Feb. 7, 2025
Historical Records: Josh Gibson (feat. Fergie L. Philippe and Bob Kendrick)
Nimene learns about Josh Gibson, the greatest power hitter baseball has ever seen and Broadway star Fergie L. Philippe breaks it down in a brand new hip-hop track. Featuring an interview between Bob Kendrick, President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and a 10 year old baseball enthusiast named Payton.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
00:00:00
Speaker 1: Hey, what's up you all?
00:00:01
Speaker 2: This is Questlove, and in honor of Black History Month, on Fridays, we're gonna be releasing episodes of Historical Records, which is my podcast with the story pirates and it's an explosive fusion of hip hop and history, tailor made for music loving kids and families. Yeah, it's something the entire family can listen to and enjoy together. So in this episode, host Nemine learns about Josh Gibson, the greatest power hitter baseball has ever seen, and Broadway star Freggiel Philippe breaks it down in a brand new hip hop track featuring an interview between Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League Baseball Museum, and a ten year old baseball enthusiast named Peyton. Get your kids, sit back and enjoy Historical Records, the show that proves that in order to make history, you have to make some noise.
00:00:57
Speaker 1: Keep taking records. I know it's out here somewhere, hey, listeners, Nimity here outside my secret underground layer looking for a time capsule that I buried over ten years ago. It has all kinds of special items from my childhood that I cannot wait to tell you about, Tana.
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Did you find it yet?
00:01:18
Speaker 1: How's it going over there? I agree? The ground is way too hard for these shovels. You have a jackhammer, Tina, you buried the lead. Let's get that thing up and run it. This is great. We're gonna find my time capsule in no time. This way, Tina, No, no, no, no, not that way. Where are you going now.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: Here?
00:01:48
Speaker 1: Let me try. I appreciate the warning, but I'll be fine. You might be a little too small to run this jackhammer properly. I'll just hop on and then wh.
00:02:00
Speaker 4: Why am I going?
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Big way? Why am I going that way? Now? Where am i? God? Like?
00:02:10
Speaker 1: Well, that jackhammer clearly didn't work right, and we still haven't found my time capsule. What Tina? You have a bobcat digger, go get it. Why were we using shovels?
00:02:26
Speaker 3: In a jackhammer?
00:02:27
Speaker 1: We're gonna find this thing.
00:02:28
Speaker 5: No historical, you are now listening to historical.
00:02:42
Speaker 1: To make history, you got to have struggles to make history. You got to show pois cannot be quiet loud as a riot to make history. You gotta make some noise, incredible dig right here, Tina. I know I've said this before, but I don't said of this is this fuck? We hit the time capsule, now dig around it.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: I did it, but not my time.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Capsule, and I dug it out. Fair point, Tina, you did play a critical role. Now, listeners, you may be wondering, what does Niminy have in this time capsule that is so important that it's delaying the start of this episode, an episode in which we are going to learn about the great baseball legend Josh Gibson. Excellent question, listeners, to answer it, Let's first drag my time capsule out of this hole. Among the many things I am excited to show you, first up is a red cape that I wore pretty much every day for nearly two years when I was a kid, and opening the look with the key I always keep around my neck. You see, I wanted to be a superhero, so my red cape was critical. Every good superhero needs a good red cap opening the latch. Wait, what it's green? My superhero cape is green? How is that possible? I was certain it was red. I agree, Tin, know that is so strange. Surely the next thing in my time caps sole will match my memory. After all, I have a fantastic memory. You don't know that I see it. The green looks fantastic. This cape is even cooler than I realized.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: What is it?
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Tina? Right? Of course, we probably should get started with the episode listeners. We'll get back to going through my time caps a little little later. There's a lot in here you're gonna want to see. But right now we got to dive into today's historical figure, Josh Gibson. And in order to do that, we have to find our historian friend Gabe. WHOA that might be the biggest construction vehicle I have ever seen. It's a giant excavator. Who is driving that thing?
00:04:59
Speaker 3: Incoming?
00:05:00
Speaker 4: Watch out? Everybody?
00:05:01
Speaker 3: Wait? Is that Gabe? Gabe? Is that jo? Hey nimany I can barely see you up there?
00:05:08
Speaker 4: Come on up, you can use the ladder.
00:05:10
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yep, okay here come oho, we are really high up. Hey Gabe, there you are. What are you doing with this huge thing?
00:05:20
Speaker 4: I heard you needed some help digging, so I brought my personal digging machine to help.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: Oh.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: I actually found what I was looking for. And did you say that this commercial machine typically used to dig out massive minds? Is yours?
00:05:34
Speaker 4: That is correct? You see, being a historian and getting the history right often takes a little digging, sometimes literally.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense.
00:05:44
Speaker 4: Speaking of digging, should we dig into the life of the great Josh Gibson?
00:05:48
Speaker 1: Okay, but Gabe, before we go back in time, can I be honest?
00:05:52
Speaker 3: Please?
00:05:53
Speaker 4: I actually prefer that you be honest, respectfully.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: I really don't like that the history simulator looks and feels sounds like a gooey alien pod. It's very uncomfortable to be it.
00:06:04
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more, which is why I built my own history simulator.
00:06:08
Speaker 1: You did, no way, where is it?
00:06:10
Speaker 4: We're sitting in it. Welcome to the History Excavator nineteen twenty.
00:06:15
Speaker 3: I know, I love it.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: Very impressive, you said, History Excavator nineteen twenty. Why nineteen twenty?
00:06:24
Speaker 4: Oh, that's just where we're headed today. Hold on, niminy a Roaring twenties, here we come.
00:06:34
Speaker 3: It's so gay.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: This is about one hundred years.
00:06:37
Speaker 4: Ago, right nearly to the day, and it was a time of incredible change in the United States.
00:06:42
Speaker 1: Hey, look at those cool ladies with short bob haircuts and just below the knee lenked stresses.
00:06:48
Speaker 6: Uh.
00:06:48
Speaker 4: Yes, those ladies were known as flappers at the time. These dresses were considered by many to be scandalous for being too short.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: Too short, that looked like formal dresses to me. I guess we really have come a long way or a short way. I don't know.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: Whoom.
00:07:06
Speaker 1: Check out that guy wailing on the saxophone.
00:07:10
Speaker 4: Pretty amazing. Right in the nineteen twenties, there was an explosion of music exploration, including the birth of jazz.
00:07:18
Speaker 1: Oh and look at that group of men with those ridiculous pinstriped suits. They look away.
00:07:23
Speaker 3: Its niminy.
00:07:24
Speaker 4: Be careful, those men are very serious. In fact, they might be gangsters. Gate.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: You really shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Just because those guys look like cartoon mobsters doesn't mean they are. I bet they have a great sense of humor too. Watch this, hey, sir, your suit is hysterical. You look like a businessman doing an impression of a zebra.
