The Jefferson County Commission voted Thursday to play ball with a baseball historian, approving $90,000 for displays at Regions Field that will commemorate former members of the Birmingham Barons.

Kenneth Cunningham, deputy director of the Negro Southern League Museum, said the project will produce walk-around exhibits at the ballpark the Barons currently call home.

“When visitors attend games, we’re going to have displays along the concourse,” he said. “We’re going to manage and maintain those displays.”

The measure passed on a 3-1-1 vote with commissioners Jimmie Stephens, Mike Bolin and Sheila Tyson voting yes, Commissioner Joe Knight voting no and Commissioner Lashunda Scales abstaining. Scales subsequently said she would have given a favorable vote for two other matters that were part of the same resolution — $100,000 for the Friends of Rickwood and $300,000 to contract for litter collection.

“I understand what Mr. Cunningham was trying to say,” Knight said. “It’s like it’s a post-’64 museum. That was the first time today that I’ve heard it’s all-inclusive. I can’t vote for something that we’re gonna pay $90,000 and we really don’t know what it is that we’re getting.

“And we won’t own a bit of it?” Knight continued. “No other entity is putting a quarter in it but we’re gonna fund $90,000 for something that we’re not going to own, that we’re not having any control over and we don’t have any say-so over. I don’t agree with that.”

Stephens, the commission president, called the project a quality-of-life issue.

“I think this is a value-added project and it’s a more inclusive project,” he said. “People don’t remember Mr. (Athletics owner and metro Birmingham native Charlie) Finley and what he brought to the Major League Baseball that came from then.”

Stephens recalled personally seeing Rollie Fingers and Reggie Jackson playing professional baseball in Birmingham. “You’re adding that history to what you already have in place (at Negro Southern League Museum),” the commission president said.

In a telephone interview with BirminghamWatch, historian Layton Revel explained that he came up with the concept of a walk-around museum in under-used space at Regions Field.

“When you go into the ballpark, you can pick up a brochure,” he explained. “There’ll be seven display areas that we have. For each display, there’ll be a little, short synopsis of what we’re talking about.”

Revel, who founded the Center for Negro League Baseball Research, said the first two displays will be about the early years of the Birmingham Barons, from 1885 until the turn of the century. The baseball historian said there will be a number of exhibits in the ballpark that tell the history of the Barons and the Southern League.

“There’ll be one case that’s just Southern Association and Southern League,” he said. “There’ll be a case that has the Major Leaguers who went from the Birmingham Barons to the Major Leagues. One will be about the championship teams that the Birmingham Barons have had over the years.

“Basically, what we’re going to do is tell the story of the Birmingham Barons and the Southern League,” Revel said. He said the displays at Regions Field won’t duplicate what is on exhibit at Negro Southern League Museum, although some players such as Reggie Jackson could be displayed at both places for different reasons.

Revel said the timetable for installation of the historic displays will be up to leadership of the Barons. He said he expects to travel from his home in Texas to meet with Barons General Manager Jonathan Nelson to nail down a schedule.

Revel added that he plans to meet with Knight and Scales during his visit so they have a full understanding of what is to come.