Preservation of the Satchel Paige House in Kansas City as an opportunity for baseball to step up on community involvement

Salt Lake City's Smith's Ballpark has fabulous views of the not too distant mountains of the Wasatch Front.

Last month I updated the "Framework of characteristics that support successful community development in association with the development of professional sports facilities" related to a planning initiative around the minor league ballpark in Salt Lake City, which is located outside of downtown, and hasn't contributed much to neighborhood revitalization in the 27 years the stadium has been in operation.

Minor league realignment threatens teams in 40 towns.  I've been meaning to write another piece, about the impact of minor league baseball on smaller towns, because of the massive realignment of minor league baseball teams and leagues, which put more than 40 towns and cities across the country on the outs -- either their team lost all affiliation with minor league baseball, or the team/league became semi-affiliated and provided with much fewer resources in support of their operations ("What a restructured minor league system could mean for teams lost in the shuffle," Washington Post, "Small towns across America may lose a crucial community hub," Curbed)

First National Bank Field, Greensboro, NC.

Minor league teams have a much different impact in their communities compared to big league teams.  

Yes, they still seek public funds for stadiums and other facilities, but the amounts are much smaller, and the cost of attending games is much cheaper, and because there are fewer entertainment opportunities compared to bigger cities, they can have a disproportionately positive impact.

The Brooklyn Cyclones play next to the Coney Island Amusement Park and the Atlantic Ocean.

Minor league baseball stadiums have been key elements in community and downtown revitalization planning in a number of cities across the country including Greenville, SC, Greensboro, NC, Louisville, Kentucky, Memphis, and even in bigger cities where there are already big league teams, like Brooklyn and Staten Island in New York City--the Staten Island team was one of the losers in the reorganization, etc.

Satchel Paige House, Kansas City.  Interestingly, the Washington Post writes about the dilapidation of the Satchel Paige House in Kansas City ("Satchel Paige remains a Kansas City icon, but time has taken a toll on his former home").  

Paige was a well known pitcher who played in both the Negro and Major Leagues, playing many years for the Negro League team, the Kansas City Monarchs.  

KC is home to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum and in 2012 when the All Star Game was played in Kansas City, the support program in association with the game funded improvements to Satchel Paige Field baseball stadium, although now the stadium is once again in need of additional improvements ("'As American as apple pie and baseball:' Community starts effort to renovate Satchel Paige stadium," KSHB-TV).  Paige Field is part of the KC Parks and Recreation system.

KC Star photo.

... it would have been nice for MLB to have created an endowment for Paige Field as part of the MLB All Star Legacy Fund initiative.

Many of the comments on the Post article about the Paige House are negative, that the house doesn't matter, that the Santa Fe neighborhood is crap, etc., but that's a pretty short sighted approach.

-- Santa Fe Place Historic District

Just as the designation of the Martin Luther King Jr. House in the Sweet Auburn district of Atlanta sparked revitalization in that community, restoration of the Satchel Paige House, and integrating it with the programs of the could be the spark that community needs to jump start its revitalization efforts.

-- "Cheneé Joseph is on a mission to revitalize Sweet Auburn," Atlanta Business Chronicle

Baseball card for Paige's "rookie season" in the MLB, playing for the Cincinnati Reds.

Interestingly, in December 2020, MLB acknowledged the Negro Leagues by incorporating their statistics into the game's official records (MLB press release).

Major League Baseball should not just join the effort to rehabilitate Paige House and other Paige-related cultural resources | MLB should lead the effort.. To me the solution is obvious, the Kansas City Royals baseball team through its Royals Charities affiliate, Major League Baseball, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum should create a joint initiative to restore the House, add the House  to the Museum as a satellite facility, and should restore the field, both adding it to the Museum and the KC Urban Youth Baseball Academy program.

The KC Star article on the House ("KC tributes to baseball great Satchel Paige are crumbling. Can his house be saved?") mentions that Paige's gravesite in the Forest Hill Cemetery is also frequently visited by Paige and baseball fans and is another potential cultural resource to consider for inclusion in such an initiative.

(The Academy program is an initiative of Major League Baseball and local teams, sadly, they put funding into new facilities, while ignoring the opportunity presented by existing facilities like Paige Field.  By contrast, the similar program in Washington, DC did rehabilitate an existing ballfield in the Takoma neighborhood, although they have also invested in new facilities.)

Develop a renewed revitalization program for the Santa Fe neighborhood.  The City should develop a broader revitalization plan for the neighborhood with the Paige House rehabilitation as a "priming event."  The existing Santa Fe Neighborhood Association has been working for some time to rehabilitate the house.

WRT organizing neighborhood revitalization initiatives in distressed and emerging areas, see:

-- "The need for a "national" neighborhood stabilization program comparable to the Main Street program for commercial districts: Part I (Overall)"
-- "To be successful, local neighborhood stabilization programs need a packaged set of robust remedies: Part 2"
-- "Creating 'community safety partnership neighborhood management programs as a management and mitigation strategy for public nuisance programs: Part 3 (like homeless shelters)"
-- "A case in Gloucester, Massachusetts as an illustration of the need for systematic neighborhood monitoring and stabilization initiatives: Part 4 (the Curcuru Family)"