By Brad Horn

The summer celebration of baseball fans of the Midwest continued on Saturday at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, one week after Hall of Fame Weekend welcomed visitors to Cooperstown to celebrate Cincinnati’s Barry Larkin, Chicago’s Ron Santo, and three generations of St. Louis Cardinals managers, honored for their World Series titles.

(From Left) Jeff Tweedy and John Stirratt, of Wilco, stopped by the Baseball Hall of Fame prior to their show in Cooperstown on July 28.

Saturday’s VIPs gained fame in a different ballpark than baseball’s heroes, but their love for the game was on display as they toured the Museum and soaked in baseball history. And their Midwest ties continued to connect among common themes celebrated by the Hall of Fame in 2012.

Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy, who hails from outside of St. Louis, and John Stirratt, a longtime Chicago resident, were in town for a Saturday evening concert in Cooperstown. Making their first visit to the Museum, the duo visited the Library and Museum collections, while stopping by the Photo Archives, to learn more about the important role the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum plays in preserving the game’s history.

Tweedy and Sirratt viewed historical documents in the Library, studied photos from the early 1900s and explored selected artifacts from the collection, include Fergie Jenkins’ glove from his final season of 1983.

“These photos are like an analog recording that sounds so clear and vivid,” remarked Tweedy as he viewed items in the Museum’s Photo Collection.

As they completed their tour and headed back on the road, they left with a lifetime of memories and a deeper appreciation of the role of preservation the Hall of Fame plays in keeping alive the stories of the game.

Brad Horn is the senior director of communications and education at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum 

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By Kimberly McCray

During a recent trip to Cooperstown, emotions were high for Stacey Beck, widow of former major league pitcher Rod Beck. Having been to the Hall of Fame once before with Rod by her side, this latest trip held a new meaning for Stacey. When examining items relating to Rod’s career, memories of her previous life as the wife of a big league player were brought to the forefront.

“The highlights [of the Hall of Fame] were personal, mostly,” said Stacey. “Seeing the photos and articles of Rod, seeing the ball from the Cubs/Giants playoff game, it all was a reminder of wonderful times for our family.”

Having made this trip to the Hall with daughter Kayla and mother Francine Kurtz, Stacey’s visit was meaningful for another reason – she was able to share the experience with her daughter. Watching Kayla put into context the place of her father’s career within the larger history of baseball was very special.

Stacey Beck, the widow of former major league pitcher Rod Beck, looks at photos of her husband from the Hall of Fame archives during a recent visit to Cooperstown. With Stacey are her and Rod's daughter Kayla (left) and her mother Francine Kurtz (right). (NBHOF Library)

“This was an opportunity for [Kayla] to connect to her dad's experiences; recognizing that he was a link in the baseball history chain was an awesome experience.”

And what a link in the chain Rod Beck was.

To his opponents, Beck, (1968-2007), was downright intimidating. Leaning in to glare at batters with an intense stare, his long hair blowing in the wind as his pitching arm swung like a pendulum by his side, Beck was the visual definition of a closer’s closer – a game finisher if there ever was one. Although his fastball rarely topped 88 mph, Beck made up for a lack of velocity with pitch placement and an intense competitiveness that made the nickname of “The Shooter” seem more fitting than the radar gun would suggest.

Indeed, Beck’s passion for the adrenalin rush that came with stifling opposing teams’ late inning hopes propelled him through 13 seasons in the major leagues and earned him 286 saves for the Giants, Cubs, Red Sox and Padres. More importantly, it earned him the respect of players, coaches and fans in every city where he played. His blue-collar attitude and friendly gruffness generated a dual-personality befitting his profession - frightening on the baseball diamond but approachable and earnest off the field. Said Padres teammate Trevor Hoffman, "It was hard to get through that exterior of what he looked like, but it took about 1 ½ minutes to realize that's all it was. He was a teddy bear."

Yet Beck was more than a fierce baseball player or a teddy bear. He was also an activist.

It all began in the early nineties, when the San Francisco Giants, Beck’s first team, made a call for their players to become involved with a charitable cause. Having just seen “The Ryan White Story” on TV with wife Stacey, the choice was plain for Rod Beck. Believing that “No kid should have to be ashamed to be sick,” Beck immediately threw himself into his chosen cause, not only raising funds, but taking the more personal approach of regularly visiting kids with HIV. "He stepped up and gave a face to those with AIDS," Stacey said during her eulogy at Rod’s funeral. "He hugged and kissed children others were afraid to touch."

Beck’s involvement did not stop there however, as he even went so far as convincing the Giants to host a pre-game AIDS awareness event. Held for the first time in 1994, “Until There’s a Cure Day” was the first AIDS awareness event ever hosted by a professional sports team. Since that first event, “Until There’s a Cure Day” has since been held annually in San Francisco and has produced more than $1.3 million for Bay area HIV/AIDS prevention education and health services.

Since Rod’s untimely passing in 2007 at the age of 38, Stacey has carried on Rod’s passion for charity work alongside Kayla and younger daughter Kelsey.

More than five years after his death, Rod Beck’s legacy lives on.

Kimberly McCray is the 2012 library-recorded media intern in the Hall of Fame’s Frank and Peggy Steele Internship Program for Youth Leadership Development

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By Brad Horn

Nearly one month after she captured the 9-10 year-old girls division of the National Pitch, Hit and Run finals at the All-Star Game in Kansas City back on July 9, 10-year-old Meghan Dougherty visited Cooperstown on Monday, regaling visitors to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum with stories, as the Museum hosted a special program in her honor to celebrate Central New York’s champion.

