Eric
08-10-2006, 03:00 PM
Ted Williams Museum a Trop priority
08/10/2006 2:38 PM ET
By Dawn Klemish / MLB.com
ST. PETERSBURG -- Tropicana Field has many hidden gems past the actual game. A Louisville Slugger stand. An aquarium filled with live rays. And thanks to a little forward thinking, the entire Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame.
After baseball great Ted Williams passed away in 1999, it became more and more difficult to draw crowds to the museum, then based in Hernando, Fla. This season, the Devil Rays collaborated with museum officials to bring the exhibit to St. Petersburg so that the Hall of Famer and many famed athletes will again get the attention and recognition they deserve.
Museum director Dave McCarthy said it's been a perfect marriage.
"When Ted was alive, it was easy to get players to visit the museum because they wanted to meet him. It was like a pilgrimage," McCarthy said. "[After he died], there were days where we'd be lucky to get five fans.
"Now, there's been an overwhelmingly positive response from the fans at Tropicana Field, and it's been really great."
Set on the center-field concourse, the exhibit is home to more than memorabilia from Williams' career, military service and hobbies. It also contains large displays showcasing "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's life and that of Japanese baseball icon Sadaharu Oh. In the yet-to-be-finished gallery upstairs will soon be the entire Hitter's Hall of Fame, totaling more than 70 players.
Claudia Williams visited Tropicana Field on Aug. 5 to take in a Rays game and see her late father's museum in its new home for the first time since it opened. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"I want to thank the Devil Rays organization for honoring my dad's legacy by hosting this wonderful display of his life and career in what is just a perfect location," she said. "It's beautiful."
What she saw was 2,500 square feet of memorabilia and memories in what is an ongoing project. By the end of the year, McCarthy hopes to have completed renovations on the rest of the 10,000 square-foot area, and have all of the old museum's keepsakes on display to the public.
The end goal, McCarthy said, is to make a place that's special to baseball fans of all ages. And fun.
"Museums to me conjure up ideas of dusty, boring books," he said. "I said if I ever had a shot, I'd give the people what they want. So we made it colorful and fun."
Young visitors to the Tropicana Field museum will also be treated to memorabilia from players in their own era, such as the Wade Boggs case and Rocco Baldelli jersey. Hanging in between the two is a photo of Williams throwing out the first-ever pitch at Tropicana Field, and the autographed ball underneath. The museum also has "around $1 million" in players' bats to display, McCarthy said, such as a game-used Jackson slugger.
McCarthy said eventually he'd like to add even more hands-on activities, like providing field-trip students with cards upon entering, upon which would be the number of an athlete in the Hitter's Hall of Fame. The student's assignment, then, would be to take the card to the second floor, find the athlete's showcase and learn all they can about them.
That way, McCarthy said, students can learn to appreciate the old-time players who made the game into what it is today.
"We don't want the museum to be an antiseptic experience, we want it hands-on," McCarthy said. "We want to turn it into a fun -- but educational -- place where families can go and have there be something for everyone."
Since mid-April, the museum opens two hours before each Devil Rays home game and remains open through the last inning, and is available exclusively for those who attend Rays games. Not only is it the perfect ballpark bonus only the Rays can boast, McCarthy said, the people have been flocking, which benefits the museum as well.
"I think the museum belongs in a ballpark, because that's where the people are coming," McCarthy said. "Instead of making them look at the same T-shirts and hot dog vendors all the time, we needed to give them something fun and different.
"The new Rays officials have done an excellent job of that already, and having Ted's museum there now just makes it that much better."
08/10/2006 2:38 PM ET
By Dawn Klemish / MLB.com
ST. PETERSBURG -- Tropicana Field has many hidden gems past the actual game. A Louisville Slugger stand. An aquarium filled with live rays. And thanks to a little forward thinking, the entire Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame.
After baseball great Ted Williams passed away in 1999, it became more and more difficult to draw crowds to the museum, then based in Hernando, Fla. This season, the Devil Rays collaborated with museum officials to bring the exhibit to St. Petersburg so that the Hall of Famer and many famed athletes will again get the attention and recognition they deserve.
Museum director Dave McCarthy said it's been a perfect marriage.
"When Ted was alive, it was easy to get players to visit the museum because they wanted to meet him. It was like a pilgrimage," McCarthy said. "[After he died], there were days where we'd be lucky to get five fans.
"Now, there's been an overwhelmingly positive response from the fans at Tropicana Field, and it's been really great."
Set on the center-field concourse, the exhibit is home to more than memorabilia from Williams' career, military service and hobbies. It also contains large displays showcasing "Shoeless" Joe Jackson's life and that of Japanese baseball icon Sadaharu Oh. In the yet-to-be-finished gallery upstairs will soon be the entire Hitter's Hall of Fame, totaling more than 70 players.
Claudia Williams visited Tropicana Field on Aug. 5 to take in a Rays game and see her late father's museum in its new home for the first time since it opened. She couldn't believe her eyes.
"I want to thank the Devil Rays organization for honoring my dad's legacy by hosting this wonderful display of his life and career in what is just a perfect location," she said. "It's beautiful."
What she saw was 2,500 square feet of memorabilia and memories in what is an ongoing project. By the end of the year, McCarthy hopes to have completed renovations on the rest of the 10,000 square-foot area, and have all of the old museum's keepsakes on display to the public.
The end goal, McCarthy said, is to make a place that's special to baseball fans of all ages. And fun.
"Museums to me conjure up ideas of dusty, boring books," he said. "I said if I ever had a shot, I'd give the people what they want. So we made it colorful and fun."
Young visitors to the Tropicana Field museum will also be treated to memorabilia from players in their own era, such as the Wade Boggs case and Rocco Baldelli jersey. Hanging in between the two is a photo of Williams throwing out the first-ever pitch at Tropicana Field, and the autographed ball underneath. The museum also has "around $1 million" in players' bats to display, McCarthy said, such as a game-used Jackson slugger.
McCarthy said eventually he'd like to add even more hands-on activities, like providing field-trip students with cards upon entering, upon which would be the number of an athlete in the Hitter's Hall of Fame. The student's assignment, then, would be to take the card to the second floor, find the athlete's showcase and learn all they can about them.
That way, McCarthy said, students can learn to appreciate the old-time players who made the game into what it is today.
"We don't want the museum to be an antiseptic experience, we want it hands-on," McCarthy said. "We want to turn it into a fun -- but educational -- place where families can go and have there be something for everyone."
Since mid-April, the museum opens two hours before each Devil Rays home game and remains open through the last inning, and is available exclusively for those who attend Rays games. Not only is it the perfect ballpark bonus only the Rays can boast, McCarthy said, the people have been flocking, which benefits the museum as well.
"I think the museum belongs in a ballpark, because that's where the people are coming," McCarthy said. "Instead of making them look at the same T-shirts and hot dog vendors all the time, we needed to give them something fun and different.
"The new Rays officials have done an excellent job of that already, and having Ted's museum there now just makes it that much better."