Helping the Yogi Berra Museum (and myself)

While flipping through Google Reader last night, I came across a post mentioning a rummage sale of sorts at the Yogi Berra Museum at Montclair State. My first thought was, Cool! Glad I checked this post. The second thought was surprise that I hadn't heard about it sooner. (A third, momentary thought was disappointment that I'd not seen it in time to stop by yesterday, but more on that in a moment.)

Were it not for my news alert for the museum on Google, I would've missed it altogether. Our local weekly newspaper, which often has announcements of appearances and programs at the museum, had no mention of it. The only outlets that had it were the previously linked Montclair blog Baristanet and the hyper-local community site Patch.com.

Curious to see what the museum would be selling off, I stopped by this afternoon. On tables set up in the new atrium were photos from former museum displays, a few posters and banners and boxes of assorted Yankees baseball cards (sold in plastic cases of 25, most had  a recent Mariano Rivera showing on one side and an older card -- as old as a 1976 Catfish Hunter and as recent as a 2003 Jason Giambi -- on the other side, though many of the older cards were recent Topps Heritage reprints). Most of what was left was priced from $10-20, and I overheard a teenage employee or volunteer say that they had a lot of good stuff out yesterday. But not wanting to spend too much money, I was happy to have missed yesterday's expanded -- and likely more tempting -- selection.

There were only six of us there when I stopped in: two middle-aged men browsing as I was; the teenaged boy and another employee/volunteer, a middle-aged woman who stood talking with the sixth person, a woman older than she who I quickly recognized as Carmen Berra, Yogi's wife. With Yogi down in Spring Training, I guess she figured she'd stop by to see how the sale was going.

After eyeing the tables of museum-mounted photos -- many showing Yogi in various stages of his life and career, from young St. Louis sandlot player to Yankee rookie to veteran to Mets coach -- I settled on two items and passed on two others. I left behind a black-and-white photo of Paterson-raised Larry Doby in his Newark Eagles uniform ($20; similar to this photo, if not actually that photo -- unsigned, of course) because it was really heavy. Many of the photos from displays were on thick, metal slabs with wide mounting braces on the back, meaning the whole setup weighed several pounds. And because I want to display these things in my basement, with its thin paneled walls, I didn't want to have to deal with hanging too many of them. Next to Doby's photo was the famous one of Bill Mazeroski reaching the plate after his 1960 World Series-winning home run (also $20). Had I seen an image of Yogi in his Newark Bears uniform, I probably would've extended my budget.

The two purchases I did make, each for $10, were of players with New Jersey roots. The first is this 13 5/8-by-9 1/2-inch printout of Doby's 1958 Topps card. Born in South Carolina, Doby grew up in Paterson, played for the Eagles (after a tryout at Paterson's Hinchliffe Stadium) and became the first black player in the American League when he debuted with the Indians three months after Jackie Robinson did with the Dodgers. The image is a paper printout on a foam mount. There's a minor blemish -- it looks like there may have once been a description or something else taped to it -- on his cap, but that doesn't bother me.

For my second item, I did choose one of those heavy, metal-mounted and braced museum display photos. It depicts King Kelly, a Hall of Famer from the 19th Century who played for the Cincinnati Reds, Chicago White Stockings (later the Cubs), Boston Beaneaters (later the Braves) and New York Giants. He was a teammate of Cap Anson on those Chicago clubs and last August was inducted into the Irish-American Baseball Hall of Fame at Foley's NY Bar and Restaurant in New York.

The text reads: "One of four boys from Paterson, NJ to reach the major leagues together, Hall of Fame catcher/outfielder 'King Kelly' was the nation's No. 1 baseball idol in the 1880s." Measuring 13 5/8 inches by 9 inches, it is a heavy item, so I'll probably display it on one of the shelves set in the walls rather than try to hang it. Kelly was born in Troy, N.Y., but grew up in Paterson, playing for some of the semi-pro teams in the city before becoming a full-fledged professional. I bought the photo because of Kelly's New Jersey connection -- and his fabulous mustache. It's a familiar photo, found often, including on his Baseball-Reference page.

So there we go: Building my New Jersey baseball archive piece-by-piece, never knowing where the next thing will come from.

And my mom wondered why I saved so many newspapers

As a guy who once thought being an investigative journalist or baseball beat reporter was his ultimate dream job, I kept a lot of newspapers. I thought about the historical value they might have and dreamed of some large game room or memorabilia display in the sprawling house I would have based on my book profits as a well-known author (in addition to my reporting duties, of course).

After Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris' single-season home run record, I asked my friends around the country to send me a copy of their local newspapers from the next day. One college friend -- also a newspaper and baseball buff -- happened to have been visiting his girlfriend in law school in St. Louis at the time and sent me the next day's (if not the EXTRA! edition distributed at the ballpark after the game) Post-Dispatch. I then did the same thing with friends in Knoxville and Austin the morning after the Bush-Gore election, which of course wasn't decided until a month later.

