MLB to celebrate 100th anniversary of Negro Leagues in 2020

Major League Baseball will celebrate the founding of the Negro Leagues — and such stars as Cool Papa Bell, Buck O’Neil, Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige — during the 2020 season.

The announcement was made Thursday at the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, Missouri, where the Negro National League was founded on Feb. 13, 1920.

Also announced was a $1 million joint donation from MLB and the Major League Baseball Players Association to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.

“Major League Baseball is honored to recognize the men and women whose legacies in the Negro Leagues greatly contributed to the history of our sport,” said MLB commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr.

Additional activities celebrating the likes of Rube Foster, Josh Gibson, Oscar Charleston, Buck Leonard, Toni Stone, Mamie “Peanut” Johnson, Connie Morgan, Larry Doby, Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Bell, O’Neil, Robinson and Paige will be planned in association with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and its president, Bob Kendrick.

“The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is grateful for the generosity and continued support of Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association, which further advances our efforts to preserve, celebrate and educate the public about the transcending legacy of the Negro Leagues,” Kendrick said. “The formation of the Negro Leagues in 1920 was a watershed moment in baseball and American history and we look forward to collaborating in a league-wide show of solidarity to commemorate this game-changing milestone.”

All MLB teams will sponsor centennial celebration activities on June 27. Players, managers, coaches and umpires will wear a symbolic Negro Leagues 100th anniversary logo patch during all games.