Meghan, along with her brothers, Ryan and Liam, their mom and dad and aunt made the 85-mile drive to Cooperstown Monday morning for a special program hosted by the Hall of Fame for Museum visitors – featuring the central New York champion and her tales of competing against fellow youths around the globe for the Pitch, Hit and Run title.

Meghan Dougherty visited the Hall of Fame on Monday and gave a short presentation to Museum visitors in the Bullpen Theater. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

In Kansas City, Meghan was one of 24 youngsters, and three within the girls 9-10 year-old age-range, who advanced to national competition from more than 650,000 kids who competed at more than 4,300 Pitch, Hit and Run competitions across the country.

Following victories at East Greenbush and Saratoga, Meghan recorded a narrow victory at Yankee Stadium to secure her place in the national lineup at the All-Star Game. Once in Kansas City, she scored a perfect “six-for-six” in the pitching competition, the only one of the 24 competitors to record a perfect score in the category. She followed that up with excellent performances in the hit and run categories to capture her age division title and a spiffy trophy to call her own, which Meghan brought with her to Cooperstown on Monday.

Though she met some great friends from Texas and Massachusetts while in Kansas City, she tried the barbecue, but “didn’t necessarily like it,” Meghan told visitors on Monday. The experience also included watching the Home Run Derby from the field. She, along with the other Pitch, Hit and Run winners, were honored on field prior to the Derby.

Now that she’s back in central New York, Meghan is looking forward to returning to her softball season. She shared parting words of advice for those in the audience on Monday, as she strives to continue playing the sport she loves so dearly.

“Try your best, think you can do it, and practice hard.”

Spoken like a true champion.

Brad Horn is the senior director of communications and education at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum 

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By Trevor Hayes

A bit of Hollywood fame touched Cooperstown on Tuesday, though those not devoted to the show “Sex and the City” or USA’s “White Collar” might have recognized it.

Willie Garson doesn’t look like a typical Hollywood star – a fact he acknowledges and that is even made fun of by Lee Majors in the movie Out Cold when he’s called “short-stack.”

A baseball fan since his youth in Highland Park, N.J., Garson chose the Mets over his father’s Yankees to be different. While he fondly remembers the Mets success in 1986, he was only five years old for the 1969 Miracle Mets.

Lifelong baseball fan and television and movie star, Willie Garson, visited the Hall of Fame on Tuesday. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

“When you’re my size, it was never going to be football,” Garson said about his connection to baseball. “And being a Mets fan, it’s bonding when you lose. Yankees fans don’t bond.”

On Tuesday, he was transferring that love of the game from his youth to his son, Nathen, whom he adopted in 2009. Joining a colleague’s son’s travel baseball team in Cooperstown, Garson hoped to show a bit a simpler time and what made him love the game.

“I loved the artistry (of baseball cards). I remember, like Rollie Fingers, with that mustache,” he said. “Baseball cards were everywhere and kids don’t do that today. It’s all internet and TV.”

A prolific actor since the mid-1980s, Garson’s filmography has numerous credits for smaller roles in noted film and TV like “Cheers,” “Mr. Belvedere,” “Quantum Leap,” the Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day, the short-lived TV series “A League of Their Own” based on the baseball movie by the same name, “Friends,” the Nic Cage-Sean Connery movie The Rock, “Melrose Place,” “NYPD Blue,” “Boy Meets World,” “CSI” and much more.

Baseball fans might also recognize him from his role as Kevin, the doctor and fellow Red Sox-crazed compatriot to Jimmy Fallon’s Ben in Fever Pitch. In one scene in particular, Garson’s character – dressed in a full Red Sox uniform – had to out dance the others to get Sox-Yankees tickets.

“Those dance moves were self taught, a lot of people don’t realize that,” Garson said. “It almost killed me having to be a crazed Sox fan.”

On set, Garson could revel in the Mets’ 1986 triumph over the Red Sox, but on camera it was a different story. At one point in the movie, Fallon’s character has locked himself away and is rewatching an endless loop of Bill Buckner’s error in that cost the Red Sox Game 6 of the World Series which eventually led to the Mets victory in Game 7. In the movie, Garson’s Kevin and others have to disgustedly stop the tape, destroy it and clean up their distraught friend.

His stardom has allowed him to do some special things. In 2010 after Sex and the City 2, he threw out first pitch before a Cubs game. Even after practicing with Nathen, he bounced it and 30,000 fans booed him. But his rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame” made up for it when those same fans cheered him.

“Baseball is so accessible, even if you’re untalented like me,” Garson said. “You can still go out and play catch with your kid.”

Trevor Hayes is the editorial production manager at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum 

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By Bill Francis

While an assortment of injuries have derailed Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch’s season, it did afford him the opportunity to accompany his father for a recent visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The connection between fathers and sons and the National Pastime is a common sight at the Cooperstown institution. And such was the case as the 27-year-old right-handed hurler, currently on the 60-day disabled list and lost for the season due to shoulder and bicep problems, talked about the motivation for Saturday’s trip with his father, Rick, to Upstate New York.

