THREE BASEBALL EXHIBITIONS TO OPEN AT THE ALBANY

Albany Institute of History & Art

125 Washington Avenue Albany, NY 12210

T: (518) 463-4478; F: (518) 462-1522

www.albanyinstitute.org

www.facebook.com/albanyinstitute

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NEWS

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 22, 2015

CONTACT:

W. Tammis Groft Aine Leader-Nagy

Executive Director Marketing Associate

grofttk@albanyinstitute.org leader.nagya@albanyinstitute.org

(518) 463-4478 ext 423 (518) 463-4478 ext 408

THREE BASEBALL EXHIBITIONS TO OPEN AT THE

ALBANY INSTITUTE OF HISTORY & ART

Triple Play: Baseball at the Albany Institute will run February 7–July 26, 2015

ALBANY, NY– Opening day comes early to the Capital Region as the Albany Institute of History

& Art presents Triple Play! Baseball at the Albany Institute. Triple Play! consists of three

exhibitions celebrating the history of baseball and each contains nationally or regionally

significant materials, such as photographs, signed bats and balls, stadium seats, trophies,

pennants, jerseys, and more. In addition, there is an exciting roster of related events with

guest speakers, family activity days, creative contests, and free admission opportunities.

The centerpiece is Baseball: America’s Game, organized by the Bank of America’s Art in our

Communities program. It is a traveling exhibition from Bank of America’s baseball collection.

This multimedia exhibition features more than ninety historic photographs, illustrations,

baseball artifacts, and audio/video installations from the past one hundred years that bring to

life the history of this American sport. It is complemented by two community-supported

exhibitions, Play Ball! Baseball in the Capital Region and The Clubhouse: Baseball

Memorabilia. Play Ball! explores the area’s rich history of baseball. Almost one hundred

historic objects and images highlight Capital Region baseball from the 1860s to the present.

The Clubhouse includes rare objects and well-cherished pieces of memorabilia collected by

community members.

“This is the first time the Albany Institute has presented an exhibition about baseball and it’s

been a wonderful excuse to search our archives and see what the museum has collected over the

years that relates to the region’s baseball history,” says Executive Director Tammis Groft. “But

the really exciting part has been working with people from the community who know and love

baseball history to help put this exhibition together.” She adds, “It’s been a team effort right from

the start. We were fortunate to work with Siena College student and fall curatorial intern Andrew

Lang, who is largely responsible for the research and the preparation of exhibition script for the

two exhibitions organized by the museum. His enthusiasm and passion for baseball history

helped confirmed what we guessed- that baseball aficionados would like to know more about the

Capital Region’s baseball history and see materials they haven’t had the chance to see. Play Ball

and The Clubhouse will display items that haven’t been on public view before and it’s the result of

outreach to private collectors and area museums. The Capital Region as a whole has had some

fascinating baseball history and we are thrilled to present these stories and artifacts to the

public.”

“For instance,” Groft continues, “we were lucky enough to connect with the relatives of Mellie

(Meldon) Wolfgang, an Albany native who played for the Albany Senators and went on to play

several seasons with the Chicago White Sox. His 1917 World Series uniform and some of his other

major league items will be on view. It’s a great example of how Capital Region baseball connected

with the national scene.”

Contributors to the exhibition (as of January 21, 2015) include: the Albany Twilight League,

Joe Aliteri, Dick Barrett, Ben Bradley, Barbara Casey, David Colchamiro, Mark Curiale, Matt

Daskalakis, Robert Davey, Elsa G. de Beer, Albert R. De Salvo, Carol and Dennis Fitzgerald, Jim

Featherstonhaugh, Fort Orange Club, Chris Hunter, Mike Jacobson, Jeff Lang, Pam Lake, Bill

Lawton, Steve Lobel, Nancy Lynk, Micki and Peter McAllister, MiSci Museum of Innovation

and Science, Chuck Miller, Joshua Nagy, Stephen Nagy, Victor Oberting III, David Pietrusza,

Private Collection, Hallee Mee Quinn, Rensselaer County Historical Society, Lenny Ricchiuti,

Peter Rokeach, Bunny and Phil Savino, Schenectady County Historical Society- Grems-

Doolittle Library, Frank Staucet, David Swawite, Tim Wiles, J.C. Williams, Jr., MD, the family of

Meldon J. Wolfgang III, Thomas Yovine, and the Tri-City ValleyCats.

Baseball: America’s Game is sponsored by Bank of America Art in our Communities Program.