00:07:48
Speaker 7: I you think I'm funny, You think my suitors are joke usink I'm a zebra business clown sent from the Zuda make your.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: Lab No, no, no, none of that. It's a very fetching outfit. And we have to go Gate hit it.
00:08:00
Speaker 4: Here we go down to the South.
00:08:05
Speaker 3: Who I was.
00:08:06
Speaker 1: Close, Gabe. Sorry for not trusting your instincts about who is and who is in a gangst. Anyway, thanks for getting us out of there. Speaking of getting out of there, Gabe, Oh, I see our black families packing their things and getting out of town.
00:08:22
Speaker 4: It was known as the Great Migration. Lots of black folks were moving from the rural south to cities in the north with the promise of safer communities, better jobs, more pay, and a brighter future.
00:08:34
Speaker 1: And once they got to the north, where would they work.
00:08:36
Speaker 4: Let's head to the north. Here we are in the North. Often black folks would work in steel factories like that one, in cities like this one Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
00:08:48
Speaker 1: Look over their Gabe, a department store. Can we go in? I want to buy one of those flapper dresses.
00:08:54
Speaker 4: It's not just any department store. It's Gimbals, which is where Josh Gibson worked.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Cool head through the revolving doors and check it out. Oh mah, there are a headspinning amount of flapper dress options. Too many options actually, and suddenly I have no interest in shopping. Hey, did you say Josh Gibson works here? I thought he was a baseball player.
00:09:18
Speaker 4: He was, but when his family first moved to the North, he wanted to be an electrician. I know it sounds weird, but electricity was still considered a fairly new technology, so it was a great trade to get into. And he started as an elevator operator at Gimbals Gabe.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt, but who's that teenager over by the old timey elevator.
00:09:39
Speaker 4: That's actually Josh Gibson. He takes people up and down to different floors in the store.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: Oh, of course, an elevator operator.
00:09:48
Speaker 3: Got it.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: But how does he transition from this to baseball?
00:09:52
Speaker 4: Well, this department store doesn't just have an irresponsible amount of flapper dress options. They also have an amateur baseball team. They do, Yeah, they do, and it's called the gimbal Ac. And that's how Josh Gibson started playing baseball.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: He was only sixteen though.
00:10:09
Speaker 4: That's true, but he took to the sport like a fish to water. Josh knew how to keep his eye on the ball and slam crack knock it out of the park. He was a home run king and in no time at all, other local teams were eyeing this young prospect.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: So did he quit his job to play baseball, not yet. He kept his job at the department store while playing baseball.
00:10:31
Speaker 4: He had to keep that job to make ends meet. You see, at the time, there was a different league for black players. It was known as the Negro League, and Josh played for a less official Negro League team, kind of like the minor leagues today.
00:10:46
Speaker 1: And did he eventually go pro?
00:10:48
Speaker 4: You bet. His name and his fame grew and he eventually was able to go professional. But it was almost by accident.
00:10:55
Speaker 1: That sounds like an interest a story.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: It is.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: Hold tight. We're headed to the game where it all happened, Gabe.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: We might be at the wrong baseball game. I don't see Josh Gibson anywhere on the field.
00:11:13
Speaker 4: That's because he was in the stands.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: The stands, so he wasn't playing.
00:11:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's nineteen thirty and Josh is still playing in the less official leagues, but he was at this major league game as a fan.
00:11:27
Speaker 1: I see him up there in the stands.
00:11:29
Speaker 4: Josh and everyone else at the stadium was watching the Homestead Grays, the best Pittsburgh team in the Negro League.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: Gabe, there are some seats open break behind Josh. Let's watch the game from.
00:11:40
Speaker 4: There perfect, Hey, where'd you get all that food.
00:11:44
Speaker 1: At the concession stand, Gabe Warehouse. Don't worry. I got you a hot dog, some peanuts, some nacho's, a cotton candy.
00:11:51
Speaker 3: And a large drink.
00:11:53
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you.
00:11:55
Speaker 1: Here are our seats.
00:11:56
Speaker 4: This is a lot of food.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: Okay. The batter is up and I can barely hear the announcer over your chomping. And here comes the bitch swing in a miss.
00:12:04
Speaker 8: But oh, something's wrong with buck Ewing, the catcher for the Grayes.
00:12:08
Speaker 4: He seems to have cut the pitch in the wrong way and injured his hand.
00:12:11
Speaker 8: And I'm pretty sure he's about to start screaming.
00:12:14
Speaker 3: Ouch my hand.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: I'm hurt, and I can no longer play baseball today.
00:12:19
Speaker 8: Wuch Well, buckewing inside a game is day. He is done playing baseball bart today and possibly tomorrow, in the next day, and probably the day after that, if I'm being honest the way he said out, who knows when Buckle play next?
00:12:31
Speaker 3: Mmmm?
00:12:32
Speaker 4: Niminy. This cotton candy is amazing, Gabe.
00:12:35
Speaker 1: Please, I'm trying to watch the game and buck Ewing is out.
00:12:39
Speaker 8: Making eggs even worse than Grays have no backup catcher what are they going to do.
00:12:44
Speaker 1: No backup catcher. Well, you can't play baseball without a catcher. Everyone knows that. Wait, the coach for the Grays is walking toward us.
00:12:52
Speaker 4: That's because there's an eighteen year old sitting in the stands right in front of us that has the reputation of being one of the best hitters.
00:12:59
Speaker 1: In Pittsburg, Josh Gibson.
00:13:02
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:13:03
Speaker 4: The coach is asking him to play.
00:13:05
Speaker 1: And Josh is saying yes.
00:13:08
Speaker 8: I actually can't believe what I'm saying. The Grays seemed to have plucked some kid out of the stands and now he's going to play getter and this kid even play Gabe.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: I can't believe this is how Josh Gibson got his big break.
00:13:22
Speaker 4: Fortune favors the prepared Nimini.
00:13:24
Speaker 1: Oh, of course it does. Why do you think I bought so many snacks? So did he play well in the game.
00:13:30
Speaker 4: Josh had such an incredible game that afterwards the Grays took him on as a full time member of the team.
00:13:36
Speaker 8: Josh Gibson is up the bat, and.
00:13:38
Speaker 4: He traveled the country playing baseball.
00:13:41
Speaker 8: And here's the bitch he can actually going coming.
00:13:44
Speaker 6: God, Josh Gipson absolutely fashion Harry Cleveland to that balls heads it out of town.
00:13:53
Speaker 1: Oh game, What an incredible start to a career. What were Josh's career stats like?
00:13:59
Speaker 4: Well, unfortunately Josh played in a time when black athletes didn't have all of their games recorded, like the professional white teams of the day.
00:14:09
Speaker 1: What so they don't know how many home runs he hits.
