updated 5:44 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2006

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Major league baseball will pay tribute to the civil rights movement with an exhibition game between the World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals and the Cleveland Indians in Memphis, Tenn., on March 31.

The game will be played at the home of the Cardinals’ Triple-A affiliate and raise money for the National Civil Rights Museum, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Jackie Robinson Foundation, the Negro Leagues Museum and Memphis charities.

With the game, which would be repeated annually, baseball officials hope to attract more young blacks to the sport.

“There are so many great athletes that we aren’t getting into the game,” St. Louis general manager Walt Jocketty said. “I think we need to try harder.”

The Indians, who made Larry Doby the AL’s first black player and Frank Robinson the first black manager in baseball, hadn’t planned to make any barnstorming stops between the end of spring training and the start of the regular season. But GM Mark Shapiro said he didn’t hesitate when the commissioner’s office suggested the game.

“It’s a cause we felt it was important to honor,” Shapiro said. “Competitive concerns went aside.”

Also planned for the weekend is a five-minute documentary by Spike Lee on civil rights pioneers and baseball’s role in the movement.

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