KANSAS CITY, Mo. — When it was founded in a one-room office nearly three decades ago, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum set out to preserve an important yet quickly fading era of America’s pastime.
The days of Pop Lloyd and Judy Johnson, Josh Gibson and Satchel Paige.
Its mission has evolved and expanded over the years to where it serves not only as a caretaker of the past but a bridge to the future. There is the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center, which opened earlier this year in the old Paseo YMCA, and a $19 million urban youth academy in development nearby that aims to attract more kids to the game.