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch and his father, Rick, stopped by the Hall of Fame on Saturday to take in the history of the game and build a memory together. (Bill Francis, NBHOF Library)

“We just wanted the whole memory,” Litsch said. “It’s something we’ve wanted to do for awhile and we had time right now so decided to shoot up here and get the whole experience.

“Obviously rehab is not what you want to be doing this time of year, but being able to bring my dad here is a special treat.”

Litsch’s only other time spent in Cooperstown came when he accompanied the Blue Jays to face the Baltimore Orioles in the 2007 Hall of Fame Game.

“That was my rookie year and I remember A.J. Burnett made me do the bucket,” Litsch recalled. “They were playing Home Run Derby out there and I had to get all the balls as the come in from the outfield.”

A Florida native, he grew up a Cincinnati Reds fan whose favorite player was inducted into the Hall of Fame last month.

“My favorite player is Barry Larkin,” Litsch said, “so it’s kind of cool to come here the year the year he gets enshrined.”

As for his own future, Litsch, who has spent his entire five-year big league career with the Blue Jays, says things look bright. Though he will miss the entire 2012 season, his career big league numbers include a 27-27 record, topped by a 13-9 mark in 2008.

“It’s been a hectic year,” Litsch said. “I had an infection that caused an emergency surgery and since then I had to have another surgery that is hopefully the key, so it’s a matter of getting through it and getting back ready for next year.

“Everything is coming along well. It’s a process. You just have to sit and wait, wait, wait and let it get better.”

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum 

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By Tim Wiles

Cooperstown is home not just to the Hall of Fame, but also to several other “big league” tourist attractions, including the 37-year-old Glimmerglass Festival, which presents opera and musical theatre at the north end of Otsego Lake.

The latest collaboration between Glimmerglass and the Hall of Fame is a short musical program called “Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience,” being presented Thursdays in the Bullpen Theatre here at The Hall – with the final show on Aug. 23 at 2 p.m.

“Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience,” being presented Thursdays in the Bullpen Theatre here at The Hall – with the final show on Aug. 23 at 2 p.m. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

The program consists of seven songs with a baseball theme, sung wonderfully by four of the Festival’s African-American singers. Unifying the songs is a script which sketches the outline of African-American baseball history, beginning in 1865 and running right up into the present day.

The Singers include baritone Amos Nomnabo, from Queensland, South Africa; tenor Chase Taylor, from Durham, N.C.; bass baritone Phillip Gay of Beaumont, Texas; and baritones Allan Washington, of Indianapolis, and Thomas Cannon, of New Orleans, who take the same part in alternate weeks. Each is costumed in a baseball uniform with “Hall of Fame” emblazoned across the front. They are ably accompanied on piano by Coach Accompanist Katherine Kozak of Cleveland, Ohio.

The show was developed by Debra Dickinson of Houston, Acting and Movement Instructor for the Young Artists Program at Glimmerglass, and Dennis Robinson, one of the Young Artists Stage Directors and an Assistant Director for “Lost In the Stars,” an opera by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson which deals with apartheid in South Africa. The baseball music program deals with our own history of legal and enforced segregation in baseball’s Negro Leagues.

As sad as that history can be, the program itself is exuberant and joyful, as these gifted singers take us through seven songs, each preceded by just enough commentary to set the scene. Dickinson and Robinson began early this summer by visiting the Hall’s Library, reviewing the hundreds of pieces of sheet music in the collection and selecting those which fit their story musically and/or thematically. After five weeks of practice, the show debuted just after Hall of Fame Weekend.

The first three songs, “Brother Noah Gave Out Checks For Rain, (1907), “Pickaninny Rose,” (1924), and “Little Puff of Smoke—Good Night,” (1910) represent the reconstruction era, when portrayals of Black culture were often cartoonish and stereotypical. Despite that potential handicap, the music is delivered with style and grace. The last song was one of several written by Guy Harris “Doc” White, a multitalented pitcher for the White Sox and Phillies from 1901-13.

The next two songs deal with the integration era, which began in 1947, with the debut of Jackie Robinson. The group delivers a brilliant version of “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball,” the 1949 song by Count Basie and Buddy Johnson. The next piece is “Move over Babe, Here Comes Henry,” written in 1974 by legendary baseball broadcaster Ernie Harwell. Phillip Gay then goes into an a cappella version of the National Anthem, which brings the fans to their feet and brings goosebumps to them as well – later in the song his compatriots join in.

The 20-minute program concludes with “Heart,” by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, from the 1955 musical “Damn Yankees.”

Make sure to join us in the Bullpen Theater next Thursday!

Tim Wiles is the director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder

Charlie Millard plucked his Texas Rangers cap off his held and held it up between the caps of Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Tom Seaver.

“You think that cap might be in the Hall of Fame someday?” said Charlie’s dad Bart Millard, whose band MercyMe toured the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday. “Wouldn’t that be something!”

Members of the band MercyMe (from left) Robby Shaffer, Michael Scheuchzer and Bart Millard -- along with Millard's sons (from left) Charlie and Sam -- received a special tour of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday. (Milo Stewart Jr./NBHOF Library)

Hours before a concert in nearby Utica, N.Y., Bart Millard took a break from his job as MercyMe’s lead singer and fulfilled a lifelong dream by visiting the Hall of Fame. A self-described “Rangers fan from birth,” Millard – a Greenville, Texas, native – visited the Museum with his sons Charlie and Sam and MercyMe band-mates Robby Shaffer and Michael Scheuchzer.

