On June 28, in front of a sea of people in orange and black, a Baltimore baseball star walked up to the mound at Oriole Park.
With every step Kendall Montgomery-Buckson took toward the mound, he echoed Baltimore legends of the past: former Morgan State pitcher Joe Black, who started for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s; Baltimore Black Sox star flamethrower Satchel Paige; and the first Black Oriole, Jehosie Heard, who pitched two games for the club in its inaugural season in 1954.
“Okay Kendall, whenever you’re ready, it’s YOUR pitch,” Orioles public address announcer Adrienne Roberson told the eager 14-year-old.
Dozens of people every year throw out a ceremonial first pitch ahead of Orioles home games. Only one can claim the honor of throwing the first pitch to baseball legend Cal Ripken Jr. on a day celebrating the 30 years since the season he played his record-breaking 2,131st consecutive game.
Montgomery-Buckson stared down the Hall of Fame infielder before tossing the ball straight into his glove. The little league star peered into the future that he wants: becoming a major league All-Star and putting the city and team that he dearly appreciates on a pedestal — just as Ripken did.
“It’s something that a lot of kids dream about,” Montgomery-Buckson said a week later. He’s been playing baseball since he was four years old.
For the past five years, he’s played for James Mosher Baseball, a Black youth baseball organization that has seen famous Baltimoreans like former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, the late Congressman Elijah Cummings, and Marvin “Doc” Cheatham all grow up and play in the league. It’s a legacy that Montgomery-Buckson is proud to be part of.
“I help my city, you know, put my city on my back,” he said. “It’s very historic here.”
Montgomery-Buckson and his James Mosher league teammates were on the field earlier in the day with Ripken to watch batting practice, getting their own Iron Man bobbleheads and Ripken’s signature on their jerseys and baseballs.
“He loves baseball,” his father Avery Buckson said. “It was good to see him out there throwing with the great Cal Ripken.”
Whether it be at home in Baltimore or on the road in other states, the revival of Black baseball — especially in the city — has been a sight to see for Buckson.
“They’re able to play teams from out-of-state, they’re able to travel to go out-of-state to play different Black leagues. They’ve been welcomed into the RBI league, which is a great experience because you get to play every team in Baltimore City, Baltimore County as well,” he said.
The Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation and the Orioles RBI program have worked together to build fields in the Baltimore area. Eddie Murray Field — where James Mosher Baseball plays many of its games — is one of 12 turf fields provided by the Cal Ripken Sr. Foundation.
“It’s a good thing for the Orioles to be a part of those types of programs, because it brings more kids in, it keeps kids out of trouble, it makes more kids wanna play, knowing that they’re backed by a professional MLB team,” Buckson said. “Everybody loves the Orioles.”
James Mosher Baseball has a long and storied history in Baltimore. From a six-team youth league in West Baltimore in 1960 with each team featuring 18 boys, the oldest operating African American youth baseball league in the United States now hosts multiple age groups and a softball league.
On a cloudy afternoon this April, young Black baseball and softball players in the league prepared to join that history during their annual Opening Day parade around Helen Mackall Park in Rosemont.
At the forefront of the gathering was Delmar Harrod, who has played every position in the league — manager, coach, chairman of the T-ball league, commissioner of T-ball, and the Opening Day chairman of the league.
For 50 years, his goal and that of the baseball organization has been to guide the next generation, whether that’s through leading a parade or making memories that will last a lifetime.
“My experience with little league is keeping me young,” Harrod, who is in his seventies, said. “If you can talk to them or help them in some way — I enjoy being around young people.”
“We’ve got to pass it on so that they can help somebody. That’s what our young organization is all about — helping young people become citizens.”
“We’ve got to pass it on so that they can help somebody. That’s what our young organization is all about — helping young people become citizens.”
Delmar Harrod
Despite its legacy in Baltimore, James Mosher Baseball is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the sport’s history in the city.
