Twenty years ago, they were remnants of a widely unknown segment of baseball history. Today, they are survivors. That's what time has done with Negro Leaguers, particularly those who toiled before 1947, when Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier of the major leagues,paving the way for such promising young players as Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Ernie Banks and veterans who still had fuel in their baseball tanks, like Monte Irvin and Larry Doby. Such books as "only the Baseballs Were White" begat other books. And the search for memorabilia was on. Collectors sought out these oldtimers. Some of them recorded their stories and learned of former teammates who were still living. A few unscrupulous dealers befriended these ballplayers, many of whom lived in less than middle class surroudnings, and stole from them, either literally or figuratively, paying next to nothing for a veritable horde of memorabilia.

Autograph shows tapped these players late in their lives as show guests, though Bruce Mugerian of Michigian took an early lead in making these players available to a new market of collectors. Wayne Stivers of Colorado brought a historian's mentality and also plugged them into the memorabilia marketplace. And Dr. Layton Revel of Dallas, dealer Kevin Keating, Josh Evans of auction house Leland's and others worked hard to preserve memories of the Negro Leagues. Dr. Revel created a foundation that builds and perpetuates the Negro Leagues as an important part of American and baseball history. Through it, he would make significant acquisitions.

The reality today is that Negro League collectors, as small a group as they are, outnumber surviving Negro Leaguers. In all, maybe about 300 Negro League collectors are seriously building on this niche. Wilmer Fields of Manassas, Va., who played 11 years for the Homestead Grays and rejected bids to play in the majors, says he can name today's surviving early Negro Leaguers on one or two hands. He ticks off the names, not including himself, among the living of Irvin, Andrew Porter, Double Duty Radcliffe, Bill Cash, Mahlon Duckett, Wilmer Harris, Bill Pope, Joe Scott and Buck O'Neil.

In truth, there are about 40 who played before 1947, who (better late than never) now receive a pension from major league baseball. In recent years, the survivors have dropped by 15 to 20 a year. Some players who never made it to the majors want the pension year extended to 1955. Still other players played in the early 1960s, when the Negro Leagues officially disbanded. Generally, the quality of play in the Negro Leagues, once black players were accepted into the major leagues, was equivalent to minor league ball. In truth, the individuals who are keeping alive the memories of the Negro Leagues are white collectors. And there are political rifts between groups of Negro Leaguers with one side accusing the other of being more interested in personal profits and big grants than historical preservation, education and serving as a repository for baseball history. But that, as they say, is a whole 'nuther story.

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