Directly from Cooperstown

BASEBALL is more than a game - it reflects American history and embodies our nations’s values and conflicts. Millions of Americans have experienced pride and disappointment through the context of the game that unifies generations, and invoked patriotism, integration and oppurtunity. Celebrate baseball’s impact on our nation with Baseball in America, an exhibit featuring over 500 treasures from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, including “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s shoes, Jackie Robinson’s Brooklyn Dodgers jersey, items from the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, FDR’s “Green Light” Letter calling for the continuation of baseball during World War II, and more! In times of war and peace, social change and economic prosperity, baseball has remained the only constant, and has proven to be not only a game - but our true national pastime.

“Baseball As America” Exhibit in Philadelphia

“Baseball As America,” the National Baseball Hall of Fame exhibit that has been touring the United States since 2002, is now in Philadelphia, running from February 15 through May 11, 2008. The exhibit is at the National Constitution Center (NCC) located at 5th and Arch Streets on Independence Mall in downtown Philadelphia.

Artifacts from the Hall’s collection that are on view include the “Doubleday Ball” from baseball’s mythic first game in 1839, a 1908 Thomas Edison recording of “Casey at the Bat,” baseball shoes belonging to “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, and the T206 Honus Wagner card, the game’s most valued baseball card. These and 500 or so other historic pieces have left the Hall of Fame museum in Cooperstown, NY for the first time to make this national tour. Displays are structured around themes such as Our National Spirit, Creating a Common Culture, and Weaving Myths.

The Philadelphia A’s Historical Society is supporting the exhibit. It loaned NCC several historically significant Athletics’ photographs from the Society’s archives so the Center could reproduce and enlarge them to include in the display area. Team photographs of the 1910 and 1929 World Champion A’s clubs and a 1939 portrait of Connie Mack are among the images from the Society that are part of the exhibit.

In addition, the A’s Society is working with NCC to sponsor a “Philadelphia Athletics Day” during “Baseball As America’s” run in Philadelphia. This event is scheduled for April, although an exact date has yet to be determined. Plans call for a number of former A’s players to gather at NCC for a program in which they will reminisce about their careers, answer questions from the audience, and sign autographs for those in attendance. Their appearance will be widely publicized by NCC and the Society to maximize interest and encourage attendance. Watch the A’s Society’s website for more information about this event as it becomes available.

As is always the case, the A’s Society’s success in preserving the history and remembering the greatness of Philadelphia’s baseball past depends on the voluntary support of individuals willing to undertake the work necessary to make it happen. Bob Warrington is coordinating the Society’s participation in the “Baseball As America” exhibit, and he is joined in this effort by Ernie Montella, Carl Goldberg, Steve Harlem, and Michael Fesnak.

Hall of Fame press releases about “Baseball As America” emphasize that it is a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to see outside of Cooperstown rare and precious items from the Hall’s collection. That is true. The A’s Society is helping to tell the definitive story of Philadelphia’s baseball history through loaned photographs and by helping to organize and sponsor “Athletics Day” during the exhibit’s run. We hope to see you there.