ou think you know baseball. You're a bona fide expert. You subscribe to all the magazines, you read a few books, watch a couple of documentaries, and then wow your friends with your seemingly endless knowledge of the game.
Nicole Ricchione, 12, of Hazlet, N.J., views the bat and ball used by New
York Yankees Roger Maris when he hit his 61st home run in 1961. The exhibit at the
Baseball Hall of Fame is being heavily visited as more players are chasing Maris's record.
(Reuters Photo)
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Then you meet a guy like Ted Spencer. Then it's back to the library.
Spencer is a curator for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. He manages the museum and oversees its design and presentation. He's also an avid baseball fan. His love for the game, plus his position at the Hall, makes him a virtual baseball encyclopedia.
Did you know that Boston is the only city in America to have professional baseball every year since 1871? And can you guess the team? Didn't think so. It's the Braves, who now make their home in Atlanta. These are the kind of facts Spencer can recite. He can also tell you about a baseball team from Boston called the Tri Mountains, and how they played a team from Brooklyn, N.Y., as far back as the 1860s. Or about the Boston Pilgrims (who later became the Red Sox) playing the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1903 in the first World Series.
Spencer and his staff will have a baseball from the Tri Mountains game, a contract between the Pilgrims and the Pirates, Babe Ruth's first contract with the Red Sox, and uniforms and equipment of Sox Hall of Famers Cy Young, Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Bobby Doerr, and Joe Cronin on display this weekend at the All-Star FanFest's Hall of Fame exhibit at the Hynes Convention Center. They'll also have a century-old scorecard from a Braves game.
''A lot of people just can't get to Cooperstown,'' said Spencer, who has been a curator at the Hall since 1981. He's helped coordinate the Hall's traveling museum since FanFest became a part of All-Star Weekend in 1991 in Toronto. ''It's not that far from Boston, but people really appreciate it in places like Denver and San Diego.''
Besides the uniforms and equipment of the Red Sox greats, the exhibit will also feature more than 150 artifacts from other great players and teams. Fans will see exhibits honoring such legendary players as Walter Johnson, Mickey Mantle, Hank Aaron, Ty Cobb, and, of course, Ruth. There will also be slide-shows, lectures, and presentations by other members of the staff.
Spencer says that the Hall, which attracts as many as 400,000 visitors a year, usually tries to bring as many items as possible relative to the host city for the All-Star Game, in addition to a few universal attractions.
Which suits Spencer just fine. A Quincy native, he was named after none other than Ted Williams. Spencer says he can remember when 15 cents would get him from Quincy to Fenway Park. For 75 cents, he could sit in the bleachers, and $1.25 would get him a seat in the right-field grandstand.
''Boston is so rich in history, like Philly and Cleveland,'' said Spencer, who earned his degree in fine arts from the Massachusetts College of Art. ''I grew up with a love for the game. The game is much more valuable and important than I realized. It's very, very important for the American culture.
''I like seeing grandparents bring their kids to the Hall and say, `When I was your age ... ' Older people have memories and they want to talk. And I like it when people stop and thank us for bringing the Hall to them. The best time is when we get to meet the public. That's very gratifying.''