“This is amazing,” said Millard after viewing Josh Hamilton’s four-home run bat, which is on display in the Museum’s Today’s Game exhibit and has been since Hamilton crushed four dingers in Texas’ 10-3 win over the Orioles May 8. “It’s been a great stretch of baseball for the Rangers, even though the two World Series losses have been tough. But they have really begun to change how baseball is perceived in Dallas.

“It’s still a Cowboys town, but the Rangers are more popular than ever.”

So is MercyMe, which has produced four certified Gold Records since forming in 1994.

“All musicians want to be athletes, and I think most athletes want to be musicians,” Millard said. “To be here with all this history is incredible.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder

After striking out 27 batters in one minor league game in 1952, Ron Necciai was destined for the big leagues.

When he was called up to the Pittsburgh Pirates in August of 1952, the Bucs’ management – by way of locker selection – let Necciai know that he was ready for prime time.

Former big league pitcher Ron Necciai discusses his 1952 minor league no-hitter in which he struck out 27 batters on Thursday at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

“They put me between Murry Dickson, who had been in the big leagues for (11) seasons, and Ralph Kiner, who as you know is a Hall of Famer,” said Necciai at a program on Thursday at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. “Then, I went out in that first game and gave up a huge homer to Hank Sauer of the Cubs. It hit off the clock in left field in (Pittsburgh’s) Forbes Field, and I swear that clock was rocking back and forth for a few minutes.

“It was sure different from the minor leagues.”

Necciai visited the Hall of Fame on Thursday and recounted his famous outing on May 13, 1952, when he struck out 27 batters in a nine-inning no-hitter for the Bristol Twins of the Class D Appalachian League. Necciai is the only professional pitcher to record 27 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, and a ball from that 7-0 win over the Welch Miners – which Necciai donated to the Hall of Fame in 2001 – is on display in the Museum’s One for the Books exhibit.

Once in the big leagues, Necciai lasted only one season with the Pirates before a rotator cuff injury ended his career. But his amazing game during that 1952 season lives on in baseball lore.

“The doctor I saw (when he hurt his shoulder) told me that I’d never pitch again and that I should go home and buy a gas station,” said Necciai, who still lives in the Pittsburgh area. “I didn’t do that, but I’ve been married for 57 years, so I must have done something right.

“And on that day (of the no-hitter), everything went right.”

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Bill Francis

With his son playing at a local baseball camp, former big league player Damion Easley had the perfect opportunity to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the first time.

“Playing so long,” Easley said Wednesday morning, “I’m surprised it took my 12-year-old son, Jayce, to bring me down here.”

A veteran of 17 big league seasons spent mostly with the California Angels and Detroit Tigers, Easley, who left the field following his 2008 campaign, enjoyed his greatest success as a power-hitting second baseman in the MotorCity in the late 1990s. Though his lone All-Star Game invite came in 1998, when he smacked 27 home runs and drove in 100, he finished his career with 1,386 hits, 163 homers, 114 stolen bases and a .253 batting average.

Former Major League player Damion Easley with John Odell, Curator of History and Research. (Bill Francis/NBHOF Library)

After a tour of the museum’s archives, Easley said, “I’m in awe. I’m a baseball traditionalist, diehard baseball fan, and just a fan of the game, and that was very impressive to see those artifacts and kinda relive my youth a little bit.”

Now 42 years old, the native of New York City moved at age 11 to California, where he was able to play baseball year-round.

“Early on baseball was my life,” Easley said. “As you grow and get older I have my wife and my kids and obviously they took over my heart. But I still love the game.

“My dad introduced me to the game at a very young age and I took it and ran with it. It’s still a passion of mine. I coach it and I can’t get enough of it. I’ve coach at the youth, high school and pro side now.”

Calling Glendale, AZ home, Easley is currently a coach with the San Diego Padres’ affiliate in the rookie Arizona League.

“I enjoy working with the young guys who don’t know what it takes yet. They think they do but they really don’t,” Easley said. “And I’m sure I was that way coming up, too. But I enjoy working with them and helping them along.”

Helping Easley along in his professional career was Hall of Famer Rod Carew, the young infielder’s first batting coach when he got to the big leagues. But he also played against many of the Hall of Famers elected recently, a fact that makes his trip to Cooperstown even more meaningful.

“It helps you appreciate some of the greatness that you’ve been around because when you’re playing you don’t have time to think about it,” he said. “You admire somebody for his talents but you’re out there trying to compete and trying to survive and you don’t have time to be in awe of somebody.

“Now that you’re away from it you can sit back, relive the moments, and think, ‘Man, this was really special to live a dream and rub elbows with greatness.'"

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Bill Francis

Actor Michael Badalucco, a familiar face to fans of The Practice, the legal drama series that aired on ABC from 1997 to 2004, made a long-awaited second trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday.

“We were on our way to Buffalo and I said to my friend, ‘Let’s take the long way and let’s go to Cooperstown,’” said Badalucco during a break from checking out the Museum’s third-floor exhibits. “I haven’t been here since I was 11 years old, but it didn’t look anything like this. I’m a big baseball fan so I said let’s try and to get in there.

