I'm Bob Kendrick, and I want to tell you about the man who I regard as the most influential man in baseball history.

To see this strong black man who is responsible for putting the lead together at a time when there wasn't a lot of

black and white interaction with regards to business. I mean, there's ahead of your time,

and then there's beyond that, whatever that thing is, he wasn't.

Let me introduce you to Rube Foster, Andrew Rube Foster, the genius.

It will be Rube Foster who would establish the Negro Leagues here in Kansas City in a meeting of eight independent black baseball team owners. They met at the Pasell YMCA, literally a stone's throw from where the museum currently operates.

And out of that meeting came the birth of the Negro National League, the first successful organized black baseball league. It wasn't a new phenomena for black

folks playing baseball, and we've been playing professional baseball for quite some time. But it was very

haphazard. Promoters were taking all of the money, or booking agents were taking all of the money,

and players were jumping from team to team.

So really, it was at the urgency of the black press who was pushing for a more formalized structure to black baseball that would actually mirror Major League Baseball.

And Roop Foster took on the challenge,

because there had been others prior to Rube

that had attempted to create a Negro Leagues

but had failed.

Rube Foster had the juice.

And he took on the challenge

of creating this organized body for the Negro Leagues. And that is what led us to the meeting here in Kansas City. He was able to convince these other independent black baseball team owners. And I don't think it was difficult for Roob to sell anything. I think Roob had the ability to sell, which is what made him such a skilled

manager and a masterful promoter. He had the gift of Gab, and he was able to convince those

other independent black baseball team owners that in order for black baseball to flourish and

thrive, that they absolutely needed to have

an organized structure. Roob, who had booking rights of three of those teams and ownership

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