Jimmy Rollins, Andrew McCutchen, Milt Thompson say MLB’s inclusion of Negro Leagues is ‘long overdue’

The living members of the Philadelphia Stars, the city’s Negro League baseball team, would come each summer to Citizens Bank Park to be honored as part of Jackie Robinson Day. The Phillies, Milt Thompson said, would spend hours around the batting cage with the Stars, listening to their stories about playing in West Philadelphia.

“It was phenomenal just to hear how those guys went out and played the game,” said Thompson, an outfielder for the 1993 NL champs and the hitting coach for the 2008 World Series champs.

Those moments provided the Phillies a window into a part of baseball history often overlooked as the Negro League players were not considered to be major leaguers. But that changed last month when Major League Baseball elevated the Negro Leagues -- which encompasses seven leagues from 1920 to 1948 -- to “Major League” status.

The decision means that the statistics and records of the Stars -- who played from 1933 to 1948 -- are now part of Major League Baseball history. Those players the Phillies listened to are now considered major leaguers.

Thompson, Jimmy Rollins, and Andrew McCutchen -- who each spoke Friday on a panel for the African American Museum of Philadelphia ahead of Martin Luther King Day -- said the decision was “long overdue.”

“These stories become real,” said Rollins. “Not just folklore. Not just exaggerations to try and make the Negro Leagues better or to say that they could’ve been major leaguers but didn’t get the chance. Now they have the chance to have a true comparative story. Guys that were playing in a parallel.”

McCutchen wore a Stars jersey this summer to Citizens Bank Park and posted a series of videos to social media about the history of the Negro Leagues in support of their 100th anniversary. McCutchen said he has spent time learning more about the Negro Leagues and digging into the players who played.

“These guys didn’t have a choice to play where they played,” McCutchen said. “They didn’t have a choice. There were so many obstacles thrown against them, but they loved the game so much that it didn’t matter where they played, how they played, where they stayed, or what they made. They just wanted to enjoy the game of baseball and play it and honor it. They did that. It’s amazing and I’m really happy for the Negro Leagues. I’m going to keep learning more about it.”

The focus of Friday’s panel, which was presented by the Phillies and Citizens Bank, was activism in sports. (A recording of Friday’s panel can be viewed on the Phillies’ YouTube channel.) McCutchen played a key role this summer in baseball’s social justice movement as he planned a ceremony conducted before each team’s season opener and wrote a speech that was read on opening day by Morgan Freeman.

The ceremony, featuring each player holding onto a long piece of black fabric, was the idea of McCutchen and his wife Maria. First, McCutchen wanted to kneel during the national anthem once baseball returned following weeks of social unrest over police brutality. His wife asked if he could do more than kneel.

So the two of them came up with the pregame ceremony, which McCutchen called a symbol of unity.

“What does it take for the world to change? It takes all of us,” McCutchen said. “Not just baseball. Not just African Americans. It takes every single person for us to fight this one battle that we’ve been fighting for some time. I think people are starting to see that. She said ‘Do that. Show what that means.’”

The activism this summer by players was something Thompson, a major leaguer from 1984-96, could not imagine during his career.

“I was in St. Louis when Jesse Jackson came with the Rainbow Coalition to meet with all of the Black players,” Thompson said. “He said, ‘You guys need to go on strike because we need more African Americans in the front office.’ We just looked at him and said, ‘If we walk off this field, they’re going to replace us and we’re not coming back. We can’t do that.’ Fortunately, times have changed and guys are able to take knees and voice their displeasure with what’s going on right now. Back then, it was different.”

After his rookie season with the Phillies, Rollins flew to Kansas City, to be honored at the Negro League Baseball Museum for leading the National League in stolen bases. Before he received the Cool Papa Bell Award, Rollins saw Buck O’Neill, a name he knew from watching a Negro League movie on HBO.

O’Neill was no longer coming through Rollins’ TV set, but in the room that night as a living connection to the Negro Leagues. And now O’Neill joins Rollins as a major leaguer.

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“A man who lived, played, managed, saw it from the beginning all the way through,” Rollins said. “I got to ask him about the stories I heard. Now I got the unedited version of those stories. It brought it alive to me. You hear things. When you’re sitting there, you see the joy. You see the pain. You see the excitement. You see the sadness in their faces. It really brings what their struggles were to life in a personal way. Not just through a television. But to hear it and to be able to ask questions and get the real answers. Having the players be recognized as real major-league ballplayers is long overdue and I’m glad MLB stepped to the plate.”