Noontime Nuggetz: LET’S GO ANDERSON MONARCHS!
For all of you Phils fans out there, feeling bad/disillusioned: Let us point your attention to the Anderson Monarchs. Who? The monarchs are a Philly-based team of 11-year-olds who pay tribute to Jackie Robinson and the Negro Leagues of yore. And right now, they’re taking it on the road, in a series that will land them at the All Star Game. From the Monarchs’ website:
As a tribute to Jackie Robinson and the Negro Leagues, the Anderson Monarchs, an inner city, 11 year-old African American baseball team from South Philadelphia, will board an authentic 1947 Flxible Clipper touring bus, and embark on a 22-day, 4000-mile journey – barnstorming their way across the country – all the way to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, arriving during the 2012 Major League Baseball All Star Game festivities.
Along the way, The Monarchs will play games against local youth teams, meet surviving players from the Negro Leagues, visit historic sites – such as Jackie Robinson’s grave site in Brooklyn, Wrigley Field, the Field of Dreams in Iowa, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, the Louisville Slugger Museum, the three remaining stadiums in the country which Negro League teams called home, and the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.
The young Monarchs will experience, first-hand, what life on the road was like for Jackie and the Negro League players. They’ll be kids in a time capsule travelling back through time. They won’t just be reading about history, they’ll be living it. They started thier tour this past Friday.
Learn more in the video above. It’s pretty sweet stuff.
