Former big league pitcher Jim Maloney is in the midst of visiting some of the more recognizable and respected spots in America – Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Wrigley Field and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Accompanied by his wife Lyn, the 72-year-old former fireballer made a stop at the Cooperstown shrine on Thursday from their home in Fresno Calif. For Maloney, it was his first visit since he came with the Cincinnati Reds to participate in the 1967 Hall of Fame Game against the Baltimore Orioles.

Former Reds and Angels pitcher Jim Maloney (right) gets a tour of the Hall of Fame Library from Senior Curator Tom Shieber on Thursday in Cooperstown. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

“It’s just unbelievable,” he said after touring the Museum and archive. “I had been here in 1967, and all I remember is going to little Doubleday Field. We didn’t go through the Museum and I don’t know why. We bused in from Utica, N.Y. and after the game we bused back.

“But I have a son-in-law that came through here last summer and he just marveled about the place. And now I can see it’s everything that you dream about. It’s a wonderful, wonderful place.”

Maloney ended his 12-year big league career, spent mostly with the Reds, in 1971. A high school shortstop, he made the successful transition to pitcher and dominated the National League for a number of years before injuries forced him to retire in his early 30s.

“I was blessed with a strong arm. Somehow I could always throw the ball harder than anybody my age or anybody that was three or four years older than I was,” he said. “I would say my fastball was in the high 90s, but I had an excellent curve to go along with my fastball,  just like Sandy Koufax.

“There were a lot of good pitchers when I played – Bob Gibson, Juan Marichal, Don Drysdale, and Sandy Koufax. Every ballclub had a guy that could fire that ball. That was the deal in those days. I was glad I came along when I did.”

Maloney finished with a 134-84 record, a 3.19 ERA, and 1,605 strikeouts in 1,849 innings pitched. A two-time 20-game winner, he won at least 12 games every season from 1963 to 1969. His best campaign may have come in 1963, when the righty compiled a 23-7 record with a 2.77 ERA and 265 strikeouts.

“I had a goal when I started of having a 20-win season, and I did that a couple times,” Maloney said, “and I had a goal of playing in the All-Star Game, and I did that one time, and I wanted to pitch a no-hitter, and I was fortunate to do that a couple of times, and play in a World Series, and I got to do that in 1961.

“So overall, outside of an injury cutting my career short, the only goal I didn’t achieve was winning 200 games, and I just fell a little short of that one.”

Maloney not only tossed two no-hitters, but also lost another one in the 11^th inning. Today, his glove used in a 10-inning no-hitter against the Chicago Cubs in 1965 is on display in the Museum’s “One for the Books: Baseball Records and the Stories Behind Them” exhibit.

“I wondered where that glove went,” Maloney joked. “It’s really an honor to go and see your name in the Museum and the glove you had when you threw a no-hitter on display.”

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

History comes alive every day at the Baseball Hall of Fame – and not just baseball history.

Nearly 600 middle and high school students from throughout the Empire State converged in Cooperstown on Monday to compete in the annual New York History Day contest.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Bullpen Theater, Learning Center, and Library Conference Room were some of the village locations that saw students present their papers, documentaries, exhibits, websites and performances. The Fenimore Art Museum, the Farmers’ Museum and the Otesaga Hotel also played host to the day’s events, which concluded with an awards ceremony at the Cooperstown Middle/High School.

As one of the judges for Senior (grades 9-12) Group Documentary, I was privileged to see the extraordinary work produced by a number of highly motivated and eager students. The final result, documentaries of no more than 10 minutes, involved a wide variety of topics such as Apollo 11, Henry Ford’s assembly line, New York City’s subway system, the smallpox vaccine, and Sputnik.

New York State History Day, an educational outreach program of the New York State Historical Association, is a year-long history education program that challenges students in sixth through 12th grade to produce “exceptional scholarship” on topics related to an annual theme. This year’s theme was “Turning Points in History: People, Ideas, Events.” Students presented their projects to a panel of judges in a series of competitions starting at the local level. by a number of highly motivated and eager students. The final result, documentaries of no more than 10 minutes, involved a wide variety of topics such as Apollo 11, Henry Ford’s assembly line, New York City’s subway system, the smallpox vaccine, and Sputnik.

