That’s how Bob Kendrick, president of the Kansas City-based museum, described it — a yearlong celebration of the Negro Leagues’ 100th anniversary that was to feature events in ballparks across the country, in front of fans across the sport, but would always be centered in Kansas City, where the first official Negro League was founded a century before.
“We were off and running, we were off to a flying start,” Kendrick said, speaking from his office during the summer. “Then, just like that, everything comes to a screeching halt.”
The COVID-19 pandemic, of course, was to blame, disrupting not only the 2020 Major League Baseball season but all the centennial celebration events the Negro Leagues Museum was planning to stage around it.