Baltimore Orioles: Adam Jones makes a charitable connection to the game’s past

With a donation to the Negro League Museum, Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones has moved past last week’s incident at Fenway Park.

Much has been written about the incident in the outfield at Fenway Park on May 1st. Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones was in the outfield, being berated with racist statements and even reportedly projectiles from the outfield.

There have been many words written about that entire incident, and that’s not what this article is about. To his credit, Adam Jones is looking to move beyond what happened while still using the platform he’s been given to affect change and show leadership in the African-American community.

The Museum

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For those who have not had the pleasure of visiting, this writer would compare the historical interest of the

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum

in Kansas City to Cooperstown without hesitation. The displays are static, not frequently changing, like in Cooperstown, but the story of “black baseball” is told very well throughout a time line of artifacts that winds through the museum before finishing with a collection of lockers containing uniforms of some of the greats of the game.

Founded in 1990, the museum is privately funded and is a non-profit organization. The museum offers traveling exhibits, currently focused on art featuring the Negro Leagues, educational programs for schools and parents, and a store with excellent historical Negro League merchandise.

One of the great parts of the museum actually has nothing to do with baseball at all as the museum is connected to a jazz museum through the lobby, with great interactive musical exhibits, exploring the greats of American Jazz, connected to the legendary Blue Room Jazz Club.

Certainly a trip worth taking for either museum!

Jones toured the museum on Saturday and had some pointed comments while on the tour. However, he also offered his view of the hope that education of the history of the struggle of institutional racism in the game can bring better willingness to combat racism that shows up in games. From the article on his Saturday visit, he had this to say about the impact of those players who overcame the institutional racism in the game to become some of the most well-regarded superstars in the game’s history:

“I think the donation that we were able to make, hopefully, other people come together and make it a bigger donation and getting more and more kids and getting more and more adults through this place so they can understand what the Negro Leagues was about. It’s not just about the segregation part, it’s about the education of this great game of baseball. As you’ve seen, once baseball integrated, a lot of African-Americans were very instrumental in the great movement of the game of baseball.”

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On the note of Boston’s response to the incident, beyond the standing ovation in the following game from the Boston crowd, the Red Sox announced this for the first home stand since the Orioles: