A Renewed Call for More Negro Leaguers to be Inducted in the Baseball Hall of Fame

Gary Gillette: As founder and chair of the nonprofit Friends of Historic Hamtramck Stadium, Pennsylvania native and Detroit resident Gary Gillette led the successful effort to save and rehabilitate the Stadium—one of only five remaining Major Negro League home ballparks. He is the recipient of the Tweed Webb Lifetime Achievement Award from the Negro Leagues Committee of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), of the (Michigan) Governor’s Award for Historic Preservation, and of SABR’s Henry Chadwick Award. He currently spends most of his time volunteering with a half-dozen nonprofit organizations.
Ted Knorr is a Pittsburgh-born, Harrisburg-based baseball fan. Since joining the Society for American Baseball Research in 1979, Ted has focused hit attention on celebrating Negro League baseball history. He founded SABR’s Negro League Research Conference – today known as the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference – which will convene for the 26th time this summer in Memphis. He also has founded Negro League celebrations in conjunction with minor league teams in Harrisburg, Lancaster, and York, Pennsylvania.

Sean L. Gibson is the great-grandson of Baseball Hall of Fame legend Josh Gibson. Sean has dedicated his life to the preservation of Josh’s legacy and is the Executive Director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, a Pittsburgh area non-profit organization. The Josh Gibson Foundation was established in 1994 in an effort to keep the memory of Pittsburgh’s beloved Josh Gibson and the entire Negro Leagues alive. With a strong focus on education, the Foundation offers STEAM and mentoring programs to the youth in Pittsburgh, sponsors the Josh Gibson Baseball Academy, and is spearheading the development of the Josh Gibson Champions Club in McKees Rocks.