From the youth and high school baseball teams to Baltimore’s historically Black college baseball teams to the advent of Negro League baseball in Baltimore and even the Black stars of the Orioles, Baltimore is a baseball town.
You can trace Baltimore’s Black baseball history to more than a century ago. Joe Gans, an East Baltimorean with an aptitude for knockouts in the boxing ring, won the world lightweight title in 1902, becoming the first African-American boxing champion.
He had just one hobby that usurped his love of combat sports — baseball.
Black players weren’t allowed to play in the major leagues. The Negro Leagues were made up of six teams: Baltimore Lord Baltimores, Boston Resolutes, Louisville Fall City, New York Gorhams, Philadelphia Pythians, and Pittsburgh Keystones, so options were limited for Black players to show off their skill. Frustrated with the lack of opportunities for Black baseball players to display their skills to a wider audience, Gans decided to promote and manage Black baseball teams around Baltimore to help them gain exposure.
Gans became synonymous with Baltimore City, said Sara Artes, co-founder of boxing organization Corner Team, Inc. and an avid fan of Gans’ story because of his multifaceted nature as a boxer, icon, and early pioneer of Black baseball. Earlier this year she hosted an exhibit at Peabody Heights Brewery, which sits on the site of Old Oriole Park, featuring a number of photos, newspaper clippings, and other items from Gans’ career. A life-sized cutout of Gans was on display, along with boxing trophies and giveaway wristbands via Corner Team, Inc.
“He used a lot of his earnings to fund baseball teams and he’d play, even before the Negro Leagues existed,” Artes said. “He worked with a friend — Eddie Myers — to sponsor the Middle Section Giants, which were also called the Baltimore Giants and the Joe Gans Nine. They played teams from as far as Georgia up to New York. He put his own money up because he was so well known.”
While Gans died from tuberculosis in 1910 at the age of 35, his legacy lived on, as is evident in the history of the Negro Leagues in Baltimore.
Baltimore’s first team to play in the Negro Leagues were the Baltimore Black Sox, who played at Maryland Park from 1916-1932. The organization joined the Eastern Colored League in 1923 and played independently from 1928-1932. After being sold to white Baltimore businessman Joe Cambria, the team entered into Homestead Grays owner Cumberland Posey’s East-West League.
Paige, a Hall of Famer and arguably the best, most well-known Black pitcher in baseball history, played for the Black Sox. Other Hall of Fame inductees include outfielder and manager Pete Hill, infielder Biz Mackey, pitcher Leon Day, first baseman and outfielder Mule Suttles, first baseman and former manager Ben Taylor, and corner infielder Jud Wilson.
Another team that played in Baltimore shared the “Giants” name — the Baltimore Elite Giants. The team was founded by Thomas T. Wilson as the Nashville Standard Giants in 1920 and promptly was renamed the Elite Giants. Nashville’s Elite Giants played independently from 1920-1929 prior to playing in the Negro National League and the Negro Southern League before rejoining the Negro National League and finishing up in the Negro American League. Baltimore welcomed the Elite Giants in 1938 and the team remained there until 1950 when it folded.
The team jumped around leagues due to its initial independent nature. This was compounded by the Great Depression and financial uncertainty surrounding a number of Negro League teams.
Baltimore Elite Giants stars included Hall of Fame inductees such as catcher and Jackie Robinson-teammate Roy Campanella, who became the second Black Brooklyn Dodgers player, infielder Ray Dandridge, Day, Mackey and an Elite Giants shortstop and former Negro Leagues manager in Willie Wells.
Around the corner from the Gans exhibit, Parkville native Derwin Whitehead was putting on a showing of “The League,” an expedition into the history of the Negro Leagues.
Whitehead, 59, heads up youth sports and operations of the Hubert V. Simmons Museum of Negro Leagues Baseball Inc., located on the campus of CCBC Owings Mills.
