Baseball’s distant and diverse past is a key part of the game’s appeal for many of us. Now there’s a way to further celebrate it at the click of an electronic key or two — and at no charge. Simply go to TheNationalPastimeMuseum.com, and savor historical articles and artifacts dating from Civil War days until the 1960s.
If you want to know how the curve ball developed in the mutton-chop era, you’ll find out here. Or if your area of interest lies in more modern times, you can learn what pitcher threw two no-hitters and almost had a third during a season when his record was 5-19.
Best of all, the site is constantly updated. In the National Treasures section, you’ll find so much fascinating old stuff that you’ll swear you’re in Cooperstown. Could uniforms ever have been so heavy, gloves so tiny and bats so thick?
Full disclosure: I am chief copy editor for the site, and it’s truly a labor of love. When I was 11 years old, I first read Frank Graham’s tragic biography “Lou Gehrig: A Quiet Hero” and fell deeply in love with baseball history. Now my bookshelves contain enough horsehide tomes to put a serious squeeze on my collection of every song Frank Sinatra ever did.
(As far as I know, Young/Old Blue Eyes never recorded “Take Me Out to the Ball Game,” but I do have a DVD of his 1949 movie with that title. Also his 1973 CD including “And There Used to Be a Ballpark.”)
I’ve never understand purported baseball fans who think the sport began with, say, Bryce Harper or Steve Trout. At one point in 1995 as Cal Ripken closed in on Gehrig’s record of playing in 2,130 consecutive games, he said, “I don’t really know much about him — I’ll have to read up on Gehrig when the season is over.”
Same thing with Rickey Henderson, who once babbled, “I’ve heard of Jackie Robinson, but I don’t really know what he did.”
Say what? I guess players and readers belong to different species. Heck, there may even be guys in knickers nowadays who don’t know what Cal Ripken did except grow bald.
Two all-stars for The National Pastime Museum web site are executive director Frank Ceresi, who gathers all the material, and graphics designer Becki Hartke, who makes it look so good.
On the writing front, nine permanent historians keep the words and topics flowing. There also are contributions from such renowned scholars as Stacy Pratt McDermott, assistant director/associate editor of the Papers of Abraham Lincoln in Springfield, Ill., who tells us about a ball game between rabid supporters of Honest Abe and Stephen Douglas before the 1860 election.
And if you want to know what luckless hurler had those multi no-nos in a 5-19 season, I can and will tell you.
Check us out. You won’t be sorry.
Dick Heller is a former sports columnist for The Washington Star and The Washington Times.
