Tonight at the Duck Pond at Warner Park, the Madison Mallards will be wearing Milwaukee Bears jerseys to honor the Negro Leagues for a tribute night.

The jerseys are made of wool, and are authentic in how they feel now just as they felt way back in 1923, when the actual Milwaukee Bears wore them.

“From afar they look really cool, I feel like i’m in the 1940s,” Mallards outfielder Cam Cratic (Missouri State) said. “They’re wool so they’re a little itchy and warm, but I wouldn’t change a thing.”

The Bears were a part of the Negro National League, and spent just one season in Milwaukee as a team in 1923. Even with just that one season, the impact of a Negro Leagues team being in the state of Wisconsin remains today.

“The Negro Leagues paved the way for myself to be able to play this game,” Cratic said. “Without them, it wouldn’t be possible.”

The Mallards are borrowing these jerseys from the Kenosha Kingfish in the Northwoods League, who wear these jerseys every Friday when they play at home. The Milwaukee Brewers in the MLB have also honored the Bears numerous times, often times having both them and the team they’re playing wearing Negro Leagues jerseys from their respective cities.

“African Americans are a big part of MLB today, and they changed the game,” Mallards Catcher Drake Baldwin (Missouri State) said. “Seeing some of the talents African Americans bring to baseball with more and more coming up is pretty sweet.”

Cratic and Baldwin, who are both natives of Madison, say that getting to play in front of their hometown fans is something they take a lot of pride in.

“There’s pictures of me with Maynard when I was really little,” Baldwin said. “I looked up to the players then and to be one of them now and to get to represent the Negro Leagues is really special.”

“A lot of young kids come to these games, and to have young African American kids see me and Drake, they look up to us,” Cratic said. “There’s still growth to be had and progress to be made. It’s bigger than baseball and bigger than myself.”

In the Paul Davis Team Store at the Duck Pond, the Mallards will be selling Milwaukee Bears T-shirts, with $5 from each T-shirt sold being donated to the Urban League of Greater Madison, an organization focused on educating, employing and empowering African American community members in the Madison area.

Here is the link to buy ticket’s for tonight’s game against the Kalamazoo Growlers, starting at 6:35 p.m.: https://madison-mallards.nwltickets.com/SingleGame/Tickets