Not only is the organization tasked with keeping the spirit of the Negro Leagues alive, it looks to grow the game at a grassroots level by generating interest at the museum.
“One of the quotes I kept going to this year is ‘keep the spirit of baseball alive,’” Whitehead said. “If I had 50 kids playing and I have five kids to become baseball players at any level, it would be beneficial to us. If I had two of those kids to become a board member to help sustain the information that we put forth to other individuals, it would be a good thing.”
While Baltimore’s Negro Leagues history is well-known, baseball at the collegiate level in Baltimore is something that often slips through the cracks.
Morgan State University had a long-running baseball program that produced five professional baseball players from 1934 to 1981.
Since Coppin State University’s program was formally founded in 1984, the team has played 1,620 games and has had eight coaches, including former Orioles star outfielder Paul Blair, Harvey Lee, Mike Scolinos, and now Sherman Reed.
Reed is about as local as one can get when it comes to being raised in Baltimore’s baseball tradition. He grew up playing in the church league at Saint Pius V in Harlem Park. During that time, he’d head to the local sporting goods store and buy used t-shirts to make jerseys for his teams. He played collegiate baseball at what was then known as Towson State and completed his master of business administration degree at Johns Hopkins.
Reed ended up getting into coaching through the late Robert Plummer, who was the head baseball coach at Baltimore County’s Woodlawn High School and a former recreational baseball coach.
It’s not the lack of talent or on-field resources that many kids in the city lack, Reed said. It’s the lack of continuity and the fields themselves.
“I think that we need to go back to the days of every rec council in the city having a baseball team,” Reed said. “Baseball is a difficult sport. One of the most difficult things to do is hit a baseball. If you don’t get them hooked, you’re going to lose them because you can’t stop playing when you’re 14. We have a lot of good developmental programs, but we need the 90-foot diamonds and there’s not a lot of great facilities around the city.”
In a city where Black residents make up 60% of the population, Baltimore is at the epicenter of rebuilding Black baseball. That includes at the major league level.
A 2023 report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found that, as of Opening Day 2023, only 6.2% of Major League Baseball players were Black Americans — the lowest percentage the institute has seen since it began collecting data in 1991, when 18% of players were Black.
A 2023 report by the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport found that, as of Opening Day 2023, only 6.2% of Major League Baseball players were Black Americans — the lowest percentage the institute has seen since it began collecting data in 1991, when 18% of players were Black.
Elrod Hendricks, who played 11 seasons with the Orioles and was a bullpen coach for 28 seasons, was a fixture of the organization and the idol of many young Black baseball players in the city from the 1960s until 2005. Following a stroke in 2005, Hendricks continued to be an ambassador for the Orioles until his death the following year, giving gifts to underprivileged youth, running an Orioles baseball summer camp, and signing many autographs, among other duties.
Marques Dent, president of the Orioles Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities program and the head coach of the baseball team at Franklin High School, is working to carry on Hendricks’ work.
Like those who have spent years building up the James Mosher League, Dent wants to give back to the communities that gave him his love of baseball. The Orioles RBI program sponsors over 50 youth baseball and softball programs in Baltimore, improving the field conditions and providing equipment.
Dent’s efforts have been buoyed by Black American Orioles players that have become beloved in Baltimore. In a city that’s had the likes of Cedric Mullins, Adam Jones, Eddie Murray, Blair, and Frank Robinson, it just makes sense to Dent that Baltimore takes charge in revitalizing Black youth baseball.
“For those that cannot afford it or don’t have the means of resources that enable them to have the opportunity [to play], that’s what we try to do at RBI,” Dent said. “What we’ve been doing is very successful, especially since I’ve joined 12 years ago and we’ve grown exponentially.”
Demond Wilson Sr. knows the difference it can make when you see someone who looks like you on a major league baseball field — growing up, he wanted to emulate Murray, one of his favorite players. The 49-year-old Mervo alum is now a coordinator of youth sports and community engagement for the Orioles RBI program.
