Louis Armstrong loved baseball. Couldn’t get enough of it. At one point, the trumpet legend drew up a list of his favorite Brooklyn Dodgers (Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Gil Hodges and Duke Snider), but he ended up squeezing for the Yankees in his later life. He attended hardball contests throughout his life, including game five of the 1969 World Series, in which the Miracle Mets clinched the franchise’s first title.

It was a sporting love affair that began during Armstrong’s childhood....