You.

Folks, welcome to another episode of.

There's just something About Kansas City where we take a really positive look and a really casual conversation about the people, places, and things that make this such a great place to live.

And I can't I couldn't have a better guy in here almost wore a tuxedo.

So it's okay because I've got Bob Kendrick in here from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

And you know how Bob dresses normally.

But, Bob, today I got him coming off the golf course and he just worked out for you.

Have no idea how close I came to wearing a tux.

Oh, that would have been hilarious and funny.

It really would have.

Well, how are you, my friend Ben?

I'm doing great, Frank.

I'm doing great.

It's so good to see you.

And thanks so much for making time to have me.

Oh my gosh.

Yo, thanks for coming in.

I mean, it's just gonna be awesome.

And you're no stranger to podcast.

Okay?

I am a stranger.

I was dragged kicking and screaming into this thing.

Okay, but my wife finally, it was been her idea for like 3 or 4 years ago.

She just kept hearing from everybody.

She talked to them about where they were from, what they were doing.

You know, why are you here?

And everybody just stop for one second.

Just say, you know, there's just something about Kansas City and, you know, I, I think, you know, that, is as well as I do about this great city that we live in.

I know we got problems, okay.

But we've got we're we're focusing on the positive here, and I think that's, a really important thing.

But talk about the other podcast.

You're doing your podcast the same thing.

I came in kicking and screaming, because people have been saying the exact same thing.

Say, Bob, you really need to do a podcast.

And I'm saying to myself, I don't have time to do a podcast.

And my friends over at Sirius XM radio was one of those that kept saying, you need to do a podcast, and they stayed after me.

And in 2021, as we were still kind of embroiled in the pandemic.

Yeah, the Covid thing, the Covid thing, it freed up some time.

It freed up a little bit of time.

And we launched a podcast, a national podcast called Black Diamonds Untold Stories of the Negro Leagues.

And Frank, this thing has gone bananas.

we're very blessed, very fortunate.

It was named the National Sport Podcast of the Year by Adweek.

It's first year in production and we just tell stories.

And for me, I kind of flip roles.

I go from being a storyteller to then trying to do what you've done for your entire career, interview folks around a subject matter that we're talking about relative to the Negro Leagues, and we have built a legion of fans who are now falling in love with the Negro Leagues.

Many of these are the same stories that our friend Buccaneer shared for years prior to his passing.

But you think about this buck has been gone now for almost 17 years now, so there's an entire generation of baseball fans who have not heard these stories, right?

And players and players.

And so I get to share these stories.

We find guests that relate back to these stories, and we just have a discussion.

And the program has provided a tremendous platform, national and international, for the museum.

And we're seeing the ripple effect of it.

You know, we're seeing our individual level of giving has grown considerably.

We're seeing people who are now making plans to visit Kansas City because they've been listening to the podcast.

And of course, as we talked about during the midst of the pandemic, it gave people something to look forward to.

You know, we release these every Thursday.

My commitment to series is 20 episodes.

I think each year we've done probably in the neighborhood of 26 to 30 episodes, but it's set me up with a little pseudo studio in my office, and we record and we roll, and it's.

But it's been great.

Yeah.

And the thing about it is to relate back to Buck O'Neil.

You were a volunteer for a long time at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

probably ten years right before you.

Before you.

Then I started I started volunteering for the museum.

It's hard to believe it's been 30 years ago.

Wow.

1993.

I walked into a one room office about as big as this studio where we're recording.

And I'll never forget this.

As long as my mother would say I'm in my natural mind.

I'm working for the Kansas City Star at that time.

And so I was senior copywriter Frank in the stars promotions department, which functioned as its in-house advertising agency.

So I had drawn the assignment of promoting the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum's first ever traveling exhibition, an exhibition called Discover Greatness.

It is still touring the country to this day, 30 years later.

And honestly, I didn't even know that there was a Negro Leagues Museum, and it was literally just right down the street from the Kansas City Star at that time.

So I said, well, I better go down, visit this museum, try to get a little bit of research done so I can put this campaign together.

I pull up in front of the Lincoln Building, and I go up to the third floor of the Lincoln Building, and I'm still not sure I'm in the right place.

