BALTIMORE — The Baltimore Black Sox were a major part of the historical Negro Leagues baseball teams, and now they're set to be honored in a big way in the South Baltimore community they once called home.
Two local nonprofits are looking to memorialize the Black Sox as part of a massive "Reimagine Middle Branch" project to redevelop the 11-mile stretch of the Patapsco River's Middle Branch waterfront between the Cherry Hill, Westport and Port Covington (now "Baltimore Peninsula") areas.
Reminder: Parks & People is seeking a consultant for Reimagine Middle Branch’s dedication to the Baltimore Black Sox.
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Parks & People is now seeking a consultant to build what is tentatively being called "Baltimore Black Sox Park." The organization is hoping to build the park in the Westport area, since Westport was home to the Negro League teams in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The plan is to have an African-American historical trail as part of the Middle Branch redevelopment, and one stop on the trail will be an exhibit for the Baltimore Black Sox, explained Parks & People president and CEO Frank Lance.
Organizers are envisioning a statue garden, possibly with "10-foot-tall bronze statues of great south Baltimore sports legends, starting with the Black Sox but maybe expanding beyond them to incorporate the broad history of sports traditions in Baltimore," said Brad Rogers, executive director of the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership. "And you can imagine being able to add new players as time went on... So we want to be able to build something that's really pretty serious and important, which is more than just a plaque by the side of the road, which is a real beautiful location and a place where history can be commemorated and made alive today."
Rogers said:
"The Black Sox were not the only Negro League baseball team to play in Baltimore, but they were an astonishing team. They had the million-dollar infield, which is what that infield would have been paid if they had been white players. There are multiple Hall of Fame ball players whose names are hanging on bronze plaques in
[the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum] Cooperstown[, N.Y.] right now who played on that team whose names we have forgotten locally. Satchel Paige, the great player, played for the Black Sox in Westport along the Middle Branch, and we've forgotten that whole history. We want to be able to elevate and celebrate the proud strong history of South Baltimore as we're creating a bold new future for those neighborhoods."
Parks & People is partnering with South Baltimore Gateway Partnership and multiple city agencies, as well as other stakeholders, on the Middle Branch redevelopment project. Lance noted: "One of the things that we're doing as we're doing this work is making sure that the history of the legacy residents are honored. The legacy residents for those communities, that 11-mile stretch, for the most part are predominantly African-American, and at one point in time, it was an African-American enclave because that was only one of the few places that racial policies allowed African-Americans [to] live."
Lance said the nonprofits will be speaking with Major League Baseball, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City on the logistics of the Black Sox project.
"We really want to make sure we do this in a historically accurate and honorable way," he said. "As we're looking to have this tourist destination [of the Middle Branch redevelopment], this active green space in Baltimore, we also want to take this opportunity from an environmental justice perspective to lift up the history of the indigenous people, the legacy residents, and tell the stories of the people there. One of the stories is the Baltimore Black Sox. Baltimore had in the late 19th century, early 20th century, a professional Negro Leagues baseball team, and a championship team at that."
Baltimore City's planning commission is expected to formally ratify the Middle Branch redevelopment plan next month, but Rogers and Lance noted the work on the ground is already underway. Rogers said $164 million worth of work is already in the pipeline, and ribbon-cuttings were recently held for a Gwynns Falls trash wheel, Ripken Field in Cherry Hill, and the Middle Branch Fitness and Wellness Center in Cherry Hill. Also, $48 million has already been raised to restore the first 35 acres of wetlands, which is now underway.
Rogers said:
"We see the Middle Branch being to Baltimore in the 21st century what the inner harbor was in the 20th century, but with a lot of very important lessons learned along the way, including lessons about justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, about environmental justice, about environmental restoration, about public space."
