Large Satchel Paige baseball card on display in 18th & Vine District
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An usually large baseball card is on display in Kansas City’s 18th & Vine District to honor a Negro Leagues legend.
Satchel Paige played for the Kansas City Monarchs from 1941-1947 and was the first Black pitcher to pitch in the World Series (1948).
Now, a 24×16 foot baseball card bearing Paige’s image in a Monarchs ballcap overlooks the Buck O’Neil Tribute Park at 19th and The Paseo. However, it won’t be there for long – just one day is all.
The nearly 30-foot-tall card is one of a few that will be on display in six U.S. cities leading up to the Rickwood Field game on FOX on June 20.
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If you’re not familiar with the Rickwood Field game, it’s a celebration of the Negro Leagues and its importance to U.S. history.
Rickwood Field, located in Birmingham, Alabama, is the oldest standing baseball field in the country. It served as home to many baseball legends, including those in the Negro Leagues.
Kansas City is one of six cities to be graced with a 24×16 foot trading card. Each features a different legend: Satchel Paige, Jackie Robinson, Josh Gibson, and Willie Mays, and they all might be breaking records.
“We travel stuff like this all the time, but a baseball card like this. We talked about it last week and said that this might be the first ever baseball card of this size. The biggest baseball card ever made was 90 feet tall but it was laid on the ground, so this might be the biggest one standing,” said Jordan Black, whose company helped erect the sign on behalf of FOX Sports and Fanatics.
The Paige card will disappear after Thursday, so stop by and grab a photo before it’s gone.
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After that, Saint Louis will get a different Paige card, followed by Philadelphia, New York, and Birmingham for the June 20 game between the San Franciso Giants and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Black said the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum has shown interest in taking the Satchel Paige print and potentially having it trimmed so it can be displayed in the museum.
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