And I remember knocking on the door of this office space and the late Don Motley.

Oh, I remember Don Mattingly, who was the executive director at that time.

He was sitting in the office, and I kind of sheepishly peeked my head in and said, well, I'm looking for the Negro Leagues baseball Museum.

And he looks up at me and he smiles.

He says, son, you're standing in it.

But, Frank, as I tell people all the time, little did I know that I had literally just walked into what would become my passion.

I fell in love with the museum, and I fell in love with the extraordinary athletes who made this story.

And here I was certainly considered myself to be a baseball fan, and I quickly realized I didn't know a Duncan thing about this game as it relates to the history of this game and this country.

And I guess you could say I became enamored with it.

I wanted to learn as much as I could, and I didn't want to keep it to myself.

I had no idea, man, that it was going to turn into a career.

And perhaps one of the most gratifying things that I could have done, either personally or professionally.

And here I am now, for the last 12 years, serving as president.

during the summer months.

Most of these folks who are coming are from outside the metropolitan area, for sure.

And they're they're planning trips to come and see.

That's how special this place is.

I oftentimes call it Kansas City's gift to the rest of the world, but we want more people at home to embrace what we're doing, to come in and experience what the rest of the world is so excited about.

It is special that the Negro League Baseball Museum is in Kansas City.

There are a lot of cities, and you just mentioned one Pittsburgh whose black baseball history is as rich as any city who would love to have the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

But it is right here where it is supposed to be Kansas City.

But we do need more local folks to come in and experience what this is all about.

And thankfully, what the Kansas City Royals have done over the last two years.

By making the museum free during the month of February, we've seen more local people than ever take advantage of that opportunity and then finally coming through those doors to experience it.

And you know what happens then they come back.

the, the second, player, Larry Doby, Larry Doby was with the Cleveland Indians, and he, he was the second the second player.

Right.

That that's the trivia question.

Okay.

We know Jackie Robinson's No.

One who's number two is Larry Doby.

It is funny that you mention that, because in my podcast, I draw the parallel that Jackie Robinson is breaking of the color barrier carried for black folks, carried the same level of euphoria that we saw collectively as a nation, with Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, right.

Jackie Robinson was our Neil Armstrong in many regards.

Larry Doby was our Buzz Aldrin.

The birds walked on the moon, too.

Yeah, yeah.

And no, no.

Never met.

But buzz, well, just seconds after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.

Right.

And no one remembers.

And that is Larry Doby.

Yeah, it a Buzz Aldrin.

But he shouldn't be forgotten.

And he's a great player, a great player.

And Larry Doby went through just as much.

Some may argue even more than Jackie because he's playing in the American League, which didn't have the urban centers that the National League did, and the national media was following.

Jackie, no one's paying Larry Doby any attention.

Frank.

Larry Doby was 23 years old, literally thrown into a powder keg of racism when he joined Cleveland in July of 1947, just weeks after Jackie had joined Brooklyn.

When he walked in the clubhouse, nobody would shake his hand.

When he went out on the field.

No one wanted to warm up with him.

Welcome to the Major league.

And yet, Larry Doby handled himself with the same grace, class and dignity that we rightfully held Jackie for.

But all of those integration pioneers who would subsequently break their respective major league teams color barriers, it didn't get any easier for any of them.

I think the consensus is that once Jackie breaks the color barrier, oh, this thing is all good now is better now.

Nor was it.

And so we recently created an exhibition called Barrier Breakers that tells all of their stories from Jackie joining Brooklyn on April 15th, 1947 through Elijah Pumps, the green being the last to complete the integration cycle 12 years later.

think the way the museum is going now, in a way, you know, Buck set up and you knew coming along after him, I think they realized that as well.

I mean, they know when they got a good thing they don't want to lose it to Pittsburgh.

Okay.

We'll just put it to that one.

Okay.

We ain't giving nothing to Pittsburgh.

I give nothing back to those guys.

But they already knew you at the Negro League baseball team because of all your volunteer work.

Yeah, yeah, and I had served on the board.

I served on the board for about five years.

Sure.

And so I was a volunteer role there on the board.