Actor Michael Badalucco standing in the Autumn Glory exhibit during his visit to the Hall of Fame on Friday. (Bill Francis/NBHOF Library)

“Of course I remember the Plaque Gallery, which looks like it has never changed, but seeing the Museum exhibits now is so insightful and appealing that you don’t want to leave. Being here is a great thrill. You come here and you learn things about these guys … you think you know them but you don’t really.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Badalucco, 57, grew up a fan of the New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle.

“My uncles were Yankees fans, but my father from Sicily wasn’t much into baseball,” he said. “I remember going to Yankee Stadium in the early ‘60s and being able to walk out on the field and see the monuments and the flagpole after the game.”

Before getting his big acting break as a regular on The Practice, portraying lawyer Jimmy Berluti, Badalucco had to work on his craft for a number of years much like a minor league ballplayer.

“Twenty years after I graduated from college (State University of New York at New Paltz) I got a steady job,” he said. “I got my degree in theater but instead of being a waiter I worked as a prop man because I could work on the sets. Yogi (Berra) says, ‘You can observe a lot by watching.’ And I did.

“So all those years I was on the sets of all kinds of big movies in New York and I watched how they directed, how people acted, what went on on the set, so when I finally got my break not only did I know what was going on, every aspect of moviemaking, but I learned to have a great respect for people behind the camera because they are as important as the people in front of it.”

Badalucco, who would eventually win the 1999 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Berluti on The Practice, can next be seen on the Syfy channel.

“It’s my first monster movie (Heebie Jeebies) and it’s going to be on in February. I confront a seven-headed monster.”

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder

Eleven years ago today, I stood watching the TV in disbelief at the absolute horror taking place throughout our country. A former co-worker leaned over while watching the coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and said: “This country will never be the same.” 

I recoiled at that statement. Even at that low point, I sensed it was not true. Of all of America’s strengths, maybe its greatest is our ability to put the past behind us and move forward. 

A promotional baseball found in the 9/11 debris donated by New York City fireman Vin Mavaro. (Craig Muder/NBHOF Library)

Weeks later, a New York City fireman named Vin Mavaro was cleaning up debris at Ground Zero. He came across a white, round object that he first thought was a piece of concrete. Unable to grasp exactly what it was – in the midst of so much destruction – he leaned down and picked up a baseball. 

It was a promotional ball from a company named TradeWeb that had offices in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The ball had facsimile signatures from companies – like Goldman Sachs – that did business with TradeWeb. It was scratched and cut, but miraculously came through the attacks in one piece. 

Mavaro said that when he held the ball, he flashed to his son’s Little League field – remembering better days. 

“The ball’s nicked up, but it’s intact and it came through,” Mavaro said. “I feel the same about New York City, the Fire Department and the United States. We’re banged up, we took a hit, but we came through.” 

Mavaro contacted the folks at TradeWeb, who told him that all of their employees had escaped the tower and that he could keep the ball, which had been sitting on a TradeWeb employee’s desk. After loaning it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the Hall’s Baseball As America national tour, Mavaro changed the loan into a permanent donation in 2008. 

At one of this country’s darkest hours, it was baseball that provided a ray of hope. 

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Steve Light

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is so much more than a shrine to baseball’s best players, managers, executives and umpires. As a Museum, we preserve and share baseball’s history each and every day. That history includes the storied past of the major leagues, but it also reaches beyond that. 

Baseball has a unique cultural connection to our nation’s past, and our collection of nearly 40,000 artifacts allows us to show visitors the emotional connections with baseball that Americans have made for over 150 years. 

The ball made by David E. Wheeler with the note attached that read, “This Ball was made by David Edgerton Wheeler, the last one he made and used the last term of school he attended.” (NBHOF Library)

Take for instance, this baseball – a fitting artifact to highlight given that today marks the 150^th anniversary of the Battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in American history and the event that led Abraham Lincoln to issue the Emancipation Proclamation. This ball was made by David E. Wheeler in the late 1850s. Born in Ohio, at a young age Wheeler moved with his family to Independence, Iowa. He was the eldest of three sons in the Wheeler family, and in August of 1862, at the age of 20, he enlisted in the 27th Regiment of Iowa Volunteers. Less than a year later, Wheeler died of disease at Camp Jackson, Tenn., on March 27, 1863. 

David’s younger brother, Jonathon Judson Wheeler, kept this baseball as a keepsake of his older brother, whom he idolized. J.J. placed a handwritten note on the ball that reads: “This Ball was made by David Edgerton Wheeler, the last one he made and used the last term of school he attended.” The younger Wheeler died in 1938, but the baseball remained with the family and part of the family’s lore. That same family lore tells us that David was gregarious, intelligent, and also a highly talented athlete. 

In 2008, the great-grandson of Jonathon Judson Wheeler donated the baseball to the Museum. Today, this baseball allows us to reflect on how generations of families bonded together with baseball. It also reminds us of the tremendous sacrifices made by young soldiers during a challenging time in our nation’s history. 

Steve Light is the manager of public programs at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Bill Francis

Only a few days from beginning a four-night stretch of sold-out shows at New York City’s famed Radio City Music Hall, members of the acclaimed group Bon Iver took time out from their busy schedule to tour the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Monday.

Senior Curator, Tom Shieber, gives members of the group Bon Iver (left to right: Reggie Pace, Carl Faber, Matt McCaughan, and Josh Sundquist) the backstory on some artifacts in the library. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

In town for a concert on Monday, members of Bon Iver (French pronunciation bo-nee-VAIR, meaning “good winter”),who earlier this year won the Grammy for Best New Artist and for Best Alternative Album for the self-titled Bon Iver, were given a behind-the-scenes tour of the institution. Whether it was viewing a Babe Ruth scrapbook, a ball from the 1927 World Series or a bat Ted Williams once cracked in frustration, the musicians seemed genuinely enthralled.

