LOS ANGELES – Currently on display at the Central Library of Los Angeles until the end of November in an exhibition called “The Common Thing”. Maybe there’s a San Diego Chicken costume, a half-smoked cigar from Babe Ruth – maybe? ability? – obtained from a Philadelphia brothel in 1924 and a baseball signed by Mother Teresa. The real Mother Teresa? Well… maybe not.
Artifacts are on loan from Baseball Beliequary, an institution that truly blends magic and whimsy with deep reverence. Its vibe lands somewhere near the intersection of Cooperstown and Ripley’s Believe It or Not.
The stories these gems tell belong to the times – now, poignantly, so does Terry Cannon, human worker, caring, master, man of curiosity, energy and passion His passion for his projects is boundless. The non-profit Beliequary was Cannon’s brainchild in 1996. Then, the Shrine of the Eternals, a kind of distant and mischievous cousin came to the Baseball Hall of Fame, in 1999.
The last few years have been difficult. Pandemic hits, followed by Cannon died of cancer in August 2020. Neil (2008), Marvin Miller (2003) and Charlie Brown (2017).
During this summer All Stars baseball plays at Dodger Stadium and past greats like Gil Hodges, Tony Oliva, Jim Kaat, Minnie Miñoso and O’Neil are honored in Cooperstown, the recent silence raised concerns that the Eternal Temple may have been permanently silenced.
“Absolutely not,” said Mary Cannon, Terry’s widow and accomplice, noting the beginnings of a sensational comeback. “It’s very much in the works.”
The website, which has been dark since January due to technical issues, resumed in early July. And Shrine’s 2020 class will be introduced on November 5 during a public ceremony at the Library’s Taper Auditorium. The Los Angeles Center, concurrently with the closing of the six-month exhibition the following day. That class – broadcaster Bob Costas; Rube Foster, known as the Father of Black Baseball; and Max Patkin, “The Clown Prince of Baseball” – paused for almost two years.
“It’s amazing,” said Costas, who, like many others, thinks the car has gone missing because of the pandemic. “But I better show up, because I’m the only one still alive. This is the Shrine of the Eternals, and the other two are in eternity. “
Baseball Beliequary highlights the game’s art, culture, and character through statistics and is funded in part by a grant from the Los Angeles County Arts Commission. Thousands of books, periodicals, periodicals, historical journals, artefacts, original paintings, and correspondence are now housed at the Whittier College Baseball Institute.
“Terry and I conceived, agreed to and enhanced it,” said Joe Price, who accepted a request from Cannon before his death to take over and run Beliequary. With his infectious enthusiasm and hidden smile, Price seemed like a natural choice.
Now an emeritus professor of religious studies at Whitter, Price, along with Charles Adams, retired professor of English at Whittier, have dedicated the pandemic to organizing and cataloging a collection of more than 4,000 books. according to the standards of the US Library of Congress.
Within is a place where history and historical fiction mix happily. That’s where the captured Moe Berg, who later worked as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, made her way through the 1979 Chicago Disco Demolition Night – with mementos from each of them. repository. Alas, the yukata jacket Berg “probably” wore in Japan and a partially melted vinyl record “supposedly” from Comiskey Park appear to have lost its credentials over the years.
Ron Shelton, Bull Durham writer and director, said: “Academy Awards are always won by movie stars, but other people bring them water and make them look better – human actors characters, more interesting than movie stars,” said Ron Shelton, who wrote and directed Bull Durham. Shelton introduced Steve Dalkowski, the inspiration for the Nuke LaLoosh character in the film, into the Shrine in 2009. “In a way, the Hall of Fame honors movie stars, even though a lot of them are. are reprehensible characters. The Beliequary is about all that isn’t a movie star.”
Shelton and Cannon met while participating in experimental film groups in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s.
“He’s amazingly brilliant,” said Shelton, whose book on the creation of Bull Durham, “The Church of Baseball,” was published this month. “I use it strangely in the most positive way. Not only did he have his own drummer, he also had a vision that went with it. Beliequary is truly a work of imagination. The archive lives in your mind and sometimes in your heart.”
