Byron Motley grew up in Kansas City, Mo., in the presence of Negro League history. His father, Bob, was an umpire in the Negro Leagues, the last living umpire of the era until his death in 2017.
Hall of Famers Buck O’Neil, Satchel Paige and Hilton Smith all lived in his neighborhood.
The importance of growing up around those legends began to resonate as Motley got older. He began recognizing who he had been exposed to, and he appreciated it so much that he thought it would make for a good film.
The result: “The League,” a Magnolia Pictures movie celebrating the positives and discussing the negatives of Negro League Baseball. Motley is one of several producers credited on the project, including Ahmir K. Thompson and Tarik Trotter — Questlove and Black Thought, respectively, from Grammy Award-winning music group The Roots. Emmy Award winner and Oscar-nominated filmmaker Sam Pollard directed the documentary.
The movie was released in select theaters on July 7. It’ll be released publicly via live stream on Friday.
“The League” gives insight into how the Negro Leagues were established and how they grew their identities through talent, advertising, marketing and business acumen during segregation, as well as the cultural and financial scenarios the leagues faced with Major League Baseball. “The League” also highlights the intimate relationship Black fans had with baseball and how they hoped the game could be a conduit for greater change in society.
Among the many talking points in the film is Rube Foster, equally as talented a pitcher as he was an executive who is considered the “father of Black baseball.” Also discussed is Effa Manley, a baseball executive who was the first woman inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Motley heard tons of stories from his father, who helped start the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in 1990. Motley added he conducted more than 100 interviews over a 24-year span for the film.
Additionally, the Motleys wrote a book together, “The Negro Baseball Leagues: Tales of Umpiring Legendary Players, Breaking Barriers, and Making American History,” that told of Bob’s career, as well as stories throughout the league. The book had a foreword by Hall of Famer Dave Winfield and an afterword by Negro Leagues Baseball Museum president Bob Kendrick.
Years back, Motley told his friend, Gene Evans, a writer, producer and director who died in 2007, about an idea for a movie about the Negro Leagues. Evans told him he couldn’t make the film — that it was Motley’s story to tell.
After that, once a week, Evans would call Motley to ask about how “his project” was going.
“This went on for two years,” Motley said. “Until one night I was watching some documentary on TV and I thought, ‘Oh, you can do this. You can make this.’”
The film highlights how many Negro Leaguers played in Mexico and the Caribbean during the offseason. Black players were influential in bringing baseball to Cuba, Puerto Rico and other Latin countries. Motley doesn’t want that forgotten.
“All those (Latin) players who are in the majors now, they are byproducts of the Negro Leagues because that’s how they learned to play the game, from the Black players,” Motley said. “I think that’s an important part of keeping that history alive, that memory of the Negro Leagues alive. All you have to do is just look at the game now.”
It also talks about how Black players helped with the game’s growth in Japan in the 1920s by touring in Asia. Motley mentions Japanese stars like Ichiro Suzuki and Shohei Ohtani as part of the lineage of the Negro Leagues.
The impact of the game was recognized throughout the Black communities. Churches moved their Sunday service times up an hour for Negro League games. The film also discusses how some Black fans became fans of New York Yankees slugger Babe Ruth because, even in those days, there were rumors he was part Black.
“If that’s true or not, I don’t know.” Motley said. “But he had such a huge Black following. Not only did people love baseball, but they just thought he was Black.”
Motley wants the Negro Leagues to be extensively researched and discussed publicly. He was able to see his father grow closer to players throughout his life. Bob would say hello to the athletes in his neighborhood, and the player-umpire relationships ultimately merged into friendships.
Motley recalled an event about 10 years ago in Washington, D.C., where living Negro League players were honored. He said Willie Mays — then in his 80s and now 92 years old —was emotional talking about the leagues. Motley later was able to ask him about that event when he interviewed him for the film.
“I still get emotional because those men were my heroes,” Motley recalled Mays saying. “They paved the way for me. If not, you wouldn’t be able to sit here talking to me. They inspired me.”
The Negro Leagues being referred to as “The League” is a story in itself. The name of the film didn’t come from a former player. It actually was from someone who is not a diehard baseball fan but very much an internationally known figure — Maya Angelou.
The revered author and activist told Motley that, as a child, whenever people spoke of the league in the Black community, they were referring to Negro League games.
“I’m sitting in her living room and we’re having the interview. She said that, and my eyes flew open, because I couldn’t believe she said that,” Motley said. “Out of all the players I interviewed and my father, no one had told me that particular story.”
Negro League Baseball not only was a part of Black culture; it also was a source of hope. Negro League pioneers envisioned a day when their leagues and the MLB would merge, similar to how the NBA and ABA merged in the 1970s.
Even though the number of Blacks on Opening Day rosters was down to 6.1 percent, the lowest since 1955, Motley says the Negro Leagues’ influences remain. The movie also reminds fans where Mays, Jackie Robinson and Hank Aaron, among others, all got their starts in baseball.
Motley said the charge from all he interviewed was to tell the truth. They wanted their stories shared and their influences recognized. This documentary does that.
(Photo: Courtesy Magnolia Pictures)
