This team was brought together 25 years ago to share their experiences in tribute fashion and while doing so created an extraordinary opportunity for the trading card community. Awarded with Signature Series One trading card acknowledgement (in most cases their first trading card ever) for their participation, each participant personally autographed a small collection of cards. These are the trading cards that are now showcased in this extraordinary presentation, highlighting a combined career spanning four decades, representing thirty-eight (38) Negro Leagues teams. Throughout these years, challenged by segregation and Jim Crow oppression, many men set the table for Jackie Robinson’s historic MLB color-barrier breaking appearance and many more continued in his footsteps to complete the arduous task of integrating each team’s roster.
On a side note, it’s important to mention that thirty-two of our team members honorably served in a branch of the United States Military (15 of those during WWII).

As of April 2024, only six (6) of our fifty-nine (59) team members remain.

  Throughout the course of the past twenty years, there has been a noticeable increase of interest and acknowledgement directed towards the history of Negro Leagues Baseball and the talent that checkered its existence. Although a mere handful of legendary personalities and individual achievements receive the lion’s share of the accolades and discussion, there is so much more to be acknowledged and celebrated as we delve into more than four decades of awe-inspiring Black Baseball history. Rube Foster championed Negro Leagues Baseball in February of 1920. For more than forty years, these leagues would exist in the shadow of Jim Crow. Jackie Robinson, Leroy "Satchel" Page, Josh Gibson, Willie Mays, and Hank Aaron are some of the men whose achievements speak volumes about Negro Leagues Baseball talent. It is in the story behind the likes of these men that captured our interest and spawned our tribute. We set out to identify the individuals that filled the line-ups alongside the keynote players aforementioned, acknowledge their hopes, dreams, sacrifices and accomplishments. On the pages throughout this site, we present and showcase an incredible cast of characters and personalities. We celebrate their contribution to the historic effort that ultimately gave every man an opportunity to pursue a career in Major League Baseball based upon his skills, not the color of his skin.

  Jim Crow laws (sometimes referred to as Black Codes) were laws that mandated discrimination and enabled racial segregation through the common use of the ideological phrase, "separate but equal." These laws regulated separate use of public facilities and services including that of water fountains, bathrooms, and segregated seating on public transportation, not to mention participation in professional baseball. The Negro National League, established by Rube Foster in 1920, created an opportunity for baseball players (all shades of Colored) to perform at a professional level within a professional organization. Many men (and a few women too) filled the rosters of the Negro Leagues in the forty plus years that followed. It was a collective team effort that ran Jim Crow out of Major League Baseball.

  Our film "Striking Out Jim Crow" documents a journey to celebrate the effort of some amazing individuals. It recounts our effort to acknowledge their participation, honor their contribution to Negro Leagues Baseball History and preserve their legacy. Many played long before Jackie Robinson, some played by his side, and many more continued the significant, less mentioned, arduous effort to integrate Major League Baseball long after Mr. Robinson broke through the color barrier in 1947.

  We hit the streets in the summer of ’99 to recruit a diverse cross-section of Negro Leagues Baseball Veterans whose names might not be as recognizable as those previously mentioned. What an incredible experience this turned out to be! We visited big cities as well as far out and remote areas across the country. We heard it all - the good, the bad and the ugly. At the core of it all, was a childhood dream of one day playing professional baseball and facing the reality that Jim Crow, racial discrimination, segregation, and oppression was standing firmly in their way.

  We shine some light on their incredible journey – preserve their legacy and share the story of a collective spirit that produced miraculous results. Every professional baseball player dreams of having his career recognized - his glory days, athletic prowess and achievements displayed on his very own trading card… These men waited nearly sixty years to experience this kind of recognition and with their support, we created an incredibly unique, all-inclusive collection of autographed memorabilia. Our Signature Series Trading Card Collection Presentations are AVAILABLE NOW… Join the Team and help us Honor their Effort and Preserve their Legacy!