SEATTLE — A new mural aiming to share local baseball history often overlooked will be on display in the Seattle Mariners' new taproom and restaurant that will open later this month across the street from T-Mobile Park.
That is where they are putting the finishing touches on the new space in SODO and paying tribute to baseball’s diverse history at the same time.
Artist Damon Brown said he is just trying "to tell the whole story in one mural."
Brown set out to share the overlooked stories that include the Seattle Steelheads, a professional all-black team that played in 1946.
"We have negro league players, teams that were here in Seattle, various teams, different cultures, Japanese teams," Brown said.
Brown worked with Dave Eskenazi, a baseball historian, as he created the mural.
"Every community had a baseball team," said Eskenazi.
Eskenazi’s research was used so the mural could honor the local teams that did not make headlines in the past.
"You read about the professional teams, the major league team, the minor league teams, the Pacific Coast League in the region. But you didn't read so much about the Mikado club in the Japanese community that played other teams in the region," said Eskenazi.
Those teams being recognized now means so much for Brown.
"Pride, pride for my state. I didn't know we had a piece of history like that. I didn't know so much history was here," he said. "It is important. For so long these stories have not been told. For so long we haven't had a seat at the table."
"I think to just be able to be part of telling history and preserving history is a whole different feeling," Brown added.