Shrine’s inaugural class in 1999 included Curt Flood, who took MLB to court to protest a reserve clause that prevented player movement; Dock Ellis, perhaps best known for his claims to have missed the target while using high LSD but was also a civil rights advocate; and Bill Veeck, maverick owner, master performer.
At the ceremony, Cannon read a letter Ellis received from Jackie Robinson praising his civil rights work, warning him that everyone in and out of the game would eventually turn against him. Ellis was moved to tears. He then donated a set of his curling irons.
It’s authentic, as are burlap peanut bags “packaged for Gaylord Perry’s peanut farm.” The sacrificial box used by a priest at St. Patrick’s Church in New York to perform the final rites for a dying Babe Ruth in 1948? The jock strap was worn by Eddie Gaedel, the smallest person to appear in an MLB match “intentionally” at 3 feet 7 inches? With twinkling eyes, Price says the provenance of some of these items is “certainly questionable.”
Mary Cannon said: “You know, what’s really hard to find is a kid-sized jock strap. “We went to a lot of stores to find that thing.”
By definition, the word “Relquary” means “a vessel containing relics”. For Terry Cannon and his disciples, more important than the actual authenticity of these “relics” were idea their.
A simple image like a product from the grocery store can be a powerful impetus to spark the imagination. As a joke while he was at AA Williamsport in 1987, catcher Dave Bresnahan sent a potato into the left court in a mock pitch to fool an opponent running from the third base into the field. home. A distant nephew of Hall of Fame player Roger Bresnahan, Dave is waiting for the runner with the ball on his home court. He was released immediately and never played again. In the memo, Mary Cannon carved two potatoes – at least one of which is still alive in storage here in a Mason jar.
“We didn’t realize that formaldehyde would turn them dark brown,” she said, adding: “There were all these great stories but nothing there, so we tried to make these. tangible things for people to see.”
Even in the baseball industry, some people are not familiar with Beliequary. Nancy Faust, the retired Chicago White Sox organist who created instrumental music for guitarists, had to look up when she received a call to recommend in 2018.
“My husband, Joe, said, ‘What is this, some kind of joke? A baseball aquarium? ‘” Faust said. “I said, ‘There’s nothing surprising about it.’ When I knew who was going with me, I thought, ‘Wow! Those are some pretty good companies. ‘ I feel honored to be remembered.”
Faust was introduced in 2018, alongside Tommy John and Rusty Staub.
“Rusty Staub is a perfect man, isn’t he?” Costas said. “He’s not exactly a Hall of Famer, but he’s an important player. There are other players that aren’t as important, but you put Rusty Staub in before you put Chet Lemon in because Rusty Staub is ‘Le Grande Orange.’
Dr. Frank Jobe, inventor of the Tommy John surgery, before the introduction of the vase into the Shrine in 2012. There was a spaceman (Bill Lee, 2000) and a bird (Mark Fidrych, 2002). There is also rich diversity in Jackie Robinson (2005) and his widow, Rachel (2014), the first female referee, Pam Postema (2000), and several Negro Leagues representatives.
Bouton once referred to the Shrine as “the People’s Hall of Fame, and traditionally, the struggles begin with Terry Cannon leading the audience in the sound of cow dumbbells in memory of Hilda Chester, presumably the The most famous fan in history.
As Cannon noted at the 2018 ceremony, Chester’s reputation began to fade when the Dodgers left Brooklyn for Los Angeles and “while she may have died relatively obscurely in 1978, in the community of Our fans, Hilda is royal. And through our annual memorial service, we can rest assured that the final bell has yet to ring for Hilda Chester. “
Turns out there’s also no such thing for the sustainable car. According to Shelton’s memory, the poet WD Snodgrass himself, when speaking, often told his audience that every time he told a story, it was the truth.
“Then he would pause,” Shelton said. “And say, ‘I don’t know if it’s true, but it’s better than the truth.’ That’s what art does. It’s better than the truth. And that’s where Beliequary lives.”