I still have some of the papers from those and other events, though I sorted through them a few months ago and recycled quite a few. At this point, do I really need to see how the Los Angeles Times covered McGwire's feat, especially now that it has lost so much of its luster? But I still have papers commemorating the Mets' 2001 NLCS clincher (which I attended), their World Series Game 3 win over the Yankees, the deaths of Joe DiMaggio and Harry Caray, the Nationals' first game in Washington (which I also went to), the first day-night doubleheader played in both New York ballparks, Tom Seaver's Hall of Fame induction and some significant moments in Lakewood BlueClaws history (as much because I wrote a lot of it).

There is also an assortment of non-baseball and non-sports events: Notre Dame football in Hawaii and the Fiesta Bowl, the women's basketball national championship, the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster and the Devils' second Stanley Cup. Most of the papers are The New York Times and Asbury Park Press, but there are a few issues of the Chicago Tribune, New York Daily News, Orlando Sentinel, Arizona Republic, Washington Post and maybe even a New York Post.

Of course, the oldest of these events is the 1992 Seaver induction. Somewhere (I might not have come across it yet, or I might have ditched it because of the condition it was in), I think I have at least one of the New York tabloids from the 1986 postseason -- I believe it was Lenny Dykstra's Game 3 walk-off home run. I'm just not old enough to have anything as cool as the Daily News covering Don Larsen's perfect game. Who knows how many copies of that paper were burned up, used to wrap up fish for trucking uptown or dishes for a move, or used to cover someone's head during an unexpected downpour. But Gary Sangastiano saved his copy and soon will loan it to Montclair's Yogi Berra Museum to be put on display (Yogi, of course, caught Larsen that day).

I'll make a point to drive up Valley Road to see it, but I also hope they scan or photograph the inside pages, too. As a news nut, I'll be as interested in reading the coverage as I will be in seeing the cover in all its yellowed glory.

Yogi remembers George

I forgot to take my camera to the Yogi Berra Museum yesterday for the Hall of Famer's comments on the passing of George Steinbrenner, but it didn't matter -- there were so many TV cameras there that I didn't have much of a view. My one shot with my Droid turned out pretty well, though.

Yogi looked good, aside from his obvious sadness at Steinbrenner's death. He's 85, five years older than the Boss was, and was joined by his wife of 61 years, Carmen, and their youngest son, Dale, who I didn't recognize at first.

A few additional anecdotes from yesterday:

Yogi on Bob Sheppard:

Sheppard, he was great too. ... I loved the way he said the names, like a singer. "Mickeyyyy Mantlllle." He was a very nice man. When he came onto the field, he didn't say anything, didn't bother you that much.

Dale on his dad and Steinbrenner:

He would've liked to have played for him. My dad was one of the greatest players in the history of the game. It didn't matter who owned or managed the team when he was a player, he was going to be the best player on the field anyway. Who managed or coached was irrelevant. When you're a Hall of Famer, it doesn't manner who your manager or coach is. Just like Rickey Henderson and Winfield and Mattingly, the best players, their names are in the lineup everyday, they go out and play. It's irrelevant who the manager is. They go out and play. They respected George because he put the best players around them and gave them an opportunity to win.

Dale on his dad's firing in 1985:

Even when Dad was fired, I went into the office and he said, "Billy's going to be the manager. Play for him like you did for me. He's like an uncle to you. Same with George, go out and play hard. Don't worry about me, I'm going to be playing golf tomorrow." George is wonderful to play for. He gives you the opportunity to win and puts players together who can win.

Yogi on his job:

He called me up in the office one time and said, "Your team's not doing very well." I said, "Don't tell me this is my team. It's your team. You picked it. I didn't." [Laughing.]

Yogi on some of Steinbrenner's requirements:

Sometimes Billy would take the phone off the hook. [Steinbrenner] would call down and tell the guys to get a haircut. He didn't like long hair. Still didn't, I don't think. Swisher had that long hair and had to get it cut. And we always had to wear a jacket and tie on the plane.

Berra museum removes Clemens' jersey

While the American tenet that you are innocent until proven guilty should provide Roger Clemens with the benefit of the doubt, and while anything he may or may not have done with Brian McNamee certainly wouldn't make him the only player of the last 20 years to do such things, I see nothing wrong with the Yogi Berra Museum and Learning Center removing Clemens' jersey from a display on the Yankees' World Series run of the late 90s.

The museum director's explanation that "we have a lot of kids coming through here who are asking questions we’re not prepared to answer" really says it all. Education and children's programs have always been the focus of the museum's -- and Learning Center's -- mission, and if the young visitors are asking questions about Clemens while touring the small exhibition space, it's better to remove that which is prompting the queries. The staff and volunteers at the museum aren't necessarily in a position to answer those questions, so why risk providing an incomplete answer when the safest thing is to try to avoid the issue in the first place? I think it's pretty similar to a visit I took to Kennedy Space Center in 2003 only weeks after Columbia broke up over Texas. Our tour guide said at the beginning of our visit that she could not answer any questions about the accident because she did not have enough information. That's essentially what the Yogi Berra Museum is doing.

Besides, as the director points out, having Clemens' jersey there with those of Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera in an exhibit about the Yankees' four World Series titles from 1996 to 2000 was inaccurate because Clemens was only a Yankee for two of them. Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada would be better choices.