Play Ball! A History of Baseball in the Capital Region is sponsored by Courtney and Victor

Oberting III. The Clubhouse: Baseball Memorabilia is sponsored by Lois and David Swawite.

Triple Play! Baseball at the Albany Institute is sponsored by an Anonymous Donor, Michael &

Margaret Picotte Foundation, CDPHP, Times Union, the Albany County Convention and

Visitors Bureau, and Wallace and Jane Altes.

The Albany Institute of History & Art will host an opening reception for Triple Play on Friday,

February 6, 2015 from 5-8PM. The reception is free and open to the public, but RSVPs should

be made to (518) 463-4478 ext 403. There will also be a special lecture on Sunday, February 8

at 2PM with John Thorn, Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball. Tickets to the

lecture are $10 per person and may be purchased online at www.albanyinstitute.org. Seating

is limited. (More information about upcoming events are included near the end of this

release).

The Albany Institute of History & Art is located at 125 Washington Avenue in Albany, New York.

Free parking is available in the museum’s lot at the corner of Elk and Dove Streets. The museum

is open Wednesday-Saturday 10AM-5PM, Thursdays until 8PM*, and Sunday Noon-5PM. On

Tuesdays, the museum is open to registered groups only. The museum is closed on Mondays and

some holidays. *AIHA now offers free admission on Thursdays from 5PM-8PM.

Admission is free for Institute members; $10/adults; $8/seniors; $8/students with ID; $6/children

6-12; FREE/children under 6. Bank of America and Merrill Lynch card holders get free admission

to the Albany Institute of History & Art on the first weekends of the months that Triple Play!

Baseball at the Albany Institute is open (February through July 2015). This is part of Bank of

America’s Museums on Us program. You can learn more about this program on their website,

http://museums.bankofamerica.com/.

For more information, visit www.albanyinstitute.org or call (518) 463-4478.

* * * * *

Founded in 1791, the Albany Institute of History & Art is New York’s oldest museum. Its collections document the

Hudson Valley as a crossroads of culture, influencing the art and history of the region, the state, and the nation. With

more than 35,000 objects and one million documents in the library, it is an important resource for the region, giving

our community a sense of the part the Hudson Valley played in the American story, and our own place in history.

Permanent and temporary exhibitions are open year-round and create a sense of place, allowing visitors to meet the

people who helped shape this region. Over 25,000 people visit the Albany Institute of History & Art every year,

enjoying the collections, workshops, school programs, and lectures, helping to build an understanding of the history

and culture of our region. Among the museum’s best-known and most-loved collections are the 19

century Hudson

River School landscape paintings by artists like Thomas Cole and Frederic Church, the 19

century sculpture

collections, and, of course, the famous Albany Mummies that came to the museum in 1909 and have been on view

ever since. For more information, please visit www.albanyinstitute.org and be sure to follow us on Facebook

(www.facebook.com/albanyinstitute) and Twitter (@AlbanyInstitute).

THE EXHIBITIONS

Baseball: America’s Game

Baseball is part of our shared heritage, something that helps define the American experience.

It infuses our popular culture, our literature, and our politics- our everyday lives. The game

evokes childhood- both our own, and the nation’s. Baseball was born in the mid-nineteenth

century, and its rhythms echo that bygone era; for all the high-tech trappings of the modern

age, baseball is at its essence the same game you could have watched being played by

barefoot kids in an Ohio pasture, circa 1890.

This exhibition celebrates baseball’s place in the American story- its portrayal, in arts and

letters, as the game and the nation have grown up together. Photographers such as Wayne

Miller and Terry Evans capture the game as it’s played on sandlots and suburban diamonds,

and writers from John Updike to Jimmy Breslin have chronicled the heroics and the hilarity of

the sport. And thanks to illustrators such as Norman Rockwell, J.C. Leyendecker and Lonie

Bee, baseball graced the covers of Collier’s Weekly, The Saturday Evening Post and many

other magazines of a time long past.

Baseball’s most electrifying moments live on in iconic photographs and in the frenzied poetry

of a radio announcer’s voice, many on view and available to listen to in the exhibition. Bobby

Thomson’s “Shot Heard ’Round the World,” Don Larsen’s perfect game, Stan Musial’s 3000th

hit – captured forever on film and audio, and so live on in our collective memory.