“It was amazing to just see the operations and how it works,” said drummer Matt McCaughan. “And to be up close with direct contact to these old artifacts and to see them firsthand was just incredible.

“It’s certainly one of those things that – even though I don’t necessarily follow baseball – it was one of those opportunities I didn’t see how you could not come. I don’t know when I’d be in Cooperstown next.”

According to trombonist Reggie Pace, he didn’t know what to expect in his visit to the Hall of Fame, “but it was really cool. I love seeing the history of things and this was really beautiful. After seeing the artifacts it’s like the history of America in a lot of ways.”

Pace was a big league baseball fan while growing up, lost interest in his high school years, but has recently been getting back into the game.

“I was a really big White Sox fan as a kid,” he said. “I was a card collector, and I remember opening a pack and being like like, ‘Robin Ventura. Oh my God!’”

Though he doesn’t have a big league team he follows regularly, McCaughan does attend games of the minor league Durham Bulls in the North Carolina city he now calls home.

“I don’t consider myself a historian but history is certainly an interest of mine,” he said. “And this was just one of those things where it didn’t even have to be baseball, as it is in this case, but you could have the Hall of Fame of anything and I’d want to come see it. In this case it just happened to be a very historic Hall of Fame.”

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Bill Francis

The recently completed Seventh Annual Baseball Film Festival, held at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum last weekend, has attracted not only a loyal following among fans of the genre but also a growing number of filmmakers who’ve returned more than once to showcase their latest work.

Returning for the third time was documentary filmmaker Craig Lindvahl, who this past weekend was showing The Perfect Place, one of 14 films that made up this year’s festival, which uses the Cincinnati Reds to show how fans are connected to the game.

“This is a wonderful place to be,” Lindvahl said after the Saturday night showing of his film at the Hall’s Bullpen Theater. “It’s people who love baseball, who understand what we’re trying to say about baseball. It’s unbelievable to have a reason to be in the Hall of Fame. Not just as a visitor but to have a reason to be here. As a filmmaker or a storyteller you really hope that you’re striking a chord with people who understand what baseball is. There is no place in the world that is more the center of people who understand baseball that this building right here.

“I can’t think of anything that would be more exciting to me than to think I could come back. So hopefully the next film I work on might be accepted and we might find ourselves back here in a year.”

Brothers Nick and Colin Barnicle answer questions from the crowd during the Seventh Annual Baseball Film Festival (Bill Francis/NBHOF Library)

Brothers Nick and Colin Barnicle, sons of journalist Mike Barnicle, had a film accepted into the festival for a second consecutive year. Their entry, Polo Grounds, tells the story of the famed home of the New York Giants and the impact the area felt when the team left after the 1957 season.

“This is something that we’re trying to do every year. I don’t know if we’ll get there but we love coming up here, we love being a part of the Hall of Fame, and this film, I think, really fits,” said Nick Barnicle. “We were supposed to do other real work but we pushed it toward baseball, as usual, and tweaked it up to come up here, which is always on honor.

“It’s nice to see so many people committed to making not only documentaries but just films in general about baseball. We grew up around the game. We attempt to make our living telling stories about baseball. So it’s a thrill to meet other people who are doing the same thing.”

The festival’s closing film, Chasing 3000, was represented in Cooperstown by screenwriter/producer Bill Mikita, a first-time visitor to the Hall of Fame whose true story, about travelling with his brother to Pittsburgh in order witness Hall of Fame Roberto Clemente’s 3,000^th career hit, the film is based on.

“Growing up loving baseball, and with baseball such an important part my life, this really is a sacred place,” he said after his film’s Sunday afternoon showing. “And that it’s on the 40^th anniversary of Roberto Clemente’s 3,000^th hit is just incredible.

“My two passions are baseball and movies, and to have the two combined this weekend has been great.”

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder

You never know who’s going to show up in Cooperstown. Today, it was part of my childhood.

Bob Horner, who played 10 big league seasons with the Braves and Cardinals between 1978 and 1988, visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Wednesday with his wife Chris.

When the call came that Horner was arriving, I immediately flashed back to the day big league baseball became real for me: Sept. 3, 1978 – my first time at an MLB game.

Former big leaguer Bob Horner (right) holds one of his bats during a visit to the Museum on Wednesday. Horner used the bat during his four-home run game on July 6, 1986 and later donated it to the Hall of Fame. Hall of Fame curator of history and research John Odell gave Horner a tour of the Museum archive. (Milo Stewart Jr./NBHOF Library)

I was nine, and my father took me to Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh to see the Pirates play the Braves on a Sunday afternoon. Horner was the No. 1 overall pick in the June draft that year, and Horner was so good that he went straight from Arizona State to the majors – debuting with the Braves just 10 days after he was drafted.

I can remember debating with my dad about whether Horner might need minor league seasoning. Turns out, he didn’t – Horner hit 23 home runs that year in 89 games, quickly establishing himself as one of the game’s top young third basemen en route to winning the National League Rookie of the Year Award.

