Ryan Howard goes door to door to invite Negro Leagues legends to MLB’s tribute game
The Cardinals and Giants will face off on June 20 at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala.
Major League Baseball is set to host a regular-season game at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Ala., former home of the Negro Leagues’ Birmingham Black Barons.
The Phillies won’t be playing in it — that honor is reserved for the San Francisco Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals — but Phillies legend Ryan Howard personally invited six Negro Leagues players from the Birmingham area to the game as part of his role in the Commissioner’s Ambassador Program.
In the video posted by MLB, Howard hand-delivered paper invitations for the game, which is titled “A Tribute to the Negro Leagues,” to Joseph Marbury, Clinton “Tiny” Forge, Earnest Harris, Alphonse (Al) Holt, Ferdinand Rutledge, and Charles Willis. Howard also spent time sharing memories and stories with the six former Negro Leaguers.
“I would personally like to say thank you on behalf of myself and on behalf of Major League Baseball and the Commissioner’s Office, for the paths that you’ve been able to blaze for me and other black baseball players to be able to have the ability to play in the Major Leagues and play the game of baseball,” Howard said in the video. “Looking up to you and what the men in front of me have been able to do, I thank you for that, sir.”
» READ MORE: Remembering the local team that played in the first Negro Leagues World Series 100 years ago
Howard has long been involved in honoring the history of the Negro Leagues. He narrated a 2016 film on the history of the Negro League Philadelphia Stars called “They Said We Couldn’t Play.”
All living Negro Leagues players — a number which MLB.com said exceeds 150 — are invited to the game at Rickwood, which is scheduled for June 20.