Sportsfrog.com

Leave it to the always shrinking Kansas City Star to drop the ball on this one.

According to an AP/CP report, the Negro Leagues Museum is facing a VERY rocky future.

What’s more, the recession has cut deeply into donations. After posting its first loss two years ago of about US$30,000, the museum is looking at what one staffer termed “a monster loss” that could approach a quarter of a million dollars when the final accounting for 2009 is complete. For a relatively small museum that has always depended on the kindness of others, $200,000 is seismic.

The museum is distancing itself from Buck O’Neil, which is an absolutely terrible move. For many people, Buck is their connection to the Negro Leagues thanks Ken Burns’s Baseball series.

In large part because of their treatment of Buck after his death, Joe Posnanski has vowed never to set foot in the Negro Leagues Museum again. The museum board got rid of revered director Bob Kendrick, and has basically been an afterthought since his departure.

It would be a horrible loss for the baseball world and the Kansas City community if the Negro Leagues museum was to disappear. However, unless they can fix their budget problems and fix their reputation around Kansas City, it’s not looking bright at all.