Sports & Money: Baltimore pushing for Negro League Baseball Museum

What would Buck say?Here's a wake-up call for supporters of Kansas City's Negro Leagues Baseball Museum:

The city fathers in Baltimore are backing a $4.1 million plan to build a Negro League museum there to draw tourists and rejuvenate a section of the town.

The plan, which has already been approved by the Baltimore mayor, would create the first East Coast museum devoted to the Negro Leagues. The city was once home to the Baltimore Elite Giants.

"This is a museum that is going to hold some incredible history," David Thomas, a spokesman for the group developing the project, told the Baltimore Sun.

"This will be the first of its kind on the East Coast," he said. "There is a Negro League Musuem in Kansas City, but there is nothing like this one. It will be a destination that will draw people into the city."

Meanwhile, back in Kansas City, the Negro League museum is mulling ways to become financially sound and to boost attendance at the site in the historic 18th & Vine jazz area.

The possibility of a second Negro Leagues museum raises questions: Does the country really need two similar museums? Would the group's be tackling the same donor base? Is there any danger of losing some of the precious artifacts and exhibits here to Baltimore?

The developers of the Baltimore project have not made any public statement about making a run at Kansas City. So, perhaps that's a non-issue, especially since the plan in that city does not have any brick and mortar around it yet.

One thing's for sure, the late Buck O'Neil, ex Kansas City Monarch's player and the museum's most visible booster during his day, would be making plenty of noise about getting the Kansas City museum on firmer, financial ground.