And then I stepped off the board to become the museum's first director of marketing.

Right.

And that was in 1998.

And I was involved from 1998 through 2010.

When I left briefly, 2010, I was vice president of marketing, left briefly to go take on another role as the executive director of the National Sports Center for the disabled that had a Kansas City office out of Parks and Rec.

And 13 months later, though, man, I was coming back home.

Yeah, I was introduced as president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

I bet when you walked out of that and then you turn them on went, oh, God, what do I do that for?

You know, an intern.

It was even though you had a good year.

It was so interesting that when I left and they threw this big going away party and gave me all these nice parting gifts and there were a couple of people who came over to me and said, you'll be back.

You know, like, no, man, you know, this is it.

I've had a great run.

Sure.

Here at the museum, of course, by that time, Buck had already passed.

Yes, the museum had transitioned and there was new leadership in place.

It wasn't the same place that I had, you know, known and loved from a leadership standpoint.

The institution was still the same.

But I'm saying, okay, that chapter is done, I'm moving on and I'm starting a new chapter now.

And they kept saying, oh, you'll be back.

And they were right.

They were right.

13 months later and this year I was coming back.

And I'm saying to myself, now, I have to give these gifts back.

Well, of course, to golf ball.

The people who gave me golf balls, I lost them already.

So yeah.

Yeah, they're they're all gone.

And you, all you folks out here who know Bob Kendrick.

Okay, I'd like I said, I thought I was going to wear a tuxedo in here today because I had no idea.

So Bob comes in off the golf course.

Do you know he comes in off the golf course?

Yeah.

And all those golf balls are lost forever.

You're wherever you're doing it.

And Buck had taking you under his wing anyway.

Right.

You had he had an affinity for you.

And right away you knew that there was just something special about this guy and just you were learning.

He was a tremendous mentor for you.

Yeah.

You know, and I know sometimes I asked myself, why me?

Because this could have been anyone and why me?

And they paid me freight to hang out with buckle.

Wow.

If you could imagine.

And the fact that we traveled the country together, there were all these car rides and plane rides and breakfast and lunch and dinner and golf.

You know, he wasn't always an avid golfer.

He was a really good golfer.

Shot 75 at age 75, shot 94 at age 94. and that night, after we played that round at Wolf Creek, we're sitting at dinner and he looks at me and and Dave Kindred, the great writer.

I was there with me and and George Harvey's, who had set up this round of golf.

We all at dinner, he just says, well, fellas, I shoot my age, but that ain't a good score anymore.

Say, Buck, there's some days I take that info down.

Oh, but 94 and 94.

I'll sign up for that right now.

But man, what a blessing it was for me to be there with him, to witness how people reacted to this man.

You knew you were in the presence of someone special, right?

And this was different because it wasn't a standoffish kind of special.

This was a inviting, engaging, kind of special.

If he didn't know you, he wanted to know you.

And people seemingly responded to that.

I mean, no matter where we went, if we were in the airport, he'd walk over to you, introduce himself.

My name is Buck O'Neil.

Was yours by the time we were leaving to go to our respective gates, they were sharing an embrace as if they'd known each other all their lives.

And I'm witnessing this, And I knew it was special.

And after he passed away, when he passed away, people would call or write me and thank me.

Yeah, I have that to do with it.

But they would thank me, or they wanted to share how those moments were life altering, those encounters that they had with Buck O'Neil.

There was a certain innate ness about this man.

You know, and I liken it to Ghandi, Mother Teresa mandela.

I just got the king.

Yes.

Yeah.

They seemingly had the ability to see the good in everybody sometimes, Frank, even when they weren't good books, all the good in them.

Yeah.

You know, but that's buried somewhere in there.

Yeah.

And they knew that they didn't do it.

Yeah, yeah.

And, and the other thing for you then when did you realize he was sort of mentoring.

Did he ever say to you, hey, look, I want you to take over what I do.

I maybe whatever capacity, but I'd like you to take over what I do and continue this.

Over his final days, he wanted me to know that he felt like the museum would be in good hands if I were to become a leader.

Right.

And that meant the world to me, that he had that kind of faith in me.

