MLB to ‘draft’ Negro Leaguers

I wonder if the Red Sox will draft Willie Mays....

Jimmie Lee Solomon sees professional baseball going more global each day, but as one of the game’s top executives, Solomon is mindful of the game’s past, which for nearly half of the 20th century did not include black ballplayers in the Major Leagues.

“You can’t really go and plot out your future if you don’t look around over your shoulder and see where you’ve come from,” said Solomon, executive vice president of Major League Baseball.

Solomon and others took a look at that past, and they decided the sport needed to find yet another way to remember those surviving Negro League players who had been excluded from the Majors.

As part of its 2008 First-Year Player Draft next month, Major League Baseball will hold a ceremonial selection of players from the Negro Leagues. Participation in the draft is voluntary, but most of the 30 clubs are expected to take part as baseball continues its efforts to keep alive the history of the Negro Leagues.

...Under the initiative, teams will “draft” surviving Negro League players, he said. The individuals selected will represent all the black ballplayers that were denied a chance to play in the Majors because of their skin color.