- 6 hours ago
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Internationally acclaimed artist Ya La’Ford’s artistic vision and the deep-rooted history of Negro League Baseball combined to create a Juneteenth experience that invited Tampa Bay Rays fans to look beyond the field.
On Friday, the team unveiled La’Ford’s limited-edition DUGOUT-47 jersey and hat collection that honors the resilience and contributions of Black baseball pioneers, whose excellence and determination helped shape the sport before integration. She and Sean Gibson, the great-grandson of Negro League legend Josh Gibson, each threw out a ceremonial first pitch.
The event blended past and present as Gibson, executive director of the Josh Gibson Foundation, showcased Negro League memorabilia before, during, and after the game against the Washington Commanders. Fans who purchased a special Juneteenth ticket package also received a custom jersey designed by La’Ford.
Tampa Bay-based La’Ford noted that she has collaborated with the Rays for over a decade. However, she and team leadership “have been meaning to partners on something more” than youth-focused community events.
“This is the best of both worlds because it’s for Juneteenth,” La’Ford told Power Broker Magazine. “So we’re still celebrating community, but with a very powerful pattern that really stands to legacy and the love of humanity, and how we’re able to overcome and be resilient.”
The DUGOUT-47 collection was inspired by the legacy of Jackie Robinson, who broke Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947. La’Ford, who recently represented Tampa Bay at the London Art Fair, has also created designs for Nike and the NFL.
DUGOUT-47 is meant to explore the unseen moments behind achievement - preparation, discipline, courage, and belief. According to the announcement, the design reflects how perseverance forges lasting progress long before it becomes visible to the world.
“I folded the shape of a heart, and then I folded it around your entire body,” La’Ford said of the design. “So it’s encapsulating the power of connectivity, of bridging love and focusing on humanity, and how we can inspire each other through shape and form and size and space.
“No matter where we are in the metaphysics of the universe, we can always find the answer in love.”
Gibson traveled from Pittsburgh to participate in the event. His great-grandfather was the undisputed top star in Negro League Baseball throughout most of his career, which spanned from 1930 to 1946.
Josh Gibson died from a stroke on Jan. 20, 1947 - about a month after his 35th birthday and three months before Robinson broke the sport’s color barrier with the Brooklyn Dodgers. Sean Gibson now works to preserve the legacy of his great-grandfather and other Negro League pioneers.
“It’s great that they’re celebrating the Negro Leagues on Juneteenth,” Gibson said of the Rays. “I wish more teams would do a Negro League tribute. For the Rays to step up and do this, especially for a team down in Florida to do this, it’s great.”
Gibson also emphasized the importance of including an educational component. He said Florida Negro League teams, the Jacksonville Red Caps and Tampa Rockets, produced “some great players.”
However, Gibson said the league’s stars still lack the credit they deserve. In 2020, Major League Baseball (MLB) announced that its historical record would include Negro League players.
Gibson noted that it took another four years to officially alter historic benchmarks. His great-grandfather now holds six records, and “some people were upset” when the Black superstar’s stats surpassed white icons like Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth.
“It wasn’t their fault” that Black players were banned from MLB, Gibson said. “They were denied that opportunity.”
Gibson believes his great-grandfather would recognize that “some Black players are still going through the same things they went through” a hundred years ago. “There’s still some racial tension, especially right now in these times in America.”
Gibson co-founded the Negro League Family Alliance with other descendants to protect the organization’s legacies, history, and intellectual property while promoting education, sportsmanship, and inclusivity. The nonprofit wants MLB to annually highlight the Negro League’s jerseys, history, and relevance on May 2.
La’Ford called art the “universal language of humanity, and one where we can put all people in a space of equality.” She appreciates the opportunity to “highlight the beauties and the wonders of what is right in front of us.”
A native of New York, La’Ford realized that baseball can foster community by growing up watching the Yankees. She credited the Rays for continuing to provide a platform that reaches “so many different” cultures, faces, and age groups.
“I wish them the luck of the stars, because the things they do behind the scenes are really beautiful,” La’Ford added. “They’ve empowered me as an artist, they continue to empower kids, and, I think, the community as a whole.”
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