The game came of age during the Linotype era, flourishing during the mid-twentieth century

when a magazine featuring Ted Williams or Willie Mays on the cover was guaranteed to sell

out. One of the greatest baseball feats of the last twenty years – Cal Ripken, Jr.’s setting a

new “Iron Man” record for consecutive games played – is preserved here in offset plates from

The Baltimore Sun, history captured for all time in three-tenths of a millimeter of aluminum.

Baseball helped give birth to American sportswriting, spawning a distinguished fraternity that

includes the likes of Ring Lardner, Grantland Rice and Roger Angell. Even so, some of the

finest baseball commentary has been written by non-sportswriters; it is a mark of the game’s

broad appeal that poets like Marianne Moore, historians like Doris Kearns Goodwin and

former ball players like Jim Bouton have all put pen to paper in its tribute. One of the best-

known chroniclers of the game uses not a pen but a camera: documentary filmmaker Ken

Burns, whose Baseball and The Tenth Inning offer a lovingly exhaustive history of the National

Pastime.

The familiar baseball shrines of yesterday have, one by one, given way to the stately pleasure

domes of a new age. Of the 26 major-league stadiums in use back in 1982 – preserved in Jim

Dow’s classic series of photographs – only six remain open for business today. At a time when

we most needed heroes, major-league baseball provided the nation with them – and many

are captured here in George Brace’s elegant photographic portraits.

Play Ball! A History of Baseball in the Capital Region

Play Ball! chronicles the Capital Region’s baseball history. It features close to 100 baseball

artifacts, many on public view for the first time. The Capital Region has significant firsts in the

national pastime, ties to legendary players, local ballparks, and deep-rooted amateur and

professional teams. Archival photographs, rare game footage, signed bats and balls, historic

jerseys, stadium seats, score cards, posters, and more help show how baseball was integrated

into the community and how the community has helped preserve that history.

Organized baseball in the Capital Region dates to the 1860s. In 1871, the Troy Haymakers

joined the first professional major league featuring the first Jewish major league player, Lip

Pike, and the first Hispanic major league player, Esteban Enrique Bellan. Several early Hall of

Famers played on the National League Troy Trojans, while in Schenectady the Mohawk

Colored Giants were the area’s best-known black baseball team.

Perhaps the region’s best known minor league team was the Albany Senators. They played

major league teams like the Yankees in barn-storming games at Albany’s Hawkins Stadium

that featured Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Yogi Berra. Hawkins is famous for being the first

ballpark in the Capital District to have field lights installed by General Electric of Schenectady.

Founded in 1930, the Albany Twilight League (ATL) is the oldest continuously running amateur

baseball league in the county. The league got its name from its propensity to begin games in

the evening, illuminated by the sunset. In the late 1930s the Albany Black Sox joined the ATL,

making the league one of the earliest to incorporate black teams into their structure. In 2012,

the ATL’s Albany Athletics won their first American Amateur Baseball Congress Stan Musial

World Series.

In the mid-1980s, the Albany-Colonie Yankees played at Heritage Park in Colonie. In the early

1990s, the team featured many future Yankee players, including Bernie Williams, Jorge

Posada, Any Pettitte, Mariano Rivera, and Derek Jeter.

The semi-professional Albany-Colonie Diamond Dogs played at Heritage Park from 1995 to

2002. That same year, the Tri-City Valley Cats, the A affiliate of the Houston Astros, began

playing at Joe Bruno Stadium in Troy. The Valley Cats won the New York-Penn League

championship in 2010 and 2013 and continue to cultivate an enthusiastic spirit for baseball

among Capital Region fans.

The Clubhouse: Baseball Memorabilia

Baseball fans (short for “fanatics”) are like curators. They assemble collections that speak to

their love of the game. The Clubhouse includes rare objects and well-cherished pieces of

memorabilia collected by community members.

There are balls signed by Joe DiMaggio and President Richard Nixon, seats from Yankee

Stadium and Fenway Park, a locker from Shea Stadium, players’ jerseys including a signed

jersey that belonged to Mets pitcher Tom Seaver, signs, scorecards, and a dugout lineup card.

There’s even a larger-than-life letter E from Yankee Stadium’s façade.

In addition, there are pieces of “fandom” like World Series ticket stubs, team pennants,

baseball cards from major, minor, and women’s leagues, pins, photographs, posters,

programs, and materials from major league teams past and present. Also featured are

contemporary works by New York State artists. More may be added as the community

continues to contribute to this show.

