Major League Baseball video game introducing Negro League storylines

Mike Coutee

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (WDAF) — “Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it don’t matter.”

A new video game experience featuring the legends of baseball’s Negro Leagues is coming to MLB The Show 23.

“I think it means a lot for our youth of the city, for the city as a whole,” museum patron Sharon Alexander said. “So they know our history, our heritage of the Negro Leagues Museum.”

The new feature will be the result of a partnership with the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City.

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Sony and the Show made the announcement in a Twitter video Monday morning starring Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick, highlighting the stories of stars who helped break the color barrier in the 1940s.

“I think it’s going to be a lot of fun for kids and big kids who still play a lot of these video games, and they’re going to learn a lot about the history of the Negro Leagues in doing so,” Kendrick said.

“We are thrilled to partner with MLB the Show to take you on a journey back to the Negro Leagues and introduce you to the baddest brothers and sisters to ever play the game,” Kendrick says in the video.

Here’s the full roster for the first season of MLB The Show 23’s Storylines mode.

  • John Jordan “Buck” O’Neil (who was also one of the founders of the NLBM)

  • Hank Thompson

  • Hilton Smith

  • Jackie Robinson

  • John Donaldson

  • Leroy “Satchel” Paige

  • Martin Dihigo

  • Andrew “Rube” Foster

“The story of the Negro Leagues is not an African American story, it is an All-American story,” Kendrick said.

“You see, it’s the kind of story that we as Americans have typically embraced. Because it’s a story about pride, passion, perseverance, determination, the refusal to accept the notion that you’re unfit to do anything.”

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Kendrick said this is just the beginning of about a four-year partnership.

“And so for those who may not have seen one of the Negro League stars that they had thought, just hang tight,” Kendrick said. “You don’t want to come out with all your big stars at one time. You know, you want to weave them in.”

The Negro Leagues were first established in Kansas City on Feb. 13, 1920, when Foster led a contention of eight independent team owners to a meeting held at The Paseo YMCA. Out of that meeting came the Negro National League.

MLB The Show 23 launches on March 28 and is available on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.

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