In the days leading up to Juneteenth, the Washington Nationals hosted Negro Leagues Night on Tuesday, June 16, at Nationals Park, honoring Black baseball pioneers.
Instead of the concourses of Nationals Park becoming a sea of scarlet, red, navy blue and white, the vibe around the park felt retro for the night. As fans entered the gates of the stadium, they were greeted by a plastic bag containing a replica flannel-like jersey with “Grays” across the front.
For many Washingtonians, the jerseys served as a reminder of how far African Americans have come in the game of baseball.
“Even though Josh [Gibson], Satchel [Paige] and [James] Cool Papa [Bell] are not here to witness this… their future generations get to experience that for themselves,” said Banneker City Little League director Jamall McKay. “That means a lot to me because it also gives my children, players in my league, the opportunity to come and be a part of this.”
But long before the Nationals arrived in D.C., baseball was thriving in the District, not just through the Washington Senators, but through their Negro League counterparts, the Homestead Grays.
In the early 1940s, the Grays split their home games between Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.’s old Griffith Stadium in Northwest at what is now Howard University Hospital. But as the popularity of baseball grew in D.C., the Grays moved to having more than two-thirds of their home games at Griffith, before disbanding in 1950.
Throughout their time in Washington, the Grays enjoyed massive success, capturing eight league titles in the 1940s and playing home to legendary Negro League players such as Gibson, Bell and Buck Leonard.
The Nationals honoring the Homestead Grays meant the world to people like Doug Foster, the great-nephew of Negro National League founder Andrew “Rube” Foster, and the grandson of Bill Hendrick Foster.
“I feel like their story isn’t told enough,” said Foster. “Anytime I get the opportunity to come and just talk about not only who they are, but also what they did for baseball and American culture in general, I just jump at the opportunity.”
Beyond the simple giveaways, the Nationals hosted a panel discussion before first pitch, discussing the pioneers of the Negro Leagues and how these pioneers shaped the modern game of baseball.
The panel included Foster, Sean Gibson, the great-grandson of Negro Leagues legend Josh Gibson; and Jamall McKay, the coach of Howard University’s Club Baseball team and director of Banneker City Little League.
A central focus of the discussion was MLB’s decision to integrate the stats of the Negro Leagues into the official MLB record books in 2024 and the long fight to get there.
Gibson spoke passionately about how this integration helped build a fundamental shift in the narratives for families like his, as his great-grandfather is now recognized as the MLB’s all-time career leader in batting average.
“May 29, [2024] will be a date that none of the families will forget, and that’s when baseball finally made the move to integrate the stats,” he said. “Stats were made to be broken, and they were broken in 2024.”
For many attendees, like Marc Harrison Sr., an assistant director of Athletics for D.C. Public Schools, the night was a celebration of coming together in the name of Black baseball pioneers – even in the midst of a heated election season and in a modern world of divisiveness.
“It’s a really beautiful thing to see so many people unified to recognize the true history of the game, not just the partial history,” Harrison told The Informer.