Eight years later, Horner tied a record that still stands. On July 6, 1986, Horner hit four home runs in one game for the Braves against the Montreal Expos. He later donated the bat he used for the first three of those home runs to the Hall of Fame (it broke before he could hit his fourth), and on Wednesday he got to hold it again.

Horner is one of only 16 players to ever hit four home runs in a big league game.

Horner got a tour of the archive Wednesday, and expressed genuine wonder while looking at a ball used during the 1927 World Series.

“Incredible… really incredible,” said Horner.

Horner and his wife now live in Dallas, and were passing through Central New York while on a family visit.

“We always try to stop when we’re here,” Horner said. “The history here is amazing.”

For me, it was living history – my own.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder

The magic of the annual Hall of Fame election process is that there is no “automatic in.”

No season statistic, no career achievement, no postseason marvel qualifies a candidate for induction. It is a body of work – compiled over time – which voters must subjectively consider.

And yet, Miguel Cabrera’s 2012 season comes as close as it gets to a ticket to Cooperstown.

Cabrera revived a dinosaur Wednesday, wrapping up something many thought might never be repeated: The batting Triple Crown. For the first time since Carl Yastrzemski’s legendary 1967 season, an MLB hitter led his league in batting average, home runs and RBI in the same year.

Since the dawn of big league baseball in the 1870s until this season, 13 men had produced 15 Triple Crowns – with Rogers Hornsby and Ted Williams achieving the milestone twice each. Of those 15 seasons, 13 came in baseball’s modern era – when the American League and National League were both operating as major leagues starting in 1901.

The 11 authors of those 13 seasons are each enshrined in Cooperstown:

The Detroit Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera won the 2012 AL batting Triple Crown, the first time in 45 years. (NBHOF Library)

Cabrera flew under the radar for most of the 2012 season, mostly avoiding the pressure build-up that comes with any major achievement. But from this day forward, Cabrera will be on everyone’s radar.

After 10 big league seasons – including his rookie year of 2003 when he appeared in 87 games after his mid-season call-up from the minors to help the Marlins win their second World Series title – Cabrera has 321 home runs, 1,123 RBI and a .318 batting average. He has driven in at least 100 runs in nine seasons and scored better than 100 runs six times.

Only two other players in the game’s history have put together those kind of numbers in the first 10 seasons of their career: Ted Williams and Albert Pujols. And only Williams also had a Triple Crown on his resume.

The Hall of Fame archive contains several artifacts from Triple Crown seasons, including the Triple Crown Awards won by Yastrzemski and Robinson and a bat used by Mantle during the 1956 season. They will all be preserved forever in Cooperstown.

Twelve years ago, Cooperstown-area baseball fans had the chance to watch Cabrera as he played eight games with the Class A Utica Blue Sox of the New York-Penn League – a team located about 45 minutes up the road from baseball’s Mecca that became the Aberdeen IronBirds in 2002.

A decade or so from now, Cabrera is on track return to Central New York – this time as a Hall of Famer.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder 

Ryne Sandberg came to Cooperstownthis weekend to recount how his personal belief in character and courage led him to the Hall of Fame. 

Thousands of fans apparently support those beliefs, as a large crowd gathered at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Saturday to celebrate Character and Courage Weekend. 

Hall of Famer Ryne Sandberg talks to a group of students during the Museum's Fitness First Clinic on Saturday in Cooperstown. The Clinic was part of Character and Courage Weekend at the Hall of Fame. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

In front of a packed house at the Museum’s Grandstand Theater, Sandberg – a 2005 Hall of Fame inductee – shared his personal convictions and how they mesh with the Hall of Fame’s new Be A Superior Example program. Throughout his three-day stop in Cooperstown, Sandberg talked to children and adults about the BASE message of healthy choices and the ability to lead a life free of performance-enhancing substances. 

“This is something I believe in, but I never need a reason to return to Cooperstown,” Sandberg said. “I love coming here. 

“This is the first time I’ve been here in the fall, and the colors outside are beautiful and the (Museum) is buzzing with people.” 

Sandberg helped launch the Museum’s online BASE registry during the fifth-annual Character and Courage Weekend, which celebrates the timeless values ofAmerica’s National Pastime. The BASE registry allows participants – especially youngsters – to learn about healthy choices through a 15-minute online multimedia program, and then pledge to Be A Superior Example through the registry, which lives online and is searchable at the Museum’s BASE exhibit. 

For more information or to participate in the BASE program, please visit www.beasuperiorexample.org. 

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Tim Wiles

This year’s World Series matchup between the Giants and the Tigers marks the first time in 58 years, and fifth time overall, that both league batting champions have played in the Fall Classic.

The Detroit Tigers Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera will be on baseball’s biggest stage facing the San Francisco Giants in the 2012 World Series. (NBHOF Library)

Giants catcher Buster Posey led the National League with a .336 mark, and Triple Crown winner Miguel Cabrera of the Tigers led the junior circuit at .330.

Fifty-eight seasons ago, this statistical rarity also involved the Giants, as center fielder Willie Mays hit .345 to win his only batting title, while Cleveland second baseman Bobby Avila hit. 341 to lead the American League.

The 1931 World Series pitted the Cardinals against the Philadelphia Athletics.  Cardinals left fielder Chick Hafey batted .349 to lead the NL, and his counterpart Al Simmons paced the AL with .390, improving his average by nine points over the previous season, when he also took home the laurels.

