Little League Featured In “Baseball As America” Exhibit

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The Little League glove worn by Gary Carter,a 10-time All Star and 19-year veteran of the Major Leagues, is prominent in the “Baseball as America” exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.The exhibit is organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.The glove is on loan from the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum in Williamsport, Pa.

NEW YORK (March 14, 2002) – Little League Baseball is featured prominently in Baseball As America, a major exhibition at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. 

A baseball glove worn by Gary Carter during his Little League days is on loan to the exhibition from the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum in Williamsport, Pa., home of Little League Baseball. Mr. Carter played 19 seasons in the Major Leagues, and was a 10-time All Star. He played Little League Baseball in West Fullerton, Calif., in the 1960s, and won the Bill Shea Distinguished Little League Graduate Award in 1993.

Included in the display is sheet music from “Little League – Official March of Little League Baseball” from 1957. There also is a photo of the 1964 Little League Baseball World Series championship team, Mid Island Little League of Long Island, N.Y., as the team is given a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan.

The display includes the following information: “Little League, founded in 1939, is not baseball’s oldest youth group, but probably is the best known. Some 2.5 million kids play in 100 countries. Most come just for fun. A few find careers. Gary Carter is one of many professionals who graduated from Little League to the majors.”

A barbershop quartet serenades visitors during the opening of the “Baseball as America” exhibit.

The exhibition is organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. It examines the relationship between baseball and American culture, and marks the first time that the Hall of Fame has permitted its priceless treasures to leave their legendary home in Cooperstown, N.Y. The national tour of Baseball As America is sponsored by Ernst & Young LLP.

“We’re proud to be a part of such a prestigious exhibition,” Stephen D. Keener, president and chief executive officer of Little League Baseball, said. “Little League, too, has left an indelible mark on culture over the past 63 years – not only in America but around the world. With Little Leaguers now playing on six continents, it has become a force unifying people of many backgrounds.”

Michael Miller, curator and facilities manager for the Peter J. McGovern Little League Museum, was on hand during the opening of the “Baseball as America” exhibit. Here, Mike stands next to the display case containing three Little League-related items.

The exhibition includes approximately 500 of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s most precious artifacts. Among the highlights of the exhibition are:

• The game’s most sacred relic, the Doubleday Ball, from baseball’s mythic first game in 1839

• Jackie Robinson’s 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers jersey 

• A variety of artifacts from the All American Girls Professional Baseball League 

• Record-setting bats from the Mark McGwire-Sammy Sosa home run chase of 1998, as well as those of Babe Ruth (home run No. 60 in 1927) and Roger Maris (home run No. 61 in 1961)

• Franklin Roosevelt’s January 15, 1942, “Green Light” letter calling for the continuation of professional baseball as a way to heighten morale during World War II 

• Norman Rockwell’s 1949 painting The Three Umpires

• The “Wonder Boy” bat from the movie The Natural 

• A 1908 Edison recording of “Casey at the Bat” 

• “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s shoes 

• The most valuable baseball card in the world, the T206 Honus Wagner.

The exhibition continues at the American Museum of Natural History through Aug. 18, then moves to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Sept. 21 through Jan. 5, 2003. It is scheduled for a multi-city tour through 2005, including stops in Chicago, Cincinnati, St. Petersburg (Fla.), Washington and St. Louis.

For more information on the “Baseball as America”exhibition, visit http://www.baseballasamerica.org.