PROGRAMMING AND EVENTS

PUBLIC PROGRAMS

GALLERY TALKS

Most Saturdays and Sundays February – April at 1PM

 Free with museum admission

LECTURE– Baseball: America's Game

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 8 | 2PM

John Thorn, Official Baseball Historian for Major League Baseball

In a run through the game’s history, Thorn will show how baseball has been, most often for better but

occasionally for worse, the American game. It has mirrored our society, sometimes propelling it with

models for democracy, community, commerce, and common humanity, sometimes lagging behind

with equally instructive models of futility and resistance to change. Baseball in no small measure

defines us as Americans, connecting us with our countrymen across all barriers of generation, class,

race, and creed. Tickets for this special lecture are $10 per person and will be available for purchase

at www.albanyinstitute.org. Seating is limited.

LECTURE– Building a Home for Baseball

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22 | 2PM

Janet Marie Smith, Senior Vice President Planning and Development, LA Dodgers

Janet Marie Smith is an architect and urban planner who is supervising renovation of Dodger Stadium

in LA. She has worked for the Baltimore Orioles and the Atlanta Braves to oversee the design and

construction of Camden Yards (1992) and Turner Field (1997) and for the Boston Red Sox and the Los

Angeles Dodgers to direct the renovations of Fenway Park and Dodger Stadium. While she is best

known in the baseball world for the ground breaking urbanity of Camden Yards, people in Red Sox

Nation know her as one of the saviors of Fenway Park, the oldest park in Major League Baseball. Free

with museum admission

STORYTELLING– Tales from Baseball’s Archives

SUNDAY, MARCH 1 | 2PM

Tim Wiles, Director, Guilderland Public Library

Can you name the two men who had Hall of Fame Careers that began in 1995 and ended in

2014? That's right! Derek Jeter and Tim Wiles, former Director of Research at the National Baseball

Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. Tim will regale you with behind-the-scenes stories

involving Ted Williams, Bob Feller, Warren Spahn, and many more. Tales of incredible serendipity,

great humor, and pure love for the game will be shared. Don't miss this exciting baseball storytelling

event. Free with museum admission

FILM AND DISCUSSION– Local Heroes: Baseball on Capital District Diamonds (54

min.,WMHT, 1995)

Thursday, March 12 | 6 PM

David Pietrusza, Producer, screenwriter and award-winning author

Local Heroes combines exhaustive research, rare archival film footage, fascinating still photography

and revealing original interviews to bring viewers the area's diamond history, from its mythical

beginnings with Ballston Spa native Abner Doubleday to Heritage Park in Colonie--and everything in

between. Following the screening, Pietrusza will discuss making the film. Free admission

LECTURE– Double Play: Baseball and the Forms of Fiction

SUNDAY, MARCH 15 | 2 PM

Randall T. Craig, Professor and Chair, Department of English, University at Albany

Novels about baseball stand out in literary history as famous baseball games and players do in the

history of the United States. The fiction of Ring Lardner and Mark Harris, Philip Roth and Bernard

Malamud, Robert Coover and Michael Joyce, among others, documents the evolution of a genre—and

a nation. Free with museum admission

PANEL DISCUSSION– Albany’s Twilight League

SUNDAY, MARCH 22 | 2 PM

With Edward Delanty, Dick Barrett, and others and moderated by journalist and author Paul

Grondahl

Established in 1930, Albany’s Twilight League is one of the oldest competitive amateur leagues in our

nation. Join the foremost experts on its history for a rousing discussion about the people and places

that makes the league an integral part of our city’s social fabric. Free with museum admission

SPECIAL EVENT– Baseball Trivia Night

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 8 | 6 PM

Hosted by the Times Union Sports Editorial Team

So you think you and your friends know something about baseball? Join us opening week for an

exciting baseball trivia challenge and test your game! Prizes will be awarded. Teams may include up to

four people.

Tickets: $25 non-members; $20 members (Tickets include baseball cards that may be traded for

refreshments and beer) Please note that space is limited, and pre-registration is strongly

suggested. Register online at albanyinstitute.org.