Not only did the young scholars have to research their topics, but in the case of the documentary option I witnessed, had to produce an engaging and informative film. Using photos, videos or interviews they conducted, one could tell by viewing the final product that each of the participants spent countless hours for a well-received final result.

Students who placed first and second in their categories in Cooperstown are eligible to compete at National History Day in College Park, Md., in June.

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The Society for American Baseball Research’s Nineteenth Century Committee held its fifth annual Frederick Ivor-Campbell Base Ball Conference at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Bullpen Theater over two days last week, beginning Friday afternoon and continuing all day Saturday. For the registered attendees from across the country, it was an opportunity to engage with others who share the same unique passion.

“It gives me a chance to hang out with people who care about what I care about, which is the old-time game,” said John Thorn, Major League Baseball’s official historian as well as a moderator during Saturday morning’s panel discussion entitled The Evolution of the Pitching/Catching Battery. “And it’s very convivial and it’s one of my favorite weekends of the year.”

Hall of Fame Senior Curator Tom Shieber delivers the keynote address during SABR’s 19th century committee gathering in Cooperstown last weekend. (Jim Gates/NBHOF Library)

Other programs held during the two days included The Two Faces of Baseball’s Creation Myth, Jimmy Fogarty and the Players Brotherhood, and Beer Tanks & Barbed Wire: Bill Barnie and the Baltimore Orioles of the AA (1883-1891).

“It’s a great opportunity to meet other people who have the same fascination as I do,” said acclaimed baseball historian and author Peter Morris. “We share ideas, hear a lot of new ideas, and hear what people are working on.”

Morris was a member of the Pre-Integration Era Committee that elected umpire Hank O’Day, New York Yankees owner Jacob Ruppert and 19^th century player Deacon White to the Hall of Fame in December at MLB’s Winter Meetings. The Pre-Integration Era covered candidates whose most significant career impact was realized from baseball’s origins through 1946.

The Hall of Fame hosted SABR’s Frederick Ivor-Campbell Base Ball Conference last weekend. From left, Cooperstown Mayor Jeff Katz, Hall of Fame Senior Curator Tom Shieber, MLB Historian John Thorn, SABR Executive Director Marc Appleman and SABR 19th Century Committee chairman Peter Mancuso share a moment at the Conference. (Jim Gates/NBHOF Library)

“It was exciting to have recognition go to players who I think have deserved it for a long time,” Morris said. “Just because the Hall of Fame didn’t start until the 1930s there was a whole generation who never get evaluated by their peers, and there’s no way to get around that, but I think at least now we’ve had a group of historians who’ve looked at them and really given them a fair chance.

“Personally, being part of the Committee was just so rewarding. It was one of the most exciting experiences of my life. In preparing for it weeks and months beforehand, and then when it came, it was even more exciting and better than I ever dreamed it would be.”

Bill Francis is a Library Associate at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum  

If you are reading this, chances are you believe in “The Church of Baseball. “ So did Sparky Anderson.

One of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s most unique artifacts is a baseball signed by Pope John Paul II to Sparky. The story behind the ball is told in Dan Ewald’s wonderful 2012 book “Sparky and Me: My Friendship With Sparky Anderson and the Lessons He Shared About Baseball and Life.”

The baseball that Pope John Paul II signed and presented to Sparky Anderson. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

Sparky was a devoted follower of Catholicism who attended Mass whenever his baseball schedule permitted. He was also friends with Detroit Archbishop Edmund Szoka, a big Tigers fan. In 1987, Archbishop Szoka helped arrange a papal visit by John Paul II to the heavily Polish community of Hamtramck, near Detroit.

The massive crowd exploded with cheers, Ewald says, when Sparky was brought on stage to meet the Pope. Szoka explained to the Pope that Sparky managed the local baseball team, and “was a beloved figure in the community.”  The Pope later presented Sparky with a baseball, which Ewald notes is “probably the first baseball ever signed by a Pope.”

