KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Standing at the corner of 22nd and Brooklyn today, you overlook a site where the Sultan of Swat, Babe Ruth, played (exhibitions in 1927 and 1931) and the Sultan of Sod, George Toma, made his name.
You gaze at the scene where the Dallas Texans morphed into the Kansas City Chiefs in 1963 … and from where they were propelled to two of the first four Super Bowls and played in what remains the longest game in NFL history (double overtime, 82 minutes 40 seconds) in their finale at the stadium built in 1923.
In the distance before you is where soccer legend Pele played in a 1968 exhibition and the Spurs launched an NASL championship in 1969.
It’s where they held the 1960 MLB All-Star Game and where The Beatles played in 1964, opening with a “Kansas City/Hey-Hey-Hey-Hey” medley. And it’s where the man who made that happen, Kansas City Athletics’ owner Charlie O. Finley, contrived a petting zoo in the outfield.
It’s also where, after Finley took his A’s (and future Hall of Famers Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter) to Oakland following the 1967 season, the Royals debuted in 1969 and played in the final event held there 50 years ago this October.
This was the stage for numerous future New York Yankees stars, including Mickey Mantle and Phil Rizzuto, playing for what had become a key minor-league affiliate, the Kansas City Blues.
And it was the location of the last game played by baseball icon Lou Gehrig, who after an exhibition here in 1939 took a train from Union Station to Minnesota and the Mayo Clinic — where he was diagnosed with ALS.
For all this, though, the most enduring and culturally pivotal history hovering on the former grounds of Municipal Stadium (among other names over time) is its vital place as the hub of the Negro Leagues.
In the city where the Negro Leagues themselves were founded, and where the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum keeps the profound tale vibrant and resonant, a galaxy of stars whose story is entwined with the fight for civil rights played for and against the Kansas City Monarchs.
More players went on to the major leagues (which only recently have acknowledged the Negro Leagues as, in fact, major league) from Kansas City than any other franchise, a path blazed 75 years ago this April by former Monarch Jackie Robinson.
That explains why the near foreground of the area came to be dedicated 10 years ago as “Monarch Plaza, Historic Site of Municipal Stadium,” intended to celebrate the history framed by the Monarch Manor housing development that now occupies most of the ground.
So it’s a jarring shame how the main display and kiosks commemorating the rich past and honoring Black athletes (including former Chiefs Willie Lanier and Bobby Bell) have been neglected and weather-ravaged.
Enough so that even their names have been washed away, and, as NLBM president Bob Kendrick put it, “their images started to fade.”
But the reassuring news is that it’s on the verge of being reinvigorated, in more ways than one, in the wake of a stark moment last summer at the site about a mile from the NLBM.
As Kendrick filmed a segment on the scene for Toyota’s “History Hits The Road” series, NLBM community engagement and digital strategy manager Kiona Sinks gazed around her.
