Pirates Put History on Display

Tuesday, June 27, 2006
By Chuck Finder, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The Pirates yesterday unveiled a lineup that made history, and not the sad-sack version of events scrawled by the current team.

The organization drew back the curtain on its new Highmark Legacy Square project inside the left-field entrance at PNC Park, where life-size bronze statues and interactive kiosks commemorate seven Pittsburgh Negro League greats: catcher Josh Gibson of the Homestead Grays and Pittsburgh Crawfords, Crawfords pitcher Satchel Paige, Crawfords/Grays outfielder Cool Papa Bell, Grays/Crawfords center fielder-manager Oscar Charleston, Grays first baseman Buck Leonard, Grays/Crawfords infielder Judy Johnson and Grays pitcher Smokey Joe Williams.

In all, they played a combined 78 seasons on those storied Pittsburgh teams circa 1925-50. In order, Paige, Gibson, Leonard, Bell, Johnson and Charleston were five of the first six Negro League stars to be enshrined in Cooperstown.

"A lot of people probably don't realize the incredible history we have here," Pirates managing general partner Kevin McClatchy said at a morning ceremony. "Kids today probably don't know about segregated players in different leagues, eating in different restaurants. ... This will tell the story of the Negro Leagues. Because it is a huge part of our baseball history."

The Pirates, who began honoring that history as long ago as the late 1980s, thus become the first Major League Baseball team with what amounts to a miniature Negro League museum. In Kansas City, Mo., home of the celebrated Monarchs of Paige and Buck O'Neil, not to mention the Negro League Baseball Museum, the Royals a decade ago erected a single-wall exhibit at Kauffman Stadium to that city's black-baseball heritage. Yet, nowhere except the NLBM is there a display approximating this one: seven statues, huge commemorative bats overhead and an indoor, 25-seat Legacy Theatre where visitors can see an interactive fans wall created by Carnegie Mellon University and watch a 12-minute video focusing on black baseball in Pittsburgh. The film was written with the help of Pitt professor Rob Ruck and narrated by ESPN's Joe Morgan.

The architect, Ed Scheele, and the sculptor, John Forsythe, joined forces on the Kansas City museum and, as of December, on this Pittsburgh project -- which opens a fortnight before PNC Park plays host to the All-Star Game.

"This was a real fast-track project for us," Scheele said moments after overcoming a technical glitch with a video viewing. He added that usually six months is devoted to a single sculpture and interactive kiosk, let alone seven in that time.

(Chuck Finder can be reached at cfinder@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1724. )