If you haven’t found an opportunity to explore Chasing Dreams: Baseball & Becoming American, time is running out. This National Museum of American Jewish History exhibition examining how issues of culture, community and identity have played out through our national pastime is only open through September 7. This is the first exhibition I helped install at the Maltz Museum and, with its iPod stations, virtual fielding game and 145 artifacts, I can personally attest to the fact that it is packed with content. I am particularly interested in the way baseball reflected the country’s attitudes toward minorities, so here are five pieces of history in the exhibition that caught my eye:
Photo of Hilldale and Kansas City teams before first game of the first Colored World Series on October 11, 1924, and autographs of Negro League players
Loan courtesy of Baseball Heritage Museum
Four years after the Negro Leagues were established the first Colored World Series was held in Kansas City, Missouri. The Kansas City Monarchs defeated The Hilldale Club with 5 wins, 4 losses and a tie.
Ticket to opening day at Ebbets Field, April 15, 1947
Loan courtesy of Stephen Wong
This is a ticket for Jackie Robinson’s debut game with the Brooklyn Dodgers as the first African American to play in the major leagues. (Can you believe it was $1.25?)
Roberto Clemente’s Pittsburgh Pirates home jersey, 1966 (MVP year)
Loan courtesy of Stephen Wong
Clemente was the first Latino player to be inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame. There is a statue at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park commemorating his 18 seasons with the Pirates.
World Series agreement, 1903
Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, NY
This agreement has a clause written in stating that all players must be registered on the team’s roster by September 1 in order to be eligible to play in the World Series.
Chineesed Base Ball game, National Game and Toy Company, Brooklyn, NY, 1889
Courtesy of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Years after the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, this “Chineesed Base Ball” game with its racist artwork functioned as social commentary on Chinese immigrants in America.
— Lindsay Miller, Registrar and Exhibitions Coordinator
