A Baseball Buffet Exhibition: July 5 – July 30

-Courtesy Photo

The Baseball Reliquary presents a sumptuous feast for the eyes, A Baseball Buffet, an exhibition at the Pasadena Central Library, 285 E. Walnut Street, from July 5-July 30, 2015. The exhibition incorporates a variety of themes and subject matter, utilizing photographs, artworks, and artifacts. Sample the dishes, or consume the full meal – we guarantee that you will leave well satisfied. Here’s a sneak peek of the entrees to be served:

For appetizers, in the North Entry display cases, “Culinary Baseball: Dishing Up the National Pastime” explores the historic relationship between food and baseball, featuring trading cards issued to promote food products; menus, napkins, and matchbooks from restaurants owned by former ballplayers; and artifacts which could only appear in the “Culinary Wing” of the Baseball Reliquary.

In the Reading Wing, the first course spotlights a couple of displays that are truly out of left field. One case will house Los Angeles artist Pat Riot’s large portrait of Baltimore Orioles slugger and Hall of Famer Eddie Murray, made of chewed bubblegum on an aluminum panel, part of a series of artworks featuring baseball heroes from his youth. An arduous and at times painful art form, indeed, but the finished work is astounding and must be seen to be believed!

In a second case in the Reading Wing will be “Greg Jezewski’s Reliquary.” Consider this display as similar to looking through a knothole and catching a glimpse of Greg’s wonderfully eclectic collection. It might even inspire you to start your own baseball reliquary!

– Courtesy Photo

On to the Humanities Wing for the next course, the viewer will travel through another dimension into a wondrous land of baseball history. The first stop, entitled “Ghosts of Hoboken,” spotlights Hoboken, New Jersey, where the first baseball game between two organized teams took place in 1846 at Elysian Fields, just a short ferry ride from Manhattan. Then we cross over into the Twilight Zone with an homage to the Hoboken Zephyrs and a robot named Casey, who just happened to be the fastest pitcher of all-time, courtesy of the bountiful imagination of one Rod Serling.

The final entrée in the Humanities Wing, “You Could Look It Up,” is a tribute to Eddie Gaedel, the patron saint of Little Leaguers, whose one at-bat for Bill Veeck’s St. Louis Browns in 1951 is the stuff of legends. On that day in Sportsman’s Park, the 3’7” Gaedel, weighing all of 65 pounds and wearing jersey number 1/8, walked into baseball immortality. In honor of his 90th birthday, the Baseball Reliquary teams with the Spokane, Washington-based Eddie Gaedel Society and its founder, 2015 Hilda Award recipient Tom Keefe, to look back at the legacy of a player who had a perfect on-base percentage and whose autograph is now worth more than Babe Ruth’s!

Dessert will be provided in the Centennial Room, where “Bingo Bango Bilko!” highlights the life and times of Los Angeles baseball luminary Steve Bilko, who will be inducted into the Baseball Reliquary’s Shrine of the Eternals on July 19.

Pasadena Central Library hours for A Baseball Buffet are Monday-Thursday, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 9 a.m to 6 p.m.; and Sunday, 1 to 5 p.m. For further information, contact the Baseball Reliquary by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net, or by phone at (626) 791-7647. For directions to the Pasadena Central Library, phone (626) 744-4066 during library hours. The exhibition is made possible, in part, by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.

Babe Ruth. – Courtesy Photo

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