00:14:12
Speaker 4: They have a decent idea. It's believed that he hit over eight hundred home runs, and two hundred and twenty four of those were against the top Negro league teams. That's incredible, truly. But so much of Josh Gibson's story as tall tales and legends. You remember that ball that he smashed in Cleveland? Yeah, well some say it landed in Cincinnati the next day.
00:14:37
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:14:38
Speaker 4: And when history is a little hazy, some of the stories burn brighter than others. Like the legend of what happened in Yankee Stadium?
00:14:46
Speaker 1: What happened in Yankee Stadium?
00:14:48
Speaker 4: Let's go watch Welcome to nineteen thirty four left field, Yankee Stadium.
00:14:56
Speaker 1: Oh, look, Josh is up at the plate.
00:14:58
Speaker 4: Then we're right on time.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: There goes the pitch and Josh tick food, big cut. Oh, he got a hold of that.
00:15:07
Speaker 3: He's the black that thing.
00:15:08
Speaker 1: The ball is flying to a left field that's going over in the third deck next to the left field pull Pennant a hole right in the stadium.
00:15:15
Speaker 3: Good left Christ just the.
00:15:16
Speaker 1: Great Josh Gibson has done it.
00:15:18
Speaker 3: Now.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: He is responsible for the only fair ball ever to be head fully out.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: Of Yankee stady O Memony. I had no idea you were such a fantastic baseball announcer.
00:15:28
Speaker 1: I'm a fast learner, I'll say, you know, Gabe, it's awesome that there are all these amazing stories about Josh Gibson, but it's frustrating that his stats weren't tracked the same way white players stats were.
00:15:41
Speaker 4: It's frustrating, all right, But even without stats, he lives on forever in baseball history. That's how good he was.
00:15:48
Speaker 1: That's a neat way to think about it.
00:15:50
Speaker 4: Some people call Josh Gibson the black Babe Ruth. Others called Babe Ruth the white Josh Gibson. I love that he ended his career as the second highest paid player in the Negro League and was eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
00:16:06
Speaker 1: And I suppose today we are making a historical record of Josh, so one hundred years later he is still being honored. His song won't include tons of statistics, obviously, but it will be an earth shattering hip hop tune that will never.
00:16:21
Speaker 3: Leave you a head.
00:16:22
Speaker 4: Shall we head back then?
00:16:24
Speaker 1: Yes?
00:16:24
Speaker 3: Please?
00:16:28
Speaker 1: Thanks Gabe, I got a run.
00:16:29
Speaker 4: Good luck, Niminy, swing for the fences, I always do.
00:16:33
Speaker 1: Okay, listener as we're back, and I am walking to the studio like Josh wat from the dugout to the play, excited, confident and ready to make history. Oh that was quick. Here we are at the studio.
00:16:45
Speaker 3: Oh hy t know?
00:16:46
Speaker 1: Are the musicians ready? Great time to turn this piece of history into music featuring the incredible actor, rapper and singer Fergie l Philippe.
00:17:02
Speaker 5: Okay, here's a mention that Josh.
00:17:04
Speaker 4: Gibson and no one's running off the map.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: It's a long wall the.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: Date one field, someone's going going.
00:17:10
Speaker 6: And smash slam, Another one gone, bashpam, another one gone the cracker of the bat, and another one gone.
00:17:18
Speaker 4: A tip of the cap because.
00:17:19
Speaker 1: Another one gone.
00:17:20
Speaker 4: Wait two twenties ten and six foot.
00:17:22
Speaker 6: One got a bait at the plate for a big home run Bob pops off the stick elect The shot of a gun is the man is the lecture.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: It is Josh Gibbson.
00:17:30
Speaker 6: He's so dynamic, his hits titanic, his swings like magic. See him coming from the dugout of the team might panic. The crowd is ecstatic. The end of so tragic. First we go back to where it all began. Born to Georgia in the twenties, the great, my great Joan took his family north into Pittsburgh, then, where Josh trained to be an electrician. And that's where he might have stayed fixing electronics.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: All his days.
00:17:51
Speaker 4: But he got a job at a place.
00:17:52
Speaker 6: Where the squad and Josh the field, the people were on wants to sharecroppers, but now he snare pop ups. He operated elevators, now he studied hitting. Hated that could be no imitator, because I mean, as an innovator.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: Ain't nobody great. He's the baseball terminator.
00:18:04
Speaker 6: Flash slam, another one gone, bash bam, another one gone. The craft good the bat and another one gone a tip bud the capta is another one gone, another one gone, another one gone, another one gone.
00:18:19
Speaker 4: Here, another one gone.
00:18:21
Speaker 6: It's seventeen years, he had eight hundred home runs three sixty average lifetime. That ain't o hum canning on picking off the base pathball fun in the Negro League, but the same league with no one black. Babe Ruth was off the description, but many claimed the babe with the white Josh Gibson. So if you have some wisdom, you see he's in position to make the majors. But it's pig man skin his race. Biggats believe it dictates their sale of tickets. They want him to stay in his place. Gibson handles the mistakes with grace, always maintaining the smile upon his.
00:18:47
Speaker 4: Face, keeps setting records, keeps.
00:18:49
Speaker 6: Getting hits, falls into love, has a few kids place around the world, from seed to seed. Still they never let the man in the MLB smash slam. Another one gone, bash bam, another one gone the craft good the bat, and another one gone.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: A tip budd the cat because another.
00:19:04
Speaker 6: One gone, another one gone, another one gone, who another one gone.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, another one gone.
00:19:13
Speaker 6: When Josh Gibson was thirty two, he started getting head X, got some X raised, then some bad news the next day. Kept playing for his hometown team, the Homestead Grace, but four years later, Josh Gibbson sadly passed away. There wasn't t because of this, he'd be forgotten. But his game still ILSs. It's hard, and the Moni grace will say his name, top twenty player from back then to this year. Even though another one's gone, He's still here, Yeah, still here, still here, still here, even though another one's gone. He here smash slam, another one gone, bash bam, another one's gone.
00:19:55
Speaker 4: The crack gout him and another one gone.
00:19:57
Speaker 6: A tip budd the cat because another one's gone, another one gone, another one gone, another one gone, even though another was gone.
00:20:08
Speaker 9: Skilled here.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a few words for the grown ups. Whoa that someone was amazing. Also, there was a part of that tune that reminded me of another object in my time capsule.
00:20:26
Speaker 3: Listeners, follow me to.