LECTURE AND BOOKSIGNING –Black Baseball Entrepreneurs, 1902-1931: The Rise and Fall of

the Negro National and Eastern Colored Leagues

SUNDAY, APRIL 12 | 2 PM

Michael E. Lomax, Independent Scholar

Lomax, the author of numerous books and articles on the racial divide in American sports and the

struggle for equality on and off the field will discuss his latest book Black Baseball Entrepreneurs

published by Syracuse University Press in 2014. Free with museum admission

LECTURE– Babe Ruth in Albany

SUNDAY, APRIL 19 | 2 PM

Frank M. Keetz, Author and Historian

Local author and baseball historian Frank Keetz will relate tales about George Herman "Babe" Ruth,

who came to Albany with Yankees teammate Lou Gehrig, and met with local politicians including John

Boyd Thacher. Free with museum admission

FAMILY PROGRAMS

Art For All

MOST SATURDAYS, FEBRUARY – APRIL | 10AM-4:30 PM

Bring your family to the museum and express your creative side in our drop-in art making sessions.

Activities include creating your own baseball cards, collage, painting, and more! Free with museum

admission

Lego® Building Challenge

2015 Theme - Baseball

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 14 | 11AM AND 2PM

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 15 | 1PM

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16 | 11AM AND 2PM

Brings friends, family, and colleagues to work together to create beautiful LEGO ® structures. This

year’s theme is Baseball. Let your imagination run wild and compete for prizes with teams from across

the Capital Region. Basic building blocks will be supplied; however, contestants may also bring in their

own.

 Registration Fee: $5 per person, which includes museum admission (Teams may include up to

four people.) Please note that space is limited and pre-registration is required. Register online

at albanyinstitute.org.

FAMILY PROGRAM–Baseball in Winter Family Day

SUNDAY, MARCH 29 | NOON–4:30PM

2PM Performances of “Casey at the Bat” and “Take Me Out to the Ball Game”

Can’t wait for opening day? Tour our exhibitions, stop by the studio to make a pennant for your

favorite team and at 2PM watch baseball poetry and music expert Tim Wiles, former Director of

Research at the Baseball Hall of Fame, perform his costumed recitation of the classic "Casey at the

Bat" by Ernest Lawrence Thayer, followed by a rendition of Take Me Out to the Ball Game, including

the two verses you probably have never heard. Wiles has performed "Casey" thousands of times, and

wrote a book on Take Me Out to the Ball Game upon its centennial in 2008. He is now Director of the

Guilderland Public Library. Free with museum admission

Vacation Art Break: Lively Logos! (Ages 6-12)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 17 – THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19 | 9AM – NOON

 $60 non-members; $45 members (Tuition includes materials and museum admission.)

Registration is required and space is limited. Register online www.at albanyinstitute.org.

Vacation Art Break: Put On Your Game Face! (Ages 6-12)

TUESDAY, APRIL 7 – THURSDAY, APRIL 9 | 9AM – NOON

 $60 non-members; $45 members (Tuition includes materials and museum admission.)

Registration is required and space is limited. Register online at www.albanyinstitute.org.

FAMILY PROGRAM–Everybody in the Game Family Day

SUNDAY, APRIL 26 | NOON-4:30 PM

Noon: Screening of A League of Their Own (1992)

2PM: Presentation by author Sue Macy

Tour our exhibitions, stop by the studio to create your own team logo, and hear award-winning author

Sue Macy talk about her book “The Story of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League” in

which she uncovered the true story behind the movie, A League of Their Own. Copies of Sue’s books

will be available for purchase and signing in the museum shop. Free with museum admission

SMAPLE IMAGES Baseball: America’s Game

Jim Dow (American, b. 1942),

Minnesota Twins, Humphrey

Metrodome, from The American

League Stadiums, 1982, portfolio,

color coupler panortamic triptych,

11 ¼” x 27

1/8

” , collection of Bank

of America

Ernest C. Withers (American, 1922-

2007), Ernie Banks (sitting), Larry Doby,

Matty Brescia, Jackie Robinson,

Martin’s Stadium 1953, gelatin silver

print, 16” x 20”, Collection of Bank of

America

Sandlot Baseball, by Wayne Miller (b.

1918), 1948, gelatin silver print,

Collection of Bank of America

SAMPLE IMAGES Play Ball! Baseball in the Capital Region

LEFT: Robert Chappelle, Albany

Senators, c. 1908-1910, AIHA

Library, Shillinglaw Collection,

PC 1.29

RIGHT: Meldon Wolfgang,

Albany Senators, c. 1908-1910,

AIHA Library, Shillinglaw

Collection, PC 1.30

National Nine, of

Albany, 1866

Haines & Wikes

Albumen Print on Card

Paper, c. 1866,

Collection of the Fort

Orange Club

Babe Ruth, Albany Mayor

Thacher, Lou Gehrig at Hawkins

Stadium, 1929, from the

Museum of Innovation and

Science, General Electric