June 15, 2025
The Detroit Tigers recently played their 29th annual Negro Leagues Tribute Game, honoring Detroit legends like Norman ‘Turkey’ Stearnes.
The Detroit Tigers, just half a game behind the best record in Major League Baseball, are in the midst of a six-game homestand that also marks their Black in Baseball Weekend. On June 14, the team held its 29th annual Negro Leagues Tribute Game, paying homage to Detroit icons like Norman “Turkey” Stearnes.
According to Audacy, on the day of the tribute game, the Tigers gave away Detroit Stars jerseys to the first 15,000 fans who entered Comerica Park and conducted a Q&A session with former Negro Leagues players including Minnie Forbes, Johnny Walker, Ron Teasley, and Pedro Sierra ahead of the game, as well as a curated mini concourse museum under the ballpark’s Comerica Landing section and assorted photo ops around the ballpark.
According to WXYZ, the late Stearnes’ daughters, Joyce Stearnes Thompson and Rosilyn Stearnes-Brown, sang the National Anthem on June 13, and the Black National Anthem on June 14.
On June 15, which closes the Tigers’ Black in Baseball Weekend, the first pitch will be thrown out by Kyle Terry and Kaleb Johnson, the MVP’s of the Black Baseball Motor City Classic.
On Juneteenth, which closes the Tigers’ homestand, Angela Davis, the President of Detroit’s NAACP branch, will sing “Lift Every Voice and Sing” while Rev. Dr. Wendell Anthony will throw out the ceremonial first pitch, and Daryl Beebe, a saxophonist, will perform the National Anthem.
Major League Baseball has been more deeply integrating the Negro Leagues in recent years, epitomized by the inclusion of Negro Leagues statistics into the record books of the MLB in 2024, and the inclusion of the Negro Leagues into MLB The Show’s Storylines mode over the past several years.
Bob Kendrick, the president of Kansas City’s National Negro Leagues Baseball Musuem, a central figure in the Storylines mode, told the Today Show that for him, the central question the Negro Leagues asked, in contrast to MLB’s apartheid system, was “can you play?”
In 2024, Kendrick reflected on the positive effect that the museum’s feature in the video game mode has had in an interview with Paste Magazine.
“All last year, people were coming because they saw the museum in the videogame. That was, to me, one of the ways in which you can already begin to measure the impact that this game has had. The month of February was made free of charge by our friends over at the Kansas City Royals, just as it has been the previous two years, and we saw record attendance this year. Over 16,000 people in the month of February, which is approaching June, July kind of numbers when we’re in our peak visitation season. That was tremendous to see,” Kendrick said.
He continued, “I’ve brought it to you where you can engage with it, and now you wanna learn more, and to me that’s what makes this game have such a meaningful impact. Through this videogame, we have introduced the Negro Leagues to millions of young people and young adults who likely would have never known about the history of the Negro Leagues, or even for that matter maybe not even cared about the history of the Negro Leagues until they got it in this videogame. That is more young people, young adults who have been connected to this game than has walked through these turnstiles over the 30 plus years that this museum has been in operations. That’s the impact.”
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