00:20:28
Speaker 1: The giant fall in my backyard. Ah here we are, Tina, do me a favor and dive into my time capsule and grab that thing that looks like an old recording. Listeners, The last thing I wanted to show you is a recording of a speech I gave at my high school graduation. Now I'm pretty sure the speech was about history. But given that I thought my superhero cape was green, maybe I'm way off data. How are we looking fantastic, Tina, Let's play a little bit of it and see what eighteen year old me has to say. I imagine I speak for all of us today when I say that these last four years have been a blur. Lots of late nights, lots of early mornings, and plenty of looking for my glasses, only to find that they were on my head the whole time. The truth is so much happened so quickly, it is sometimes hard to parse through our memories of what happened and what actually happened. As the poet An Michael says it, quote, history and memory share events. That is, they share time and space. Every moment is two moments end.
00:21:37
Speaker 3: Quote.
00:21:38
Speaker 1: Well, I dare say that in these four years of high school, we created memories and history, and now we carry them both proudly as we head off into the world. Ugh. I barely remembered saying any of that. Thank you, Tina. I guess it was a pretty good speech. Honestly, there was a lot more to it than I remembered. A lot like Josh Gibson's story when I think about it, he was probably a better baseball player than we even realized. Maybe there's always more to the story than we can remember or even write down. Well, I could think about that for a long time. Yes, Tina, what is it?
00:22:17
Speaker 3: Okay?
00:22:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I'm late as usual. Okay, listeners, let's raise to the room inside my secret underground bunker where I take all my most important video calls, boot up the computer, the internets, and here we go. Hi, Bob and Peyton, can you introduce yourselfs.
00:22:37
Speaker 9: Hi, my name is Bob Kendrick. I'm president of the Negrodics Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, the world's only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America.
00:22:54
Speaker 1: Hi.
00:22:55
Speaker 7: I'm Peyton and I'm ten years old. I just love baseball all year round.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: Peyton, what were you hoping to ask Bob about Josh Gibson?
00:23:07
Speaker 7: So, mister Kendrick, I'm wondering why did it take so long for the Legro League players to get recognized as some of the greatest players of all time?
00:23:16
Speaker 9: That is a great question. They toiled, I'd like to say in anonymity for so long, and I say that because there were a lot of people who saw them play, they just happened to be black. Later on, as we get into the forties, before Jackie Robinson brace to color, there there were a lot of white fans who saw them play too. But there are a lot of people who still hold to the belief that if it didn't happen in the major leagues, then it must not have happened. And so we've been working so hard over the last thirty years to make sure that people know who these ballplayers were and how good they were, and what they contributed to the game, but just as important, what they contributed to this country.
00:24:01
Speaker 7: Is it true Josh Gibson hit eight hundred home runs in the Negro leagues?
00:24:07
Speaker 9: Honestly, Peyton, he probably hit more than that, And again, this was against all levels of competition, including the major leaguers. I personally believe that Josh Gibson was the greatest hitter this game has ever seen.
00:24:22
Speaker 7: I would like to see more minorities play baseball because I'm kind of one of the only African American black kids on my team.
00:24:30
Speaker 9: We understand that there are just not a lot of black kids playing our game anymore. And the interesting thing about that, Peyton is baseball used to be our sport, which is why we had a Negro League. You had a league that was filled with black players and of course some brown players because you had Hispanic. But after baseball integrates and now Jackie Robinson and other black and brown stars leave the Negro League to go into Major League Baseball, that is what ultimately put the Negro leagues out of business. And then over time there became kind of this separation, so to speak, from the African American community and the game of baseball. It became very expensive to play our sport. All the equipment is expensive, the league fees are expensive. Now you'll be playing all these travel teams and all of this kind of stuff where a lot of kids, particularly those kids who are in the urban court, they can't afford to play anymore. And so we're working hard with Major League Baseball to do everything we can to make sure that urban kids understand their place in this game. And so when you walk through the Negro League's Baseball museum, what did you see? You see people who look just like you, who played this game, and they played it as well as anyone ever played this game. It's important that you see yourself in this game.
00:26:02
Speaker 7: Thank you, mister Kendrick for sharing all those great stories with me.
00:26:06
Speaker 9: Payton was my pleasure and I've enjoyed hanging out with you today.
00:26:11
Speaker 1: Wow. Thank you both for this great conversation. Listeners, thanks for joining in today and witnessing the greatness of Josh Gibson with me. Thanks so much to today's guests Bob Kendrick, Fergie Philippe, and Pigton. Remember, parents and teachers. You can download a free activity related to today's episode by visiting story pirates dot com slash Historical Records. We'll be back next week with another episode, another song, and another he route. But for now, there are a few huge holes in the backyard of my top secret bunker that I need to go fill in. Until next time, Remember to make history, you gotta make some noise.
00:26:56
Speaker 3: Bye.
00:27:08
Speaker 8: Historical Records is produced in partnership with story Pirate Studios. Questlove's two one five Entertainment, John Glickman and iHeart Podcasts. Executive produced by Emir Questlove, Thompson, John Glickman, Lee Overtree and Benjamin Salka executive produced for iHeart Podcasts by Noel Brown. Producers for Story Pirate Studios are Isabella Riccio, Sam Bear, Eric Gerson, Andrew Miller, Lee Overtree, Peter McNerney and niminy Ware. Producers for two one five are John G. Britney, Benjamin and Sarah Zolman. Hosted by niminy Ware. Our head writer is Duke Doyle. Our historians are Gabe Pacheco and Lee Polus. Music supervision for two one five by Stroe Elliott. Scoring and music supervision for Story Pirate Studios by Eric Gerson. Sound design and mixing by Sam Bear at the Relic Room in New York City.
00:28:02
Speaker 4: Song mastering by Josh Hahn.
00:28:05
Speaker 8: Theme song by Dan Foster and Eric Gerson and produced by Eric Erson. Production coordination by Isabelle Riccio, Production management by Maggie Lee. The line producer for Story Pired Studios is Glennis Brault. Pr for Story Pired Studios is provided by Naomi Shaw. Episode artwork by Camilla Franklin. This episode was written by Duke Doyle. The song Josh Gibson was written by Dan Foster and produced by Eric Erson. Vocal direction by Jack Mitchell special gut Spergie l Philippe, Bob Kendrick and kid interviewer Peyton. This episode features performances by Nick Canalis, Peter McNerney, Lee Overtree and Gabe Pachuco. Special thanks to alex Vespasad
Speaker 1: Hey, what's up you all?
00:00:01
Speaker 2: This is Questlove, and in honor of Black History Month, on Fridays, we're gonna be releasing episodes of Historical Records, which is my podcast with the story pirates and it's an explosive fusion of hip hop and history, tailor made for music loving kids and families. Yeah, it's something the entire family can listen to and enjoy together. So in this episode, host Nemine learns about Josh Gibson, the greatest power hitter baseball has ever seen, and Broadway star Freggiel Philippe breaks it down in a brand new hip hop track featuring an interview between Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro League Baseball Museum, and a ten year old baseball enthusiast named Peyton. Get your kids, sit back and enjoy Historical Records, the show that proves that in order to make history, you have to make some noise.