And that's something that I always cherish now.

Didn't work out the way that, but wanted it initially, but ultimately it did.

It has.

Have you ever has anybody ever come to you and said, hey, you know, Bob, we have this organization we'd like you to live.

Have you ever been, you know, courted by I'm sure you've been courted by know you get those calls from headhunters and other places that reach out to you, and we'd love for you to come in and do it.

I do think, though, that a lot of people, because they've connected me so greatly with this museum, I feel a little guilty if they were to come in and try and pull me away from the organization.

But man, I just so enjoy the work that I do.

The people that I do this work with at this stage in the ball game now, now this is what I want to do.

Yeah.

And we've got some very ambitious plans that I would love to see them through before I eventually hang it up.

But now I've had a tremendous ride with this institution.

I tell people all the time, the museum has given me far more than I can ever give it again.

This is a kid from Crawfordsville, Georgia, man that has had the opportunity to walk through that museum with American presidents and first ladies of these United States.

The late, great general Colin Powell, and of course, my all time favorite baseball player, my childhood idol, Henry Aaron.

who is the only person that I've ever been starstruck by?

And that's with American presidents and First ladies and all these other dignitaries and athletes that have walked through that museum.

They're all amazing individuals, but with no disrespect to any of them.

Right?

They are not Henry Aaron in the eyes, mind and heart of this kid from Crawfordsville, Georgia.

Frank, to walk through that museum with Henry Aaron was so real for me.

I was nervous as all could get, I mean, just nervous.

I'm at home, and this is 1999, and Major League Baseball was celebrating the 25th anniversary of Mr. Aaron's breaking of Ruth's record.

It took 25 years before he could finally exhale and enjoy what many thought to be the most prestigious accomplishment in sports.

because of all the hate and vitriol.

Oh, only that he received death threats and everything.

And so Buck was out of town, and the royals had arranged for Mr. Aaron to be one of the stops here in Kansas City.

They set it up for him to come to the museum.

Buck's out of town.

So guess who gets to take his childhood idol over to, you guessed it, old Bob.

And I'm at home, man.

I'm laying the stuff out.

My wife is like, what is wrong with you?

I'm like, look, you're stay this Henry.

Yeah.

So we get to the museum, they get me miked up, there's a throng of media that's following us.

Mr. Aaron and his wife, Billy are comforting me as we go through the museum.

And it was so amazing to share stuff about the Negro Leagues that he didn't know about, even though he was a part of the Negro Leagues.

He was just there, though, for such a short period of time.

And we get to one area, and the exhibit in my favorite photograph in the entire exhibition is a photograph of an 18 year old Henry Aaron standing at the train station in mobile, Alabama, 1952.

He is real thin.

He couldn't weigh more than 160 pounds.

Soaking wet.

He looked very frail and very afraid.

He was about to leave home, likely for the first time, to go join the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro Leagues, and at that time Mr. Aaron was a skinny cross handed, hitting shortstop.

So for those of you who may be hearing that term for the first time, he was a right hand hitter who was hitting with his left hand on top, on top of the That's unorthodox.

The fear is that you break your you break your wrist by hitting it.

That man, Henry Aaron, is knocking the cover off the baseball in a highly unorthodox fashion.

He gets to the clouds, they put the right hand on top.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Yeah.

He was shortly after discovered by the Boston Braves, who, of course, would become the Milwaukee Braves, who would become the Atlanta Braves.

And of course, Mr. Aaron will go down in this sport as one of his all time greatest players.

But it all began in the Negro leagues 1952 mobile, Alabama.

And the photograph is classic.

There's a small cardboard duffel bag right by his foot.

That's all he had.

And he had seen the photograph, but it'd been a long time since he had seen it.

And he looks at me, says Bob, I may have had two changes of clothes in that bag, $1.50 in my pocket, and I have sandwich my mama had made me go on to go chase that dream.

It worked out pretty well for the hammer.

I said, is a great story.

There are so many wonderful stories.

Probably people have never been there, especially you Kansas citizens who love this city so much like we do.

you've got to go to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and buy for you.

What is it about this town?

You know you're from the south.

Crawfordsville, Georgia.

