KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues during a game next month.
This season, Major League Baseball celebrated the anniversary with a league-wide recognition last weekend.
“This is a day for celebration of the Negro Leagues, treasured not only for its role in Kansas City’s heritage, but for all of baseball in America,” said Royals Chairman and CEO John Sherman. “This sport has created positive change that still hasn’t reached its finish line. But today is a day that we celebrate players who were just working to create opportunities. In the process, they changed our game and our country for the better. That story of struggle and triumph continues to resonate today.”
The Royals will host the Cards, their in-state rivals, on Sept. 22 for the Salute to the Negro Leagues game. According to a press release, competition between the two cities began many years before the MLB rivalry.
“Long before the vaunted 1985 I-70 series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals, the St. Louis Stars and Kansas City Monarchs clashed in an epic seven-game playoff series to determine which team would advance to face the Hilldale Daisies in the 1925 Negro League World Series,” said Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. “The Monarchs 4-3 series win fueled a baseball rivalry between the two stoic franchises.”
The Royals will wear the 1945 Kansas City Monarchs home uniform, which is a replica of the jersey Jackie Robinson wore when he played for the Monarchs that year. The Cardinals will wear the 1930 St. Louis Stars away uniform which is the team that won the Negro National League Pennant.
“The Cardinals are honored to take part in this year’s Salute to the Negro Leagues game with the Royals,” said Cardinals Team President Bill DeWitt III. “This year’s centennial celebration of the founding of the Negro Leagues is a notable milestone, and it also reminds us that we need to continue to prioritize issues of diversity, equality and inclusion in MLB.”
Uniform pieces and bases will be up for auction starting at 9 a.m. on Sept. 22 through Royals Authentics. All proceeds will benefit the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