The inscription reads “To Sparky, #11, cum benedictione, Joanes Paules II,” along with the date on which it was signed in 1993.  (The Tigers lost to the Red Sox that day, 13-4 at Fenway Park.)  The Latin inscription translates as “with benediction.”

Sparky Anderson was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2000, and gave the Museum this ball shortly thereafter.

Anderson was humbled by meeting the Pope, and later told his good friend Ewald “This sounds crazy, but I never saw nothin’ in my life like the look in the Pope’s eyes. I can’t explain it, but his eyes really did twinkle.  It was the most peaceful look I ever saw in my life.”

Tim Wiles is the director of research at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

In a game that has known more than 140 professional seasons, there’s not much new under the sun.

Take the latest issue involving player safety in baseball: The suggestion that pitchers be mandated to wear padded caps on the mound to avoid injuries like the A’s Brandon McCarthy suffered last September when he was struck in the head by a line drive.

MLB said Friday that no such cap would be approved by Opening Day, though testing on many prototypes continues.

Meanwhile, McCarthy – who bounced back following emergency brain surgery to sign a two-year deal with the Diamondbacks this offseason – says the safety caps available now are not workable.

MLB first mandated the use of protective helmets in the late 1950′s. Here is a helmet worn by Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner.

Sounds a lot like the controversy that swirled around baseball in 1940, when the debate over batting helmets came to a boil. The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library contains a file on that topic, with letters to and from American League President and future Hall of Famer Will Harridge on the subject. Harridge communicated with journalists and sporting goods manufacturers about the controversy, which began to rise when Philadelphia A’s shortstop Skeeter Newsome was beaned during an in-season exhibition game in 1937.

Newsome wore a cap with reinforced padding upon his return, and Harridge supported the idea of having “each club or the players to determine their own course.” But National League President Ford Frick came out that summer in favor of mandatory helmet wear.

Most players and managers, however, did not support the idea.

“(The helmets) might be all right if they get a good one,” said Cardinals outfielder Terry Moore at that summer’s All-Star Game in St. Louis. Moore was reportedly the only National League All-Star who was even willing to try on a helmet prototype for photo purposes.

The idea, however, caught on – with teams adopting helmets voluntarily throughout the 1940s and 1950s until both leagues adopted mandatory use in the late 1950s.

What will become of the padded-cap-for-pitchers idea? Time will tell… and when it does, that history will be recorded in Cooperstown.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Many people can say they’ve visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame, but how many can boast to having camped there?

On Saturday evening, the National Baseball Hall of Fame stayed open a little bit late for a group of young baseball players from Ossining, N.Y., and a Cub Scout Pack from Garden City, N.Y. In fact, the Museum never closed. These young baseball enthusiasts and their parents and coaches had a night to remember as they took part in the Hall’s Extra Innings Overnight program.

(Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

Arriving after the Museum had closed to the general public, our overnight guests dropped their gear in alcoves of the Hall of Fame Gallery. Difficult choices abounded: Sleep underneath the first five or seek out the most recent inductees, Barry Larkin and Ron Santo? Perhaps they could find a comfortable spot underneath Jackie Robinson’s plaque, which shares an alcove with legendary flame thrower Bob Feller.

With the sleeping arrangements made, the group made their way upstairs to get their visit started with a special showing of The Baseball Experience in the Grandstand Theater. They then had the whole Museum to themselves for the next two hours. It was difficult to tell who was more excited, the kids (many of whom had never been to the Hall of Fame) or the parents (whose last visit to Cooperstown came when they were just kids).

The group made their way through the Museum, completing their Discovery Tour Scavenger Hunts. On the second floor, Museum Teacher Frank Capozza engaged the kids with baseball equipment from the Hall of Fame’s education collection, explaining how new technologies have changed the game through the years. Meanwhile, in the Hall of Fame’s Learning Center the overnighters learned how they put their knowledge of science to use each time they step to the plate, and in the Bullpen Theater kids and adults helped our Education staff recreate the dramatic radio call of Henry Aaron’s 715^th Home Run.

