TITLE
Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick Talks MLB The Show 24
AUTHOR
Patches Chance
PUBLICATION
Paste Magazine
YEAR
2024
ARTICLE TYPE
Interview
FROM THE ARTICLE
One of the underlying draws of sports gaming is getting to both experience and create your own version of history. Legendary athletes are a staple of the genre, but MLB The Show 24 is now in its second year of highlighting the most fraught period in baseball history. Born out of necessity when systemic racism and a national culture of segregation during the “Jim Crow” era kept Black (and many Latino) players from competing in the MLB, the Negro Leagues are a snapshot in time full of stories where men and women overcame the hardships of that point in history just to have the opportunity to play ball.MLB The Show 23 introduced the Storylines mode for the first time, and the history of Negro Leagues baseball became the foundation of this innovation. Players are greeted by high quality documentary clips featuring narration from and interviews with Bob Kendrick, the President of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, before being immersed in that history by playing as the legend they just learned about. Just after this year’s release of MLB The Show 24, I had the privilege of speaking to Mr. Kendrick about how the partnership between the museum and developers Sony San Diego is bringing this history to life for a new generation of fans.
GAMES MENTIONED
MLB The Show 23
MLB The Show 24
PEOPLE MENTIONED
Bob Kendrick
TOPICS MENTIONED
Race