Former Phillies Slugger Ryan Howard Makes Pitch For Negro Leagues Baseball Museum Expansion

Ryan Howard was a rookie with the Philadelphia Phillies just putting baseball on notice with his moonshot home runs when he met Buck O'Neil , a champion of Black ballplayers during a monumental, eight-decade career on and off the field.

Howard was introduced to O'Neil as a modern-day Josh Gibson , one of the Negro Leagues greatest players who hit .466 for the 1943 Homestead Grays. Howard, who hit at least 45 homers four times in his career, was too embarrassed to accept the comparison.

"Mr. O'Neil was like, "Do you got that power?' I said, 'Yes sir, I do,'" Howard said. "He told me, 'Don't be ashamed of it. Let it out.' It was great, just hearing the stories from and just being in his presence."

O'Neil, who died in 2006, was long a champion of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri. Howard, who won an NL MVP and a World Series with the Phillies, is ready to take up O'Neil's cause as the former slugger joined the push in helping the museum's expansion project.

The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is fundraising for a new 30,000-square-foot facility and campus, aimed at advancing the museum's mission of preserving the rich history of Negro Leagues baseball and its impact on social progress in the United States.