00:00:57
Speaker 1: Keep taking records. I know it's out here somewhere, hey, listeners, Nimity here outside my secret underground layer looking for a time capsule that I buried over ten years ago. It has all kinds of special items from my childhood that I cannot wait to tell you about, Tana.
00:01:16
Speaker 3: Did you find it yet?
00:01:18
Speaker 1: How's it going over there? I agree? The ground is way too hard for these shovels. You have a jackhammer, Tina, you buried the lead. Let's get that thing up and run it. This is great. We're gonna find my time capsule in no time. This way, Tina, No, no, no, no, not that way. Where are you going now.
00:01:48
Speaker 3: Here?
00:01:48
Speaker 1: Let me try. I appreciate the warning, but I'll be fine. You might be a little too small to run this jackhammer properly. I'll just hop on and then wh.
00:02:00
Speaker 4: Why am I going?
00:02:01
Speaker 3: Big way? Why am I going that way? Now? Where am i? God? Like?
00:02:10
Speaker 1: Well, that jackhammer clearly didn't work right, and we still haven't found my time capsule. What Tina? You have a bobcat digger, go get it. Why were we using shovels?
00:02:26
Speaker 3: In a jackhammer?
00:02:27
Speaker 1: We're gonna find this thing.
00:02:28
Speaker 5: No historical, you are now listening to historical.
00:02:42
Speaker 1: To make history, you got to have struggles to make history. You got to show pois cannot be quiet loud as a riot to make history. You gotta make some noise, incredible dig right here, Tina. I know I've said this before, but I don't said of this is this fuck? We hit the time capsule, now dig around it.
00:03:09
Speaker 3: I did it, but not my time.
00:03:10
Speaker 1: Capsule, and I dug it out. Fair point, Tina, you did play a critical role. Now, listeners, you may be wondering, what does Niminy have in this time capsule that is so important that it's delaying the start of this episode, an episode in which we are going to learn about the great baseball legend Josh Gibson. Excellent question, listeners, to answer it, Let's first drag my time capsule out of this hole. Among the many things I am excited to show you, first up is a red cape that I wore pretty much every day for nearly two years when I was a kid, and opening the look with the key I always keep around my neck. You see, I wanted to be a superhero, so my red cape was critical. Every good superhero needs a good red cap opening the latch. Wait, what it's green? My superhero cape is green? How is that possible? I was certain it was red. I agree, Tin, know that is so strange. Surely the next thing in my time caps sole will match my memory. After all, I have a fantastic memory. You don't know that I see it. The green looks fantastic. This cape is even cooler than I realized.
00:04:27
Speaker 3: What is it?
00:04:27
Speaker 1: Tina? Right? Of course, we probably should get started with the episode listeners. We'll get back to going through my time caps a little little later. There's a lot in here you're gonna want to see. But right now we got to dive into today's historical figure, Josh Gibson. And in order to do that, we have to find our historian friend Gabe. WHOA that might be the biggest construction vehicle I have ever seen. It's a giant excavator. Who is driving that thing?
00:04:59
Speaker 3: Incoming?
00:05:00
Speaker 4: Watch out? Everybody?
00:05:01
Speaker 3: Wait? Is that Gabe? Gabe? Is that jo? Hey nimany I can barely see you up there?
00:05:08
Speaker 4: Come on up, you can use the ladder.
00:05:10
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yep, okay here come oho, we are really high up. Hey Gabe, there you are. What are you doing with this huge thing?
00:05:20
Speaker 4: I heard you needed some help digging, so I brought my personal digging machine to help.
00:05:25
Speaker 3: Oh.
00:05:25
Speaker 1: I actually found what I was looking for. And did you say that this commercial machine typically used to dig out massive minds? Is yours?
00:05:34
Speaker 4: That is correct? You see, being a historian and getting the history right often takes a little digging, sometimes literally.
00:05:42
Speaker 1: That makes a lot of sense.
00:05:44
Speaker 4: Speaking of digging, should we dig into the life of the great Josh Gibson?
00:05:48
Speaker 1: Okay, but Gabe, before we go back in time, can I be honest?
00:05:52
Speaker 3: Please?
00:05:53
Speaker 4: I actually prefer that you be honest, respectfully.
00:05:56
Speaker 1: I really don't like that the history simulator looks and feels sounds like a gooey alien pod. It's very uncomfortable to be it.
00:06:04
Speaker 4: I couldn't agree more, which is why I built my own history simulator.
00:06:08
Speaker 1: You did, no way, where is it?
00:06:10
Speaker 4: We're sitting in it. Welcome to the History Excavator nineteen twenty.
00:06:15
Speaker 3: I know, I love it.
00:06:17
Speaker 1: Very impressive, you said, History Excavator nineteen twenty. Why nineteen twenty?
00:06:24
Speaker 4: Oh, that's just where we're headed today. Hold on, niminy a Roaring twenties, here we come.
00:06:34
Speaker 3: It's so gay.
00:06:35
Speaker 1: This is about one hundred years.
00:06:37
Speaker 4: Ago, right nearly to the day, and it was a time of incredible change in the United States.
00:06:42
Speaker 1: Hey, look at those cool ladies with short bob haircuts and just below the knee lenked stresses.
00:06:48
Speaker 6: Uh.
00:06:48
Speaker 4: Yes, those ladies were known as flappers at the time. These dresses were considered by many to be scandalous for being too short.
00:06:57
Speaker 1: Too short, that looked like formal dresses to me. I guess we really have come a long way or a short way. I don't know.
00:07:06
Speaker 3: Whoom.
00:07:06
Speaker 1: Check out that guy wailing on the saxophone.
00:07:10
Speaker 4: Pretty amazing. Right in the nineteen twenties, there was an explosion of music exploration, including the birth of jazz.
00:07:18
Speaker 1: Oh and look at that group of men with those ridiculous pinstriped suits. They look away.
00:07:23
Speaker 3: Its niminy.
00:07:24
Speaker 4: Be careful, those men are very serious. In fact, they might be gangsters. Gate.
00:07:31
Speaker 1: You really shouldn't judge a book by its cover. Just because those guys look like cartoon mobsters doesn't mean they are. I bet they have a great sense of humor too. Watch this, hey, sir, your suit is hysterical. You look like a businessman doing an impression of a zebra.
00:07:48
Speaker 7: I you think I'm funny, You think my suitors are joke usink I'm a zebra business clown sent from the Zuda make your.
00:07:54
Speaker 1: Lab No, no, no, none of that. It's a very fetching outfit. And we have to go Gate hit it.
00:08:00
Speaker 4: Here we go down to the South.
00:08:05
Speaker 3: Who I was.
