The Banner: Baltimore Black Sox sculptures will complete the city’s baseball story
(Opinion: Leslie Gray Streeter)
There is something simultaneously sad and liberating about realizing that the history you’ve believed all your life is either a complete lie or has had large swaths of the truth removed in jagged cuts to protect the status quo.
That’s how it felt in 2024 when Major League Baseball reworked its historic stats to include the Negro Leagues, as an acknowledgment that the previous record didn’t tell the whole story because it didn’t include everyone. In a way, that’s what famed sculptor Toby Mendez wants to do with Baltimore’s baseball history. And it could not come at a better time than right now, when the truth of the contributions of Black people is being obscured or erased.
“This completes the story of baseball in Baltimore,” said Mendez, just named by Maryland Art Place as the artist who will eventually bring to life 10 legends of the Baltimore Black Sox. He was chosen from a field of 21 sculptors. The project is a collaboration by Parks & People, South Baltimore Gateway Partnership and Reimagine Middle Branch.