Pirates Launching 'Long Live Their Legacy' To Commemorate Black History Month
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) - The Pirates are launching a virtual program to commemorate Black History Month.
"Long Live Their Legacy" is an initiative that promotes the history of the Negro Leagues, its stars, and the league's impact on baseball.
"We did some research and worked with the Negro League Museum in Kansas City to solidify a lot of the facts because those things are scattered," said Joel Gray, the community outreach manager for the Pirates.
In previous years, the program would travel to local schools but this year due to the pandemic, it will be all online.
"As I was diving into research, you think about Homestead, back there, there are a lot of steel workers and the workers got together and played the game. That was really popular during that time period," Gray said.
And during this time, the Pirates weren't the only game in town.
"One time in Pittsburgh, we had three professional baseball teams: Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawford's and Pittsburgh Pirates," Gray said.
Josh Gibson is one of the legends that Gray talks about during his presentation. But Gibson wasn't the only legend to play here in Pittsburgh: Satchel Page, Cool Papa Bell and Buck Leonard are considered to be some of the best baseball players to play here in Pittsburgh.
You can see more about the program on the Pirates' website.