“It’s starting to change. I think for a while a lot of the kids in the city were playing basketball and football and they weren’t engaging in baseball like when I was younger,” Wilson said.
“We all played baseball — we played wiffle ball in the streets all day long. Now, you’re starting to see that change. Kids are coming back out, they’re playing baseball, they’re getting more engaged, they’re finding the tools that they need to be successful in baseball. It’s on the come up. We just need to put more resources into it to get kids out to play.”
“Kids are coming back out, they’re playing baseball, they’re getting more engaged, they’re finding the tools that they need to be successful in baseball. It’s on the come up. We just need to put more resources into it to get kids out to play.”
Demond Wilson Sr., coordinator of youth sports and community engagement for the Orioles RBI program
Mullins, one of the current faces of Orioles baseball, is currently the longest-tenured Oriole and has seen the team go from 100-loss seasons to 100-win seasons to the middle-of-the-road record they currently have. In that time, Baltimoreans have claimed him as their own, giving him some of the loudest cheers ahead of his at-bats.
Mullins has been involved with Baltimore Urban Baseball Association, a nonprofit organization that seeks to grow the game of baseball through the Players Alliance, a nonprofit founded by former and current Black professional baseball players to address systemic barriers to equity and build a pipeline of young Black talent.
“I think that long line of Black players in Baltimore is so important,” Mullins said ahead of a Memorial Day matchup with the St. Louis Cardinals. “I’m so close with Jonesy [Jones] and he’s been a person that I can lean on throughout my time here. While we only played together for a short period of time, I know I can call on him. We’re all so different — Adam was more vocal and I try to lead more by example than my speech. It’s important to uphold that legacy that he passed down and carried by the guys before him.”
William Neal, James Mosher Baseball’s president, has seen hundreds, even thousands of players play in the league. From playing on just a few grass fields in 1959 to the numerous T-ball, instructional baseball, travel leagues, and softball teams, the organization has grown to serve many youth athletes across the city of Baltimore — especially those in the western and southern portions of the city.
“The game has changed,” Neal said. “The kids have changed, but the whole purpose of the organization is to keep kids active and give kids something positive, and that’s what we’re about. It’s not about winning, it’s not about having the greatest team out there. It’s about taking kids and keeping them focused on something. To give them some time to do something different, to go outside to get some fresh air to meet some friends. That’s what it’s all about as I look at it right now. And that’s what I think is the strongest part of this organization.”
“The game has changed,” Neal said. “The kids have changed, but the whole purpose of the organization is to keep kids active and give kids something positive, and that’s what we’re about.”
As one of the first players on the Battin’ Babes, the organization’s softball league, Dred’n Lewis has made a lot of new friends and has flashed her strong arm as a catcher, first base and third base player.
“For the girls, you get a little bit of special treatment,” Lewis said. “You get to see different types of pitches than you’re really used to. Everyone should come play a sport. It’s a loving sport.”
Transitioning into adulthood, she’s hoping to display that same love for the game that her predecessors have and pave the way for women to grow the league too.
The impact is felt beyond the confines of the Mosher neighborhood. Of the roughly 250 players in the league, around 30 players live in the immediate community. Most of the league’s advertising has come through word-of-mouth. Paired with a shared history between grandfathers, fathers, and even grandsons who played in the league, it’s fairly easy for community members to keep the network going.
Derrick Thompson, who grew up on Winchester Street, played in the league as a kid and currently coaches a team. He’s seen how much the league can do in terms of providing mentorship to the youth of the area.
“There are kids with no homes, kids who got no food and so many other kids that are brought together through baseball,” Thompson said. “I want to be there for them, like other people was for me…We haven’t had a parade in a minute. The last two years was when we brought it back. A lot of alumni players come. People from the neighborhood show up to watch this game, talk to the kids… it’s like a giant homecoming.”