The "Tip Your Cap" campaign is celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Negro Leagues launch today, with backing from the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, a "host of prominent civil rights leaders, entertainers and sports greats" including Hank Aaron, Rachel Robinson, Derek Jeter, Colin Powell, Michael Jordan and former U.S. Presidents Obama, Clinton, Carter and George W. Bush, according to Jim Litke of the AP. The effort was "moved online after a major league-wide tribute to baseball’s Black pioneers scheduled for June 27 was shelved" because of the pandemic. Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick: "I thought, ‘How about a virtual tip of the cap?' ... I could not be more proud of the response." Kendrick "got the lift he was looking for from communications specialist Dan McGinn" and The Athletic's Joe Posnanski, a longtime NLBM supporter and author of “The Soul Of Baseball” (AP, 6/29). Posnanski in a post last week encouraged readers to "take a photo or a short video of you tipping your cap to the Negro Leagues -- it can be any cap at all -- and add a few words and send it to photos@tippingyourcap.com" (THEATHLETIC.com, 6/22). A dedicated website compiles the entries, which also have come from the likes of MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred, MLBPA Exec Dir Tony Clark, Billie Jean King and Stephen Colbert (THE DAILY).