In 1909, two of the greatest hitters ever squared off in the World Series. Ty Cobb represented the Tigers with .377, and Honus Wagner led the Pirates and the NL with a mark of .339.

The 1887 World Series – a precursor to the modern World Series – pitted the Detroit Wolverines of the NL against the St. Louis Browns of the American Association, a major league at the time. Both league batting titles were won by outfielders, Sam Thompson of the NL led with .372, and Tip O’Neill led the AA with a whopping .435.  This was the season where walks were counted as hits for the purposes of calculating batting averages.

Interestingly, the National League has won all four previous matchups where this has taken place.

The five matchups have involved the Giants twice, the Tigers twice, and the city of Detroit three times. Of the 10 players involved, six are members of the Hall of Fame (Cobb, Hafey, Mays, Simmons, Thompson and Wagner), while two are not yet eligible (Cabrera and Posey).

Tim Wiles is the director of research for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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By Craig Muder

For Stuart Wolf, a trip to the library turned into a family excursion of a lifetime to Cooperstown

Wolf is this year’s winner of the Step Up to the Plate @ Your Library program, a joint venture of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and the American Library Association. Wolf’s winning entry was an idea born out of the love of baseball shared by he and his father, Sherman.

Stuart Wolf (right), the winner of the Step up to the Plate @ Your Library contest, pauses in front of Bill Veeck's Hall of Fame plaque with (from left) his sister Julie, his father Sherman and his son William on Saturday at the Hall of Fame. Sherman Wolf once worked for Veeck with the Chicago White Sox. (Craig Muder/NBHOF Library)

“My dad just turned 86 this year, and I asked him what he wanted for his birthday. He told me he wanted to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame,” Wolf said. “Two days later, I was in my local library in Wilmette, Ill., when I saw the Step Up to the Plate contest.

“I must have entered 10 of the 14 weeks that you could. And I was fortunate enough to win.”

The contest invites participants to use library resources to answer a series of trivia questions, and then the winning entry is drawn at random from all the correct responses. The Grand Prize winner receives a trip for two to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Stuart brought his father along on the trip, along with his son William and sister Julie. The Wolfs received a tour of the Museum and tickets to Saturday night’s World Series Gala, where they watched Game 3 of the World Series in the Hall of Fame’s Grandstand Theater.

Sherman Wolf, who once worked for Hall of Fame executive Bill Veeck with the Chicago White Sox, was overwhelmed by his first trip to Cooperstown.

“This is an amazing place,” said Sherman Wolf. “Everyone who loves baseball should come here.”

For more information on the Step up to the Plate @ Your Library contest, please visit @ your library.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

By Tim Wiles

“After I sent the email to the Hall of Fame,” says Samantha Tengelitsch, “I said to my husband Chris: ‘We’ll never hear from them now.’”

However, Samantha’s summer email was responded to by library intern Cassidy Lent, and has sparked research which still continues – and produced a pretty good ghost story for Halloween.

Samantha was very interested in a career minor leaguer named Edward Matt, who played from 1909-1913 for seven different minor league teams in the upper Midwest, including Traverse City, Mich., where Samantha and her family now live. But Ed Matt is not a distant relative, so why the interest?

The Hall of Fame’s research department handles thousands of inquiries per year, like this one about former minor league baseball player Edward Matt.

“Edward Matt is a ghost in our house,” Samantha wrote.

The family moved into the house in the summer of 2011, and by the fall, they realized they were not alone.

“I knew nothing about baseball before this.” Samantha notes. “I was coming up the stairs, and there was this man, with baggy pants, horizontally striped socks, and a baseball cap that looked very old-fashioned, with a shorter brim than they have today.”

Eventually, through multiple sightings, Samantha and Chris were able to converse with the ghost, and learned his name was Edward Matt, and that he had lived in their home when he played for the Traverse City Resorters of the Michigan State League in 1912. The Resorters’ ballpark was a block away.

After the first sighting, the couple went to the historical society and the library, and learned that Matt had signed a contract in December of 1913 with the Chicago White Stockings, but was released in February the following year. When they asked him why he was released, he responded “I fell.”

Where had he fallen, they asked? “Freemont Freesoil,” came the response. Later they learned that the towns of Freemont and Freesoil were consecutive stops on the train line from Manistee, Michigan to Chicago, where Matt may have been headed to report to the White Stockings.

The couple decided not to mention the ghost to their 10-year-old daughter, Ava, in order to not frighten her. But then she saw him too.

“I feel like Edward Matt wants us to tell his story,” Samantha wrote in her initial email. The story continues to unfold, though details of Matt’s playing career, his injury, and even his obituary remain sketchy and incomplete.

Samantha, Chris, and the library staff are continuing to check into Ed Matt’s career, and hopefully more details will emerge.

“It’s not our role to judge people’s motives for wanting baseball information,” said Hall of Fame Librarian Jim Gates, “It’s our job to help them.”

Anyone with any leads on Edward Matt is encouraged to contact the research department at research@baseballhall.org.

Whether the mystery is ever fully solved, there has been a happy result for Samantha and her family already.

“I was one of those people who thought baseball was really boring,” she says. “But now we love the game. We started playing as a family, and we love coming home from work and relaxing by watching a baseball game.

“It took an act of God or a supernatural experience to get me to watch a baseball game, but I am coming to understand what a wonderful, great experience baseball is.”

Tim Wiles is the director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

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