00:08:06
Speaker 1: Close, Gabe. Sorry for not trusting your instincts about who is and who is in a gangst. Anyway, thanks for getting us out of there. Speaking of getting out of there, Gabe, Oh, I see our black families packing their things and getting out of town.
00:08:22
Speaker 4: It was known as the Great Migration. Lots of black folks were moving from the rural south to cities in the north with the promise of safer communities, better jobs, more pay, and a brighter future.
00:08:34
Speaker 1: And once they got to the north, where would they work.
00:08:36
Speaker 4: Let's head to the north. Here we are in the North. Often black folks would work in steel factories like that one, in cities like this one Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
00:08:48
Speaker 1: Look over their Gabe, a department store. Can we go in? I want to buy one of those flapper dresses.
00:08:54
Speaker 4: It's not just any department store. It's Gimbals, which is where Josh Gibson worked.
00:08:59
Speaker 1: Cool head through the revolving doors and check it out. Oh mah, there are a headspinning amount of flapper dress options. Too many options actually, and suddenly I have no interest in shopping. Hey, did you say Josh Gibson works here? I thought he was a baseball player.
00:09:18
Speaker 4: He was, but when his family first moved to the North, he wanted to be an electrician. I know it sounds weird, but electricity was still considered a fairly new technology, so it was a great trade to get into. And he started as an elevator operator at Gimbals Gabe.
00:09:34
Speaker 1: Sorry to interrupt, but who's that teenager over by the old timey elevator.
00:09:39
Speaker 4: That's actually Josh Gibson. He takes people up and down to different floors in the store.
00:09:44
Speaker 1: Oh, of course, an elevator operator.
00:09:48
Speaker 3: Got it.
00:09:49
Speaker 1: But how does he transition from this to baseball?
00:09:52
Speaker 4: Well, this department store doesn't just have an irresponsible amount of flapper dress options. They also have an amateur baseball team. They do, Yeah, they do, and it's called the gimbal Ac. And that's how Josh Gibson started playing baseball.
00:10:07
Speaker 1: He was only sixteen though.
00:10:09
Speaker 4: That's true, but he took to the sport like a fish to water. Josh knew how to keep his eye on the ball and slam crack knock it out of the park. He was a home run king and in no time at all, other local teams were eyeing this young prospect.
00:10:24
Speaker 1: So did he quit his job to play baseball, not yet. He kept his job at the department store while playing baseball.
00:10:31
Speaker 4: He had to keep that job to make ends meet. You see, at the time, there was a different league for black players. It was known as the Negro League, and Josh played for a less official Negro League team, kind of like the minor leagues today.
00:10:46
Speaker 1: And did he eventually go pro?
00:10:48
Speaker 4: You bet. His name and his fame grew and he eventually was able to go professional. But it was almost by accident.
00:10:55
Speaker 1: That sounds like an interest a story.
00:10:58
Speaker 3: It is.
00:10:59
Speaker 4: Hold tight. We're headed to the game where it all happened, Gabe.
00:11:08
Speaker 1: We might be at the wrong baseball game. I don't see Josh Gibson anywhere on the field.
00:11:13
Speaker 4: That's because he was in the stands.
00:11:16
Speaker 1: The stands, so he wasn't playing.
00:11:19
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's nineteen thirty and Josh is still playing in the less official leagues, but he was at this major league game as a fan.
00:11:27
Speaker 1: I see him up there in the stands.
00:11:29
Speaker 4: Josh and everyone else at the stadium was watching the Homestead Grays, the best Pittsburgh team in the Negro League.
00:11:36
Speaker 1: Gabe, there are some seats open break behind Josh. Let's watch the game from.
00:11:40
Speaker 4: There perfect, Hey, where'd you get all that food.
00:11:44
Speaker 1: At the concession stand, Gabe Warehouse. Don't worry. I got you a hot dog, some peanuts, some nacho's, a cotton candy.
00:11:51
Speaker 3: And a large drink.
00:11:53
Speaker 4: Oh, thank you.
00:11:55
Speaker 1: Here are our seats.
00:11:56
Speaker 4: This is a lot of food.
00:11:58
Speaker 1: Okay. The batter is up and I can barely hear the announcer over your chomping. And here comes the bitch swing in a miss.
00:12:04
Speaker 8: But oh, something's wrong with buck Ewing, the catcher for the Grayes.
00:12:08
Speaker 4: He seems to have cut the pitch in the wrong way and injured his hand.
00:12:11
Speaker 8: And I'm pretty sure he's about to start screaming.
00:12:14
Speaker 3: Ouch my hand.
00:12:16
Speaker 1: I'm hurt, and I can no longer play baseball today.
00:12:19
Speaker 8: Wuch Well, buckewing inside a game is day. He is done playing baseball bart today and possibly tomorrow, in the next day, and probably the day after that, if I'm being honest the way he said out, who knows when Buckle play next?
00:12:31
Speaker 3: Mmmm?
00:12:32
Speaker 4: Niminy. This cotton candy is amazing, Gabe.
00:12:35
Speaker 1: Please, I'm trying to watch the game and buck Ewing is out.
00:12:39
Speaker 8: Making eggs even worse than Grays have no backup catcher what are they going to do.
00:12:44
Speaker 1: No backup catcher. Well, you can't play baseball without a catcher. Everyone knows that. Wait, the coach for the Grays is walking toward us.
00:12:52
Speaker 4: That's because there's an eighteen year old sitting in the stands right in front of us that has the reputation of being one of the best hitters.
00:12:59
Speaker 1: In Pittsburg, Josh Gibson.
00:13:02
Speaker 3: That's right.
00:13:03
Speaker 4: The coach is asking him to play.
00:13:05
Speaker 1: And Josh is saying yes.
00:13:08
Speaker 8: I actually can't believe what I'm saying. The Grays seemed to have plucked some kid out of the stands and now he's going to play getter and this kid even play Gabe.
00:13:18
Speaker 1: I can't believe this is how Josh Gibson got his big break.
00:13:22
Speaker 4: Fortune favors the prepared Nimini.
00:13:24
Speaker 1: Oh, of course it does. Why do you think I bought so many snacks? So did he play well in the game.
00:13:30
Speaker 4: Josh had such an incredible game that afterwards the Grays took him on as a full time member of the team.
00:13:36
Speaker 8: Josh Gibson is up the bat, and.
00:13:38
Speaker 4: He traveled the country playing baseball.
00:13:41
Speaker 8: And here's the bitch he can actually going coming.
00:13:44
Speaker 6: God, Josh Gipson absolutely fashion Harry Cleveland to that balls heads it out of town.
00:13:53
Speaker 1: Oh game, What an incredible start to a career. What were Josh's career stats like?
00:13:59
Speaker 4: Well, unfortunately Josh played in a time when black athletes didn't have all of their games recorded, like the professional white teams of the day.