After exploring the Museum and taking part in these special programs, everyone met up in the Grandstand Theater to complete their night with a baseball movie and snacks.  By 11:30, we had tired our guests out and it was time to sleep amidst the plaques and artifacts of baseball’s immortals.

A light breakfast and one last look around the Hall of Fame Plaque Gallery and our visitors were on their way before the Museum opened on Saturday morning, but they didn’t stray too far. Many planned to take advantage of their free admission on Sunday to visit the Museum Store and find out what the Hall looks like under the light of day.

The Hall offers its Extra Innings Overnight program several times a year. Visit http://baseballhall.org/plan-your-visit/special-experiences/extra-innings to find our upcoming dates, or call (607) 547-0347 for more information.

Steve Light is the manager of museum programming at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

This year’s Baseball Writers’ Association of America Hall of Fame election reminded us that the only guarantee with the voting results is that there are no guarantees.

But when Mariano Rivera officially announced today that 2013 will be his last season, it started the countdown to what should be a spectacular celebration in the summer of 2019.

Mariano Rivera will retire as the all-time leader in saves with 608 and counting. (Brad Mangin/NBHOF Library)

By any measure, Rivera is the game’s greatest closer. He will retire as the all-time leader in saves with 608 and counting – a mark he will almost undoubtedly hold for the rest of the decade as only one active pitcher, Jason Isringhausen, has even 300 saves. But it’s his dominance en route to those saves that is truly mind-boggling.

Rivera’s career earned-run average of 2.21 is the best of any pitcher who started his career in the live ball era (post 1919) and is the 13^th best of all-time, regardless of era. He is one of only three pitchers with a WHIP (walks plus hits divided by innings pitched) under 1.00 (0.998) – the other two being dead-ball era standouts (and Hall of Famers) Addie Joss and Ed Walsh. And his career strikeout-to-walk ratio of 4.04 trails only Curt Schilling and Pedro Martinez among modern pitchers.

And then there’s the postseason. In 96 career games, Rivera is 8-1 with 42 saves and a 0.70 ERA. In 96 appearances, he’s been scored on 11 times – surrendering more than one earned run only once. He was arguably the main reason the Yankees won five World Series titles from 1996-2009.

If Rivera retires after this season, he’ll be eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2019. He joins an incredible impending lineup of Hall of Fame eligibles over the next few years, including: Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux and Frank Thomas in 2014; Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and John Smoltz in 2015; Ken Griffey Jr. and Trevor Hoffman in 2016, Vladimir Guerrero and Ivan Rodriguez in 2017; and Chipper Jones and Omar Vizquel (and maybe Jim Thome, if he does not play this year) in 2018.

Guarantees? Save that for banks and used car dealers. But this is for certain: We shall never see Rivera’s like again on the mound.

Cooperstown will soon come calling for Mo.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The letter on White House stationery is hand-addressed and carries a first-class, eight-cent stamp.

The addressee is Hall of Famer Waite Hoyt. And the author is Richard Nixon.

Cartoon featuring pitcher Waite C. Hoyt at the Polo Grounds. Published in The New York World, Magazine and Story Section on May 28th, 1916. (NBHOF Library)

The archives at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum are regarded as the home of the most impressive baseball library in the world. But much of that baseball history overlaps with our nation’s history – and it is all preserved in Cooperstown.

Hoyt was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1969 after winning 237 games over 21 big league seasons. When he retired, Hoyt became a broadcaster and spent 24 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds before retiring in 1965.

Upon his Hall of Fame election and throughout his later years, Hoyt donated hundreds of documents to the Hall of Fame Library. This recently re-organized collection features telegrams of congratulations following his 3,000^th broadcast in 1959, Hall of Fame Induction Weekend programs and several postal exchanges between Hoyt and various politicians, including the 37^th President of the United States.

“You look down at those letters and realize: “Richard Nixon signed this,’” said Claudette Scrafford, the manuscript archivist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

Hoyt’s papers – and thousands of others like them – are available to researchers at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. And though Hoyt passed away in 1984, his diligent record-keeping – and generous donations – have preserved the history he made and experienced for generations to come.

To learn more about researching at the Hall of Fame, please send an email to research@baseballhall.org.

