KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The last home video game Bob Kendrick played with any regularity was via Atari, circa the Jurassic Era of the genre in the late 1970s/early ‘80s.
“It was ‘Pong,’ ” he said, laughing. “Of course it was.”
Even so, the irresistible force and intrepid spirit who ever-so-aptly presides over the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum long had a notion that the burgeoning industry might be an avenue toward appealing to a more youthful audience.
Because he understood the need to meet them where they lived if the NLBM was to compel that demographic’s interest in the fascinating chapter of American cultural history that hasn’t existed in 60-plus years — and that seems to fade farther into the rearview mirror as its former players have been dying at what Kendrick called “an alarming rate.”
“It’s all about establishing relevancy. I have to be able to do that,” he said. “Our kids are too savvy. They’re quick to say, ‘That was then, this is now.’ I have to show them how then applies to now.
“And, quite frankly, this story and the life lessons that stemmed from this story may be more meaningful and significant right now than ever before.”
So even amid planning for the “crescendo” of Buck O’Neil at long last being inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame last summer, Kendrick was immediately intrigued when the call came from Sony Interactive Entertainment’s Ramone Russell.
The company’s product development communications and brand strategist had a distinct vision of what could literally animate what Kendrick had supposed in the abstract.
Out of Russell’s intuition, and the magic of Kendrick’s storytelling, emerged the most essential change in the 2023 version of the “MLB The Show” series produced by the San Diego Studio subsidiary of Sony.
And with an entirely different dimension of Negro Leagues lore as the focus of a new feature to the game.
Storylines, as told by Kendrick
The “Storylines” mode narrated by Kendrick tells the deeper and broader tale and highlights eight men — including O’Neil, Jackie Robinson and Satchel Paige — along the way to being able to play as each.
Early on in the process last year, Kendrick had the sense he was into something special.
All the more so as he understood the dedication to authenticity and detail that engulfed everyone in the project and left many in tears, including himself, when he went to San Diego to see the final product.
“This was clearly a passion project for every one of those young people who were involved in this,” he said. “You could tell that it hit differently. I’m sure they care about every project that they do. But you could just tell that this meant something to them. And you can also see it in the care and concern that went into this game.”
Excited as he was, he couldn’t quite foresee what he now considers a “cultural phenomenon.”
Because the ripples through a medium that in 2022 represented the10th-best selling U.S. video game have been staggering by any number of measures.
From the 7 million views on Twitter of the three-minute promotional video in February to the eight-minute segment on ABC News nationally on opening day, from interviews with CNN and NBC and The Associated Press and outlets such as comicbook.com, Kendrick feels something percolating on an unprecedented scale less than a week after the official release of the game.
Playfully but plausibly, he alluded to the great awakening about the Negro Leagues in the aftermath of the Ken Burns “Baseball” documentary that made Buck virtually a household name.
“I guess in my own way,” he said, smiling, “this is my own Ken Burns (moment).”
He can feel the impact more directly and personally, too. And not just because his 11-year-old granddaughter, Demi, now thinks he’s cooler than ever.
For example, one of the zillions of people he’s heard from on Twitter was a father who had just bought the game for his son. As he checked to see if his son needed help navigating the game, he entered the room and saw him intently watching one of the Negro Leagues stories being told.
“He said he didn’t want to interrupt the moment,” Kendrick said. “He just quietly backed out of the room and left his son with me to tell the stories. … I mean, that touches you because that’s exactly what we hoped would happen with this game.”
The other day, a young Minnesota Twins fan named Angel Ruiz came to the museum because, well, he felt he had to meet Kendrick after watching some “Storylines.” Without the game, Kendrick figures, his “new friend” certainly wouldn’t have known of him and likely not the museum itself.
Add it all up, and …
“This game has already reached more young people than this museum has ever reached in the history of this organization,” he said. “I mean, you think about that: More young people have been exposed to the Negro Leagues through this game than have ever walked through these doors in the 33 years that we have been operating.
“But that’s the power of this platform.”
Showmanship and an ‘all-American story’
Among its other elements, this platform makes for the sort of experiential learning that Kendrick believes has the most resonance.
“If you give me an experience, and a relatable experience, I’m going to remember that forever,” he said. “I tell people there was a reason that we remember the lyrics to songs 30 or 40 years after we heard them.”
As for the experience of actually playing beyond the “Storylines,” well …
While taking turns as Satchel the other day, safe to say Bob and I confirmed the hapless novices we were. But at least Bob acted like he’d been there before when he struck out a batter with a patented Satchel “Bee Ball.” When I somehow registered a strikeout, he quipped that I was “taking on some of Satchel’s bravado.”
Speaking of Satchel and his showmanship …
“If anybody was meant to be in a video game,” Kendrick said, smiling, “it’s Satchel.”
From Satchel’s double pump windup and high leg kick to the arsenal of exotic pitch names that Kendrick figures kids are emulating right now, how Satchel is presented also exemplifies the remarkable depth of detail that includes how fans are dressed to the nuance of the uniforms.
And, geez, take a look at Buck.
“I mean … that is Buck,” Kendrick said. “That’s scary.”
You could feel the same about any of the other representative seven, including Rube Foster and the lesser-known likes of Martin Dihigo, John Donaldson, Hilton Smith and Hank Thompson.
Why no Cool Papa Bell or Josh Gibson, etc? Since this is the first year of a five-year agreement, Kendrick said, the idea was to cast light beyond the obvious names that we might anticipate will ultimately be featured in the years to come.
Through that rich tapestry of their journeys, Kendrick has an entirely new platform to convey — as no one else can — the overarching saga of civil rights and the American dream and so much else all at once.
It’s not “an African American story,” he says on the promotional video. “It is an all-American story.”
Because it’s about pride and perseverance, determination and the refusal to accept the notion that you’re unfit to do anything.
“You won’t let me play with you in the major leagues?” he continued. “OK. I’ll create a league of my own.”
In that spirit, with the considerable devotion of Russell and associates, the Negro Leagues have created a new audience of its own.
“Nothing has filled my heart with so much pride and joy (as) seeing the response from our project,” Russell wrote in a LinkedIn post. “It was truly a labor of love and I couldn’t be happier with the end result. Helping shine a new light on the Negro Leagues, The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and helping giving Bob Kendrick his flowers is easily the thing I’m most proud of (in) my entire gaming career.”
The last point is as meaningful as any in this equation.
It’s hard to envision anyone in any field who is better at or more suited to his job than Kendrick — who resurrected the NLBM when he returned in 2011 and has made it into a Kansas City treasure with an increasing national profile.
Imagine how proud Buck would be of the resourcefulness it’s taken to create this identity for the dream begun in 1990 with former Negro Leagues players paying the rent.
To borrow from one of Kendrick’s awesome endeavors, the 2020 Tip Your Cap campaign, we doff our hat to him for the stewardship that enables him to commemorate the past while keeping it alive and present.
Again now through what some might shrug off as just a video game.
“It’s not,” he said, “just a video game.”
Because it’s a long way from “Pong” and close to home for millions.
