Traveling Negro League Baseball museum makes stop at Truist Field
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Since 2015, Negro League historian Ray Banks has always looked forward to making his annual trek to Charlotte to bring his museum to new fans.
“I just love coming down to see this beautiful ballpark,” Ray Banks said. “If I wasn’t so far away, 8 hours away, I’d be down here maybe every other day.”
Banks runs the Hubert V. Simmons Museum of Negro League Baseball in Baltimore. His traveling museum is one of the many things that makes the Charlotte Knights annual Negro League tribute night extra special.
“I’ve been doing this for a long time,” said Banks. “It’s not work as I mentioned before, it’s my passion. I love doing this. This is what God wants me to do.”
While Banks helps fans learn about Negro League history, one man on the Knights coaching staff had a front-row seat to the sport’s past growing up.
1992 American League Rookie of the Year Pat Listach is in his first season as Charlotte’s bench coach. He’s continuing the legacy of his grandfather Nora who played in the Negro Leagues in the 1940s for the Birmingham Black Barons.
“I grew up listening to my grandfather tell stories about how difficult it was traveling and barnstorming and not being able to stay in the same hotels as other people and just the way baseball was,” said Knights bench coach Pat Listach.
One could argue there is still work to be done to help grow the game in the Black community. According to an Associated Press report only 6 percent of players in the MLB today are African American, down from 17 percent in 1992 when Listach came into the league.
“You name the team and I can name the players I looked up to,” said Listach. “The Dave Parker’s in Pittsburgh and the Willie Stargell’s. I can go on and on and name those players. They’re not there now so we do have a long way to go.”
As the 56-year-old continues his coaching career here in the Queen City, he’s helping to spark a change which is something he knows his grandfather would be proud of.
“Just to be able to make it is a longshot but I made it and I succeeded,” Listach said. “Now I’m trying to help other people succeed. He would be proud.”
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