Craig Muder is the director of communications for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

The recent passing of baseball player and groundbreaking scout Edith Houghton was noted on our blog late last week.  It put me in mind of a beautiful baseball ticket in our collection, one of the few women’s baseball tickets in our collection – or, as far as we know, in any museum’s collection.

Women have been playing baseball since the 1860s, but of the dozens of known women’s teams, very few artifacts have survived.  This one also features an astonishing coincidence.

On June 20, 2000, I had the pleasure of meeting Edith Houghton in her Sarasota home to talk a little baseball. We recorded an oral history interview, and she leafed through her stunning scrapbook with me. As the earlier blog post notes, she joined the Philadelphia Bobbies in 1922 at age 10. She toured Japan with them at 13, playing against men’s teams. She played for a couple of other notable women’s teams in the 1920s and ‘30s.  After military service in WWII, she became a groundbreaking female scout with the Phillies from 1946-52.

Philadephia Bobbies ticket (NBHOF Library)

Five days after our interview, I opened the U.S. mail to find a letter from one Sandra Wright of Langhorne, Pa., offering us this beautiful game ticket. The Bobbies played a men’s team from the North Philadelphia neighborhood of Feltonville on Aug. 14, 1929.  The numbers handwritten on the ticket presumably indicate that Feltonville won, 7-1.

Sandra’s dad, Harry Griver, played shortstop for Feltonville.  Sandra’s mom, Marilyn Griver, donated the ticket in memory of Harry.

“It’s a snapshot in time of an event that documents two teams in a particular time and place of baseball history,” says Susan MacKay, Director of Collections at the Hall.  “In particular, it provides a window into the history of women’s baseball.”

Unfortunately, we can’t ask Sandra if there was something particularly memorable to her dad about playing the Bobbies.  Sandra Wright died on Sept 11, 2001, while at work on the 102^nd floor in the South Tower at the World Trade Center.

Tim Wiles is the director of research for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

“I guess I was born with a baseball in my hand or something,”  said Edith Houghton.  “I enjoyed it more than anything.”

Edith, who died on Feb. 2, just eight days shy of her 101^st birthday, lived a baseball life that would be the envy of many men. Not only did she scout for the Philadelphia Phillies beginning just after World War II, but she was a professional baseball player too.

Edith Houghton generously donated artifacts from her collection that are now on display in the Museum’s Diamond Dreams exhibit. (NBHOF Library)

Edith Houghton generously donated several artifacts from her baseball career to the Hall of Fame – many of which are on display in the Museum’s Diamond Dreams exhibit. (Craig Muder/NBHOF Library)At the tender age of 10, Edith, a natural athlete, joined the Philadelphia Bobbies, a young women’s baseball team named after their fashionable 1920s haircuts, as their shortstop, in 1922.

In 1925, the Bobbies embarked on an amazing cross-cultural baseball journey, touring Japan and playing against men’s college baseball teams.

Upon her return to the States, Edith joined first the New York Bloomer Girls and later the Hollywood Girls, two leading women’s baseball teams of the pre-AAGPBL era.  The teams toured the country playing against local men’s teams.

During World War II, Edith served in the Navy and reportedly played for the WAVES women’s baseball team, a fascinating chapter in the history of women in baseball about which little is known today.

Upon her return from the war, she approached Phillies owner Bob Carpenter and asked to become a scout.  After leafing through Edith’s remarkable scrapbook, Carpenter hired her, and she signed a number of players for the Phils, though none ended up making the major leagues.

I have had the privilege of leafing through that amazing scrapbook, as Hall of Fame Photo Archivist Pat Kelly and I had the chance to meet Edith in her Sarasota, Fla., home during the summer of 2000.  We were in West Palm Beach for the annual SABR convention, and we drove across the state to meet and conduct an oral history interview with Edith.  She was charming, gracious, and still in love with the game.

Edith donated several artifacts from her career to the Hall of Fame.  In our Diamond Dreams exhibit, visitors can see her Bobbies cap, her jersey from the Japanese tour, with U.S.A.  across the front, along with her belt.

Tim Wiles is the director of research for the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum