The Negro Leagues made big news on May 29 when Major League Baseball officially added their statistics to MLB's historical record. And they'll be in the news again this week when the San Francisco Giants and St. Louis Cardinals meet at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, the country's oldest ballpark, in a tribute to the the game's pioneers.
During a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown earlier this month, former Bisons General Manager Mike Billoni, right, presents his plaque honoring Hank Aaron's visits to Buffalo to Aaron's son, Hank Jr. The Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown is in step with the opening of its new exhibit, "The Souls of the Game: Voices of Black Baseball " and the unveiling of a statue of Hank Aaron. Former Bisons General Manager Mike Billoni has long been a supporter of the Negro Leagues and inner-city baseball and still marvels at his recent trip to the Hall, when he honored Aaron's appearances in the three most recent minor-league ballparks in Buffalo.
Billoni commissioned plaques on Aaron for the Hall in Cooperstown and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and presented them to Josh Rawitch and Bob Kendrick, the presidents of the two respective organizations. He also met with Aaron's widow, Billye, and son, Hank Jr. "We're absolutely honoring the legacies of the Negro Leagues in the proper way now," Billoni said.
"And that's exactly what I thought when I was in the hall looking at the exhibit." Hank Aaron played in Buffalo .
