Mark your calendar: Brewers to host 10th annual Negro Leagues Tribute Game

MILWAUKEE -- The Milwaukee Brewers will host the franchise’s 10th annual Negro Leagues Tribute Game at Miller Park on Saturday, July 18 when the team takes on the Pittsburgh Pirates at 6:10 p.m.  The team will honor the significance of the Negro Leagues and their impact on the game that night by donning Milwaukee Bears uniforms, the city’s 1923 Negro Leagues representative. The Pirates will also honor the Negro Leagues by wearing uniforms from the “Pittsburgh Crawfords,” the team that represented the Steel City from 1931 to 1938.

At this game, the Brewers will honor former players and baseball contributors Gilbert Hernandez Black and James Beckum during a tailgate reception at Helfaer Field, beginning at 3 p.m., along with a special pre-game ceremony at Miller Park.  In honor of the event, Brewers Community Foundation will make a donation to both the Negro Leagues Museum and Yesterday’s Negro League Baseball Players Foundation. In addition, an autograph session with both honorees will take place during the first 45 minutes of the game on the Field Level Concourse near home plate.

 

The following day, Sunday, July 19, Hernandez Black and Beckum will be inducted into the Yesterday’s Negro League Hall of Fame at the Mother Kathryn Daniels Center (MKDC) located at 3500 W. Mother Daniels Way on the grounds of Milwaukee’s Holy Redeemer Church (COGIC), beginning at 1:45 p.m. The Brewers are once again partnering with the MKDC and the Church as a sponsor of the annual induction ceremonies and other initiatives. This event is open to the public.

The Milwaukee Bears, the city’s 1923 representative in the Negro National League, played only one season before disbanding, but featured some of the game’s most influential men, including Hall-of-Fame player/manager John Preston “Pete” Hill.