00:14:09
Speaker 1: What so they don't know how many home runs he hits.
00:14:12
Speaker 4: They have a decent idea. It's believed that he hit over eight hundred home runs, and two hundred and twenty four of those were against the top Negro league teams. That's incredible, truly. But so much of Josh Gibson's story as tall tales and legends. You remember that ball that he smashed in Cleveland? Yeah, well some say it landed in Cincinnati the next day.
00:14:37
Speaker 1: Wow.
00:14:38
Speaker 4: And when history is a little hazy, some of the stories burn brighter than others. Like the legend of what happened in Yankee Stadium?
00:14:46
Speaker 1: What happened in Yankee Stadium?
00:14:48
Speaker 4: Let's go watch Welcome to nineteen thirty four left field, Yankee Stadium.
00:14:56
Speaker 1: Oh, look, Josh is up at the plate.
00:14:58
Speaker 4: Then we're right on time.
00:15:00
Speaker 1: There goes the pitch and Josh tick food, big cut. Oh, he got a hold of that.
00:15:07
Speaker 3: He's the black that thing.
00:15:08
Speaker 1: The ball is flying to a left field that's going over in the third deck next to the left field pull Pennant a hole right in the stadium.
00:15:15
Speaker 3: Good left Christ just the.
00:15:16
Speaker 1: Great Josh Gibson has done it.
00:15:18
Speaker 3: Now.
00:15:18
Speaker 1: He is responsible for the only fair ball ever to be head fully out.
00:15:22
Speaker 4: Of Yankee stady O Memony. I had no idea you were such a fantastic baseball announcer.
00:15:28
Speaker 1: I'm a fast learner, I'll say, you know, Gabe, it's awesome that there are all these amazing stories about Josh Gibson, but it's frustrating that his stats weren't tracked the same way white players stats were.
00:15:41
Speaker 4: It's frustrating, all right, But even without stats, he lives on forever in baseball history. That's how good he was.
00:15:48
Speaker 1: That's a neat way to think about it.
00:15:50
Speaker 4: Some people call Josh Gibson the black Babe Ruth. Others called Babe Ruth the white Josh Gibson. I love that he ended his career as the second highest paid player in the Negro League and was eventually inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
00:16:06
Speaker 1: And I suppose today we are making a historical record of Josh, so one hundred years later he is still being honored. His song won't include tons of statistics, obviously, but it will be an earth shattering hip hop tune that will never.
00:16:21
Speaker 3: Leave you a head.
00:16:22
Speaker 4: Shall we head back then?
00:16:24
Speaker 1: Yes?
00:16:24
Speaker 3: Please?
00:16:28
Speaker 1: Thanks Gabe, I got a run.
00:16:29
Speaker 4: Good luck, Niminy, swing for the fences, I always do.
00:16:33
Speaker 1: Okay, listener as we're back, and I am walking to the studio like Josh wat from the dugout to the play, excited, confident and ready to make history. Oh that was quick. Here we are at the studio.
00:16:45
Speaker 3: Oh hy t know?
00:16:46
Speaker 1: Are the musicians ready? Great time to turn this piece of history into music featuring the incredible actor, rapper and singer Fergie l Philippe.
00:17:02
Speaker 5: Okay, here's a mention that Josh.
00:17:04
Speaker 4: Gibson and no one's running off the map.
00:17:06
Speaker 1: It's a long wall the.
00:17:08
Speaker 4: Date one field, someone's going going.
00:17:10
Speaker 6: And smash slam, Another one gone, bashpam, another one gone the cracker of the bat, and another one gone.
00:17:18
Speaker 4: A tip of the cap because.
00:17:19
Speaker 1: Another one gone.
00:17:20
Speaker 4: Wait two twenties ten and six foot.
00:17:22
Speaker 6: One got a bait at the plate for a big home run Bob pops off the stick elect The shot of a gun is the man is the lecture.
00:17:28
Speaker 4: It is Josh Gibbson.
00:17:30
Speaker 6: He's so dynamic, his hits titanic, his swings like magic. See him coming from the dugout of the team might panic. The crowd is ecstatic. The end of so tragic. First we go back to where it all began. Born to Georgia in the twenties, the great, my great Joan took his family north into Pittsburgh, then, where Josh trained to be an electrician. And that's where he might have stayed fixing electronics.
00:17:50
Speaker 1: All his days.
00:17:51
Speaker 4: But he got a job at a place.
00:17:52
Speaker 6: Where the squad and Josh the field, the people were on wants to sharecroppers, but now he snare pop ups. He operated elevators, now he studied hitting. Hated that could be no imitator, because I mean, as an innovator.
00:18:02
Speaker 4: Ain't nobody great. He's the baseball terminator.
00:18:04
Speaker 6: Flash slam, another one gone, bash bam, another one gone. The craft good the bat and another one gone a tip bud the capta is another one gone, another one gone, another one gone, another one gone.
00:18:19
Speaker 4: Here, another one gone.
00:18:21
Speaker 6: It's seventeen years, he had eight hundred home runs three sixty average lifetime. That ain't o hum canning on picking off the base pathball fun in the Negro League, but the same league with no one black. Babe Ruth was off the description, but many claimed the babe with the white Josh Gibson. So if you have some wisdom, you see he's in position to make the majors. But it's pig man skin his race. Biggats believe it dictates their sale of tickets. They want him to stay in his place. Gibson handles the mistakes with grace, always maintaining the smile upon his.
00:18:47
Speaker 4: Face, keeps setting records, keeps.
00:18:49
Speaker 6: Getting hits, falls into love, has a few kids place around the world, from seed to seed. Still they never let the man in the MLB smash slam. Another one gone, bash bam, another one gone the craft good the bat, and another one gone.
00:19:03
Speaker 1: A tip budd the cat because another.
00:19:04
Speaker 6: One gone, another one gone, another one gone, who another one gone.
00:19:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, another one gone.
00:19:13
Speaker 6: When Josh Gibson was thirty two, he started getting head X, got some X raised, then some bad news the next day. Kept playing for his hometown team, the Homestead Grace, but four years later, Josh Gibbson sadly passed away. There wasn't t because of this, he'd be forgotten. But his game still ILSs. It's hard, and the Moni grace will say his name, top twenty player from back then to this year. Even though another one's gone, He's still here, Yeah, still here, still here, still here, even though another one's gone. He here smash slam, another one gone, bash bam, another one's gone.
00:19:55
Speaker 4: The crack gout him and another one gone.
00:19:57
Speaker 6: A tip budd the cat because another one's gone, another one gone, another one gone, another one gone, even though another was gone.
00:20:08
Speaker 9: Skilled here.
