From the Mound at Citi Field

In honor of Juneteenth the NY Mets reached out to ask us to help them connect with Negro League players. They wanted to invite them to a game and celebrate them. Unfortunately only one player from our film is still alive. We immediately connected them with Pedro Sierra and began to ask around to see if we could find any other surviving players. Unfortunately were unable to locate any in the tri-state area. This is inevitable since the Negro Leagues were in their prime in the 1920s - 1950. In the 50's and 60's there were still plenty of good players and good teams - but the level was more equivalent to the minors and there was more barnstorming happening than league play.

On June 17 Pedro Sierra was welcomed to Citi Field to thunderous applause. We can report this because we met him there and joined the fans in what felt like baseball back to normal (mostly). He chatted it up with today's stars at BP and did an interview with CBS This Morning. Sierra threw out the ceremonial first pitch - FROM THE MOUND! Very impressive for a man in his 80's. After all, he was a Pitcher. In the middle of the 3rd inning he was announced by the SNY team and received a 1 minute standing ovation.

Thank you to the Mets organization for honoring the Negro Leagues and treating Pedro like the baseball star he was.