Balls and books
Baseball Reliquary plays its ‘Tenth Inning’ at Pasadena City Library
By Kristy Lucero 07/10/2008
The Baseball Reliquary, a Pasadena-based nonprofit dedicated to nurturing appreciation of American culture through the history of its greatest pastime, is celebrating 10 successful years of programming with a special exhibit this month at the Pasadena Central Library.
“The Tenth Inning” displays such baseball oddities as maverick Hall-of-Fame team owner Bill Veeck’s wooden leg and a clump of dirt from Elysian Field in Hoboken, NJ, where there the first modern regulation baseball game was played in 1846.
Unlike other shrines to baseball, the Baseball Reliquary gathers artifacts that differ from traditional fare such as bats, balls and gloves. Its collections include baseballs signed by Mother Teresa, a flour tortilla bearing a remarkable likeness to former Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley, the remains of a hot dog partially consumed by slugger Babe Ruth and hair curlers once worn by (now bald) former Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Dock Ellis.
“We like more unique artifacts. We shy away from the typical things people think of when they think of baseball museums,” explained Terry Cannon, the reliquary’s executive director.
Also scattered throughout the library this month are items from some of the organization’s past exhibits, including “Baseball’s Time Machine: Photography at the Field of Dreams,” “Life After Baseball: From Espionage to Evangelism,” and “Mexican-American Baseball in Los Angeles: From the Barrios to the Big Leagues.”
The exhibit precedes this year’s induction ceremony for the Baseball Reliquary’s “Shrine of the Eternals,” an honor given to individuals — whether player, coach, sportswriter or fan — who have displayed uniqueness in their dedication to the sport.
This year’s ceremony will take place at 2 p.m. Sunday, July 20, at the library.
Honors will go to late Negro League star Buck O’Neil, Emmett Ashford (Major League Baseball’s first African-American umpire) and Bill Buckner, who was the first professional baseball player to wear Nike high-top cleats but is better known for letting a ball roll under his glove during game six of 1986 World Series — an error that lost the game, and eventually the series, for his Boston Red Sox.
See “The Tenth Inning” from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sundays throughout July at the Pasadena Central Library, 285 E. Walnut St., Pasadena. For more information, call (626) 791-7647 or visit www.baseballreliquary.org. Exhibit and induction ceremony admission is free.
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