Barred from playing in the major leagues in the early 1900s, many Black baseball players still played professionally in the Negro Leagues on teams throughout the country.
After Major League Baseball began integrating in 1947, many Negro League players went on to play there, and by 1960 the Negro Leagues were gone.
Dennis Biddle, who played in the Negro Leagues before suffering a career-ending injury in the 1950s, wants to preserve the history of the Negro Leagues and support its former players. To help secure health care and a pension for former players, he and Sherwood Brewer, another former player who played with Jackie Robinson, set up Yesterday’s Negro League Baseball Players Foundation in 1996.
Today, Dennis and Patrice Biddle continue the foundation’s work through a museum and memorabilia store in Mayfair Mall, while also working in schools to educate young people about the Leagues’ history and supporting local Little Leagues. Proceeds from memorabilia sales go to the Foundation’s work.
As the Milwaukee Brewers host the annual Negro League Tribute game on Friday, July 21, Dennis and Patrice Biddle have raised funds to bring former Negro League players from across the country to attend the game and other festivities throughout the weekend.
With only a few dozen former players still living, Dennis and Patrice Biddle have made it their mission to document accounts of Negro League history from these living players. For them, it is a matter of making sure accurate accounts of the Leagues are not forgotten.
“For many years, they never talked about the Negro League,” Dennis Biddle said. “Even players who went on to play in the major leagues, they said very little about their play in the Negro Leagues.”
They also want to do what they can to keep baseball accessible to the next generation of Black ballplayers.
“How do we get African-American kids back interested in the sport of baseball?” Patrice Biddle said. “We’ve decided to go to the schools where we can reach the kids instead of waiting for them to come to the parks.”
You can learn more about Yesterday’s Negro League Baseball Players Foundation here.
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