I wasn't a star Major League player, so strategy meant something to me, because I loved the game, and I knew the game.

And I also came up in an era in Martin Luther King. I always wanted to lead men, push men to the limits. And I said,

hey, it's on. Hey, it's Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League's Baseball Museum

and host of Black Diamonds, we're back.

It's been a little while, but we are back.

We've heard from a lot of you looking for new episodes, and we'll continue to release occasional episodes.

But don't forget, there's over 100 episodes available to listen to any time, wherever you get your podcast.

Now we get to talk about an event that is so near and dear to my heart.

And it's called the Hall of Game.

And of course, the Negro League Baseball Museum created its annual Hall of Game

to honor former Major League Greats, who we believed embodied the spirit and played the game

in the signature style of the Negro Leagues. This year's class, the 2025 class of inductees into a Hall of Game,

are tremendously special.

Because in May of this year, we opened a brand new exhibition called Leaders and Innovators.

And the Leaders and Innovators exhibition was done in conjunction with this year

marking the 50th anniversary of the great Frank Robinson becoming Major League Baseball's first full-time African-American

manager. And so we thought that it would be more than appropriate to take a retrospective look

back at the great managerial minds of the Negro Leagues, who quite frankly, y'all, did not get an

opportunity to transition into Major League Baseball, nor did those risk-taking owners of the Negro

leagues. There were no front office jobs available to them as the Negro Leagues would slowly meet its demise after Jackie Robinson's breaking of the color barrier.

When we examine the hierarchy of integration in Major League Baseball, of course, it starts in the modern era with Jackie Robinson joining the Brooklyn Dodgers

on April 15, 1947.

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