The St. Louis Cardinals will play the Cleveland Indians in the inaugural Civil Rights Game, an exhibition at Memphis AutoZone Park that will celebrate the Civil Rights Movement as well and raise the profile of baseball among African-Americans.
“It’s very important to us, the St. Louis Cardinals, and we’re very honored and pleased to be chosen along with the Cleveland Indians to participate in this game,” general manager Walt Jocketty told mlb.com.
“It’s in the home of our Triple-A affiliate and also the home of the national Civil Rights Museum.”
The Museum will be one of the financial beneficiaries of the game, and it will also host players from the two teams in tours during the day on March 31. The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, not far from AutoZone Park.
The Cardinals were one of the last teams in Major Leage Baseball to integrate, but the Indians were the first American League team to sign and play a black player.
Larry Doby began playing for the Indians in 1947, and that team became the first Major League team with an African-American manager when it hired manager/player Frank Robinson in 1975.
“The Cardinals were at the forefront in the 1960s of a lot of social change, with people like Bill White and Bob Gibson and Curt Flood,” said Billy Sample, emcee of the announcement event at baseball’s Winter Meetings in Orlando, Fla..
“Initially it was to integrate the Spring Training facilities, and they moved on from there.”
Jocketty told mlb.com that it is his hope the game will “raise the awareness of this great need to try and attract the great African-American athletes back to our game.”
“It’s very important. It’s something that I think every organization is very aware of. We’re happy that we’re going to be part of this inaugural game.”