Today
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Baseball has come a long way in the last fifty years towards recognizing the thousands of Black players that lost opportunities. In 1997, as part of the 50th anniversary of the integration, Robinson's No. 42 was retired by every major league team. Currently 35 Negro League players and executives are members of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Negro Leagues now have their own museum in Kansas City. But as Paige said himself, "There were many Satchels, many Josh's." Barry Bonds is the all-time home run king, Willie Mays dazzled in the 50's and 60's, and Black players such as CC Sabathia, Prince Fielder and Ryan Howard are some of the top players in baseball today. We'd be naïve to think the same couldn't have been true in the 1920s, '30s and '40s.
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