00:20:12
Speaker 1: We'll be right back after a few words for the grown ups. Whoa that someone was amazing. Also, there was a part of that tune that reminded me of another object in my time capsule.
00:20:26
Speaker 3: Listeners, follow me to.
00:20:28
Speaker 1: The giant fall in my backyard. Ah here we are, Tina, do me a favor and dive into my time capsule and grab that thing that looks like an old recording. Listeners, The last thing I wanted to show you is a recording of a speech I gave at my high school graduation. Now I'm pretty sure the speech was about history. But given that I thought my superhero cape was green, maybe I'm way off data. How are we looking fantastic, Tina, Let's play a little bit of it and see what eighteen year old me has to say. I imagine I speak for all of us today when I say that these last four years have been a blur. Lots of late nights, lots of early mornings, and plenty of looking for my glasses, only to find that they were on my head the whole time. The truth is so much happened so quickly, it is sometimes hard to parse through our memories of what happened and what actually happened. As the poet An Michael says it, quote, history and memory share events. That is, they share time and space. Every moment is two moments end.
00:21:37
Speaker 3: Quote.
00:21:38
Speaker 1: Well, I dare say that in these four years of high school, we created memories and history, and now we carry them both proudly as we head off into the world. Ugh. I barely remembered saying any of that. Thank you, Tina. I guess it was a pretty good speech. Honestly, there was a lot more to it than I remembered. A lot like Josh Gibson's story when I think about it, he was probably a better baseball player than we even realized. Maybe there's always more to the story than we can remember or even write down. Well, I could think about that for a long time. Yes, Tina, what is it?
00:22:17
Speaker 3: Okay?
00:22:18
Speaker 1: Yeah, No, I'm late as usual. Okay, listeners, let's raise to the room inside my secret underground bunker where I take all my most important video calls, boot up the computer, the internets, and here we go. Hi, Bob and Peyton, can you introduce yourselfs.
00:22:37
Speaker 9: Hi, my name is Bob Kendrick. I'm president of the Negrodics Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, the world's only museum dedicated to preserving and celebrating the rich history of African American baseball and its profound impact on the social advancement of America.
00:22:54
Speaker 1: Hi.
00:22:55
Speaker 7: I'm Peyton and I'm ten years old. I just love baseball all year round.
00:23:03
Speaker 1: Peyton, what were you hoping to ask Bob about Josh Gibson?
00:23:07
Speaker 7: So, mister Kendrick, I'm wondering why did it take so long for the Legro League players to get recognized as some of the greatest players of all time?
00:23:16
Speaker 9: That is a great question. They toiled, I'd like to say in anonymity for so long, and I say that because there were a lot of people who saw them play, they just happened to be black. Later on, as we get into the forties, before Jackie Robinson brace to color, there there were a lot of white fans who saw them play too. But there are a lot of people who still hold to the belief that if it didn't happen in the major leagues, then it must not have happened. And so we've been working so hard over the last thirty years to make sure that people know who these ballplayers were and how good they were, and what they contributed to the game, but just as important, what they contributed to this country.
00:24:01
Speaker 7: Is it true Josh Gibson hit eight hundred home runs in the Negro leagues?
00:24:07
Speaker 9: Honestly, Peyton, he probably hit more than that, And again, this was against all levels of competition, including the major leaguers. I personally believe that Josh Gibson was the greatest hitter this game has ever seen.
00:24:22
Speaker 7: I would like to see more minorities play baseball because I'm kind of one of the only African American black kids on my team.
00:24:30
Speaker 9: We understand that there are just not a lot of black kids playing our game anymore. And the interesting thing about that, Peyton is baseball used to be our sport, which is why we had a Negro League. You had a league that was filled with black players and of course some brown players because you had Hispanic. But after baseball integrates and now Jackie Robinson and other black and brown stars leave the Negro League to go into Major League Baseball, that is what ultimately put the Negro leagues out of business. And then over time there became kind of this separation, so to speak, from the African American community and the game of baseball. It became very expensive to play our sport. All the equipment is expensive, the league fees are expensive. Now you'll be playing all these travel teams and all of this kind of stuff where a lot of kids, particularly those kids who are in the urban court, they can't afford to play anymore. And so we're working hard with Major League Baseball to do everything we can to make sure that urban kids understand their place in this game. And so when you walk through the Negro League's Baseball museum, what did you see? You see people who look just like you, who played this game, and they played it as well as anyone ever played this game. It's important that you see yourself in this game.
00:26:02
Speaker 7: Thank you, mister Kendrick for sharing all those great stories with me.
00:26:06
Speaker 9: Payton was my pleasure and I've enjoyed hanging out with you today.
00:26:11
Speaker 1: Wow. Thank you both for this great conversation. Listeners, thanks for joining in today and witnessing the greatness of Josh Gibson with me. Thanks so much to today's guests Bob Kendrick, Fergie Philippe, and Pigton. Remember, parents and teachers. You can download a free activity related to today's episode by visiting story pirates dot com slash Historical Records. We'll be back next week with another episode, another song, and another he route. But for now, there are a few huge holes in the backyard of my top secret bunker that I need to go fill in. Until next time, Remember to make history, you gotta make some noise.
00:26:56
Speaker 3: Bye.
00:27:08
Speaker 8: Historical Records is produced in partnership with story Pirate Studios. Questlove's two one five Entertainment, John Glickman and iHeart Podcasts. Executive produced by Emir Questlove, Thompson, John Glickman, Lee Overtree and Benjamin Salka executive produced for iHeart Podcasts by Noel Brown. Producers for Story Pirate Studios are Isabella Riccio, Sam Bear, Eric Gerson, Andrew Miller, Lee Overtree, Peter McNerney and niminy Ware. Producers for two one five are John G. Britney, Benjamin and Sarah Zolman. Hosted by niminy Ware. Our head writer is Duke Doyle. Our historians are Gabe Pacheco and Lee Polus. Music supervision for two one five by Stroe Elliott. Scoring and music supervision for Story Pirate Studios by Eric Gerson. Sound design and mixing by Sam Bear at the Relic Room in New York City.
00:28:02
Speaker 4: Song mastering by Josh Hahn.
00:28:05
Speaker 8: Theme song by Dan Foster and Eric Gerson and produced by Eric Erson. Production coordination by Isabelle Riccio, Production management by Maggie Lee. The line producer for Story Pired Studios is Glennis Brault. Pr for Story Pired Studios is provided by Naomi Shaw. Episode artwork by Camilla Franklin. This episode was written by Duke Doyle. The song Josh Gibson was written by Dan Foster and produced by Eric Erson. Vocal direction by Jack Mitchell special gut Spergie l Philippe, Bob Kendrick and kid interviewer Peyton. This episode features performances by Nick Canalis, Peter McNerney, Lee Overtree and Gabe Pachuco. Special thanks to alex Vespasad
