Glory Days : Negro Leagues Exhibit at O.C. Sports Hall of Fame Reveals a Time When the Game Was Divided

In all probability, famous Negro League stars such as Satchel Paige, Josh Gibson, Cool Papa Bell, Ray Dandridge and Leon Day--all of whom are in baseball’s Hall of Fame--never played the game in Orange County.

But starting Saturday, some of their memorabilia will be on public display in the Negro Leagues exhibit at the Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, adjacent to Anaheim Stadium, in conjunction with Black History Month.

Visitors to the exhibit will be greeted by a two-minute video overview on the Negro Leagues, followed by a number of displays of jerseys, pennants, posters, photos, balls, bats and gloves.

Among the items exhibited:

--Twenty color photos depicting artifacts of the teams that made up the Negro Leagues. The photos are also in a 1997 calendar that can be purchased at the hall.

--Tributes to Paige, Toni Stone (the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues) and Jackie Robinson.

--A list of Negro League inventions that are now commonplace equipment today, including shin guards, the umpire’s chest protector, the hinge-pocket catcher’s glove and the batting helmet.

--Autographed balls, original team jerseys and bats and gloves used by, among others, Gibson, Paige and Robinson. There is a ticket from a professional football game Robinson played in, as a member of the Los Angeles Bulldogs against the New York Yankees in 1937.

The exhibition is the brainchild of Bobby McDonald, a founder and former president of the hall, and current president of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County.

McDonald wanted the chamber and hall to do something in conjunction with Black History Month, which begins Saturday. He also wanted to remind people about the hall, which has been closed while Anaheim Stadium undergoes renovation.

“There was some fear the hall might be forgotten,” McDonald said. “Doing something like this brings attention to it and Anaheim Stadium.”

Don Steele, president of the hall, said this is the first time such an exhibit has been available to the facility.

“Bobby and I had been talking about this since last September,” Steele said. “It is not a permanent part of the hall, but it’s the first time such recognition has taken place in Orange County.”

Most of the exhibit comes from the private collection of Dick Simpson, a Negro League historian who also has worked as a consultant with some major league teams. McDonald said Simpson, who is a longtime friend, was the only person he contacted for memorabilia.

Simpson said he began collecting in 1950. “It started because of a conversation with my mother. I was complaining to her then that I didn’t see any attempts to preserve our history. She told me, ‘If you think it’s so important, why don’t you start collecting things? Because if you don’t, you’re no better than the people you complain about.’ ”

Simpson, who lives in Santa Clarita, said his mother gave him the first two pieces of his collection--two baseballs from the 1950 Negro Leagues All-Star game.

Last year, McDonald sent requests to 20 area businesses asking them to help support the exhibit and other Chamber of Commerce events, including a scholarship tennis tournament in April and a banquet in June.

McDonald said the chamber already has received more than $100,000 in corporate donations from such contributors as Southern California Edison, Nordstrom, State Farm Insurance and Wells Fargo. The money has been presented to three local universities--Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine and Chapman--for scholarships for county African American high school students.

“We’re working on getting scholarships in place at all of the community colleges too,” McDonald said.

McDonald has been putting the exhibit together since January, replacing Rams memorabilia with Negro League items in the display cases.

McDonald said the hall will be open the entire month of February for the exhibit. It is also adding some displays to recognize National Girls and Women in Sports Day, which is Thursday. After February, the hall will be used only for private receptions until the Angel season begins in April.

McDonald said he hopes everybody, not only African Americans, will visit the exhibit. He is especially eager for schoolchildren to see it and already has received requests from Crescent Intermediate School in Anaheim Hills and the Fullerton Boys and Girls Club.

“One thing about baseball, it has been a connection for communities everywhere,” he said.

According to the book, “The Negro Leagues,” written by David Craft, professional baseball was first established in 1867. And while there were African American players on several teams--John “Bud” Fowler was the first black professional player (1872) and Moses “Fleetwood” Walker was the first black major leaguer (1884) to name two--by 1898 they had all been barred from the game because of bigotry.

The color line would remain in place until Robinson was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers Oct. 23, 1945. He spent a year in the minors and reached the majors in 1947. This year, major league baseball will have a season-long celebration in Robinson’s honor.

In 1920, Rube Foster gathered a number of successful businessmen--seven black, one white--and formed the Negro National League. Based in the Midwest, it is considered the first organized Negro League. At its height in the late 1930s and early 1940s, there were as many as 20 professional black teams.

Among the best-known teams were the Kansas City Monarchs, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Homestead Grays, Baltimore Elite Giants, Newark Eagles and Birmingham Black Barons.

Like Robinson, Paige would eventually reach the major leagues. (Gibson would not, dying in 1947 at 36 from a stroke and brain tumor.) Other future major leaguers who played in the Negro Leagues include Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Ernie Banks, Monte Irvin, Don Newcombe, Minnie Minoso, Roy Campanella and Larry Doby, who was the first African American to play in the American League.

The Monarchs are arguably the best remembered team; Paige, Gibson and Robinson all played on the team during their careers.

“Imagine what it would be like playing for the New York Yankees in the 1950s, alongside Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra and Billy Martin,” writes former Negro League star Buck Leonard in his biography “I Was Right On Time.” “Then imagine staying in a fine New York City hotel like the Waldorf-Astoria and coming down every morning to breakfast, nodding hello to Frank Sinatra or Doris Day or Fred Astaire as you pass by their tables.

“Well that’s what it felt like for me, playing for the Kansas City Monarchs in the late ‘30s and early ‘40s.”

Not everything in the exhibit is pleasant. McDonald also included reminders of the racism faced by players during those times: a carnival poster with a minstrel black face and large mouth, offering a prize if one could throw three bean bags through the mouth. Another, smaller, metal placard on display was the clubhouse entrance sign for “colored players.”

“You can’t hide the way things were then,” McDonald said. “That’s the way blacks were portrayed then.”

For the most part, though, the exhibit concerns itself with the glory of their times, rather than the pain.

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Exhibit Facts and Figures

* What: Negro Leagues exhibit.

* Where: Orange County Sports Hall of Fame, second floor of annex building by Gate 6, Anaheim Stadium.

* Dates: Guided tours offered Tuesday-Saturdays, beginning Saturday, throughout February.

* Times: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

* Admission: $2 for adults, $1 for children

* Information: (714) 547-2646 or (714) 758-9882