You come up here for park, and you basically you you never left.

I never left.

I'd sit here longer than I did in Georgia.

Oh, exactly.

Yeah.

And I think Buck summarized it best.

Buck said when he came to join the Kansas City Monarchs in 1938, he says, I knew I was coming to the heart of America.

I never knew I was coming to the center of the universe.

And 18th and vine was the center of the universe, and this city just grows on you, man.

There are great people in this city, and to me, a great city, and measured by the stuff it has, is measured by the people.

The people that meet.

Is that what makes it the great city?

Now we've got great stuff.

We've got everything that you need, I think, to attract folks to our wonderful city.

Is not overwhelmingly large like New York.

LA is cosmopolitan enough, but you don't feel the congestion.

You know, you've got quality people.

I look at people, you walk past people, they open their mouths and speak, you know, and I would go to New York.

It was funny.

They got I'm sure they probably knew we were two country bumpkins and we were going to New York.

I don't know how many people in New York, 16, 17 million people in New York.

Too many bucket.

I would try to speak to all.

I was surprised you're not still there.

And they look at us and they're looking at us like, okay, what's wrong with you all?

That's right.

But I can't get on the elevator.

Look, you dead in your face.

And I say, good morning, a good afternoon, a good evening.

Just can't do it.

Here in Kansas City, it's almost the norm.

If you look at somebody, you acknowledge their presence.

And part of that for me was growing up in the South as well.

And so.

But now this city mad, this city has been special to me and to my family.

And I'm so proud to call Kansas City home.

Yeah.

We're so proud to have you here.

Now, one last question for you.

Yes.

Okay.

Who are you grooming to take your spot sometime down the road, or at least you have a pretty good idea somewhere down the road.

Yeah.

No, no, all good things must come to it.

They certainly do.

Yeah they do.

And we know this father time is undefeated.

Yes, he.

Now we run from it and I'm running.

I'm ducking the dog out.

You're walking fast.

You said you never okay.

Yeah.

You just walk real fast.

But, you know, that is something that we know has to happen.

Well, from my perspective, a transition plan must be part of what I do and the opportunity to bring in new talent into our organization.

That's one thing that will the new museum will give us an opportunity.

We're so landlocked where we are now that we don't have room to bring in this talent.

And I'm sure there are a lot of folks out there who would jump at the opportunity to be part of a growing, thriving museum that hopefully will fall right into place and kind of follow in my footsteps, so to speak.

You know, I followed in bucks footsteps.

Those are some enormous footprints, man.

You can't film.

You know, you'd be naive to think that you could feel those big shoes.

But for me, it's an honor to walk in his footsteps.

It really is.

It's an honor to walk in his footsteps.

And for a lot of people, his shadow would loom so large that they would crumble under the weight of his shadow.

I don't look at it that way for me, Frank.

His shadow protects me.

Yeah, he's guiding my footsteps.

And I want to be that same to someone else.

Because what I do want to do is I want to make sure that this museum is healthy and strong, and whomever comes in after me will have a 4050 yard head start in comparison.

Right?

You know, as we run this 100 yard dash, 110 meter, whatever it is these days that they run now in terms of being able to continue to grow and build upon what we have.

And so that's kind of what I've dedicated myself to now, as we look ambitiously to build this new museum and set up this museum for long term sustainable growth, and then bringing in the right group of talent to help lead it and hopefully have someone that I will recommend.

Now, my board may feel differently by the time is all said and done, but it is my job to make sure that there's someone who I would very at least recommend.

They step into that role and hopefully they will be prepared.

And and I hope these stories that I have been very fortunate to have learned from Buck and others that they won't abandon those stories, that those stories will live forever.

I think that will be part of the resume.

You got to tell those stories.

You can't ever let that die.

I can't ever let that dream die.

You know, ever fall is you is going to be following some big footsteps, too, my friend Robin, I appreciate that in your show, you know, God bless you.

We love you.

You know that.

We love you.

Love you're here.

We love this city like you do.

And, that's so important.

Thanks, buddy.

It's always a pleasure.

Thanks so much for having me go shoot your age.

We just have a great bob.

Can you.