackie to cross over and for others
Speaker 2: to then follow right behind him.
Speaker 1: Bob, before I let you go show Haltani one of
Speaker 1: the greatest players we've ever seen in Major League Baseball?
Speaker 1: Was there anybody like Otani and the Negro leagues?
Speaker 2: Well, the thing that I love about this phenom by
Speaker 2: the name of shoe hey Atani is that it has
Speaker 2: opened up the opportunity for me to talk about the
Speaker 2: great two way stars of the Negro leagues. And so
Speaker 2: when Shoe Hay first gets here to play in the
Speaker 2: major leagues, everyone was saying, Babe Ruth. But in my opinion,
Speaker 2: baby Ruth is a wrong comparison. The real comparison is
Speaker 2: to a guy named Wilbur Bullet Rogan, who was a
Speaker 2: star pitcher for the Kansas City Monarchs.
Speaker 3: He is in the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2: But when Bullet Rogan wasn't pitching and he was a
Speaker 2: dominant pitcher, he played the outfield and hit cleanup for
Speaker 2: the Kansas City Monarchs. Now let me tell you, you don't
Speaker 2: just hit clean up for the Kancity Monarch.
Speaker 3: You've got to be able to rake.
Speaker 2: And in the words of the immortal Leroy satchel Page,
Speaker 2: in the beautiful vernacular of LeRoy's Satchel Page, who said
Speaker 2: that Bullet Rogan is the onliest ball player I ever
Speaker 2: heard of. I've ever seen that pitch and hit in
Speaker 2: the clean up position. That was Robert Bullet Joe Rogan.
Speaker 1: All right, you got a parallel to show. Hey, Otani,
Speaker 1: I knew you would have the answer to that.
Speaker 2: No, But you know, I, like the rest of us,
Speaker 2: I'm a baseball fan. We marvel at what Shoh has done.
Speaker 2: And it also gives me an opportunity to talk about
Speaker 2: that connection between the negro leagues in Japan, because the
Speaker 2: negro leagues go to Japan in nineteen twenty seven. Man,
Speaker 2: that's seven years before Babe Ruth and as all Americans go.
Speaker 2: And they've been commonly credited with having taken our brand
Speaker 2: of professional baseball to the Japanese, but it's not true.
Speaker 2: It was a team called the Philadelphia Royal Giants. They
Speaker 2: go over to Japan in nineteen twenty seven, they play
Speaker 2: a twenty four game exhibition series. They go twenty three
Speaker 2: to zero to one on that tour, and if you
Speaker 2: were to talk to the older Japanese baseball historian, they
Speaker 2: will tell you that it was that tour and a
Speaker 2: subsequent tour by that same Philadelphia Royal Giant that was
Speaker 2: the spark that lit the flame that is now the
Speaker 2: fire for professional baseball in Japan. And it's certainly played
Speaker 2: a role in why we were able to get stars
Speaker 2: such as today Nomo, my dear friend ichi Rosuzuka, who's
Speaker 2: about to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame,
Speaker 2: and of course this phenom by the name of sho
Speaker 2: Hey Antani. The Negro leagues play a pivotal role. They
Speaker 2: help make our game the global game that it is today.
Speaker 2: They just never were given credit for it.
Speaker 1: That's why the Negro Leagues can never be forgotten and
Speaker 1: it never will be forgotten because Bob Kendrick has continued
Speaker 1: to tell the story of the great negro Leagues, and
Speaker 1: the Negro League Museum Hall of Fame is one place
Speaker 1: that you have to come to and see our good
Speaker 1: friend Bob Kendrick when you come to Kansas City. Thanks
Speaker 1: a lot for the time, and man, the best stressed
Speaker 1: guy in Kansas City.
Speaker 3: Thank you, No, it is my pleasure.
Speaker 2: I want to thank all those Dodger fans who filled
Speaker 2: up the museum over this weekend series. Thank you guys
Speaker 2: for coming by and seeing us. Thank you for your support,
Speaker 2: and thank you for the opportunity to be on the show.
Speaker 1: Hey we love Bob Kendrick. Thanks a lot for the
Speaker 1: time Bob, and hey we love the stories.