By Craig Muder

Eleven years ago today, I stood watching the TV in disbelief at the absolute horror taking place throughout our country. A former co-worker leaned over while watching the coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and said: “This country will never be the same.”

I recoiled at that statement. Even at that low point, I sensed it was not true. Of all of America’s strengths, maybe its greatest is our ability to put the past behind us and move forward.

A promotional baseball found in the 9/11 debris donated by New York City fireman Vin Mavaro. (Craig Muder/NBHOF Library)

Weeks later, a New York City fireman named Vin Mavaro was cleaning up debris at Ground Zero. He came across a white, round object that he first thought was a piece of concrete. Unable to grasp exactly what it was – in the midst of so much destruction – he leaned down and picked up a baseball.

It was a promotional ball from a company named TradeWeb that had offices in the North Tower of the World Trade Center. The ball had facsimile signatures from companies – like Goldman Sachs – that did business with TradeWeb. It was scratched and cut, but miraculously came through the attacks in one piece.

Mavaro said that when he held the ball, he flashed to his son’s Little League field – remembering better days.

“The ball’s nicked up, but it’s intact and it came through,” Mavaro said. “I feel the same about New York City, the Fire Department and the United States. We’re banged up, we took a hit, but we came through.”

Mavaro contacted the folks at TradeWeb, who told him that all of their employees had escaped the tower and that he could keep the ball, which had been sitting on a TradeWeb employee’s desk. After loaning it to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the Hall’s Baseball As America national tour, Mavaro changed the loan into a permanent donation in 2008.

At one of this country’s darkest hours, it was baseball that provided a ray of hope.

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

By Bill Francis

Actor Michael Badalucco, a familiar face to fans of The Practice, the legal drama series that aired on ABC from 1997 to 2004, made a long-awaited second trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday.

“We were on our way to Buffalo and I said to my friend, ‘Let’s take the long way and let’s go to Cooperstown,’” said Badalucco during a break from checking out the Museum’s third-floor exhibits. “I haven’t been here since I was 11 years old, but it didn’t look anything like this. I’m a big baseball fan so I said let’s try and to get in there.

Actor Michael Badalucco standing in the Autumn Glory exhibit during his visit to the Hall of Fame on Friday. (Bill Francis/NBHOF Library)

“Of course I remember the Plaque Gallery, which looks like it has never changed, but seeing the Museum exhibits now is so insightful and appealing that you don’t want to leave. Being here is a great thrill. You come here and you learn things about these guys … you think you know them but you don’t really.”

Born and raised in Brooklyn, Badalucco, 57, grew up a fan of the New York Yankees and Mickey Mantle.

“My uncles were Yankees fans, but my father from Sicily wasn’t much into baseball,” he said. “I remember going to Yankee Stadium in the early ‘60s and being able to walk out on the field and see the monuments and the flagpole after the game.”

Before getting his big acting break as a regular on The Practice, portraying lawyer Jimmy Berluti, Badalucco had to work on his craft for a number of years much like a minor league ballplayer.

“Twenty years after I graduated from college (State University of New York at New Paltz) I got a steady job,” he said. “I got my degree in theater but instead of being a waiter I worked as a prop man because I could work on the sets. Yogi (Berra) says, ‘You can observe a lot by watching.’ And I did.

“So all those years I was on the sets of all kinds of big movies in New York and I watched how they directed, how people acted, what went on on the set, so when I finally got my break not only did I know what was going on, every aspect of moviemaking, but I learned to have a great respect for people behind the camera because they are as important as the people in front of it.”

Badalucco, who would eventually win the 1999 Emmy for Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Berluti on The Practice, can next be seen on the Syfy channel.

“It’s my first monster movie (Heebie Jeebies) and it’s going to be on in February. I confront a seven-headed monster.”

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

By Bill Francis

With his son playing at a local baseball camp, former big league player Damion Easley had the perfect opportunity to visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for the first time.

“Playing so long,” Easley said Wednesday morning, “I’m surprised it took my 12-year-old son, Jayce, to bring me down here.”

A veteran of 17 big league seasons spent mostly with the California Angels and Detroit Tigers, Easley, who left the field following his 2008 campaign, enjoyed his greatest success as a power-hitting second baseman in the MotorCity in the late 1990s. Though his lone All-Star Game invite came in 1998, when he smacked 27 home runs and drove in 100, he finished his career with 1,386 hits, 163 homers, 114 stolen bases and a .253 batting average.

Former Major League player Damion Easley with John Odell, Curator of History and Research. (Bill Francis/NBHOF Library)

After a tour of the museum’s archives, Easley said, “I’m in awe. I’m a baseball traditionalist, diehard baseball fan, and just a fan of the game, and that was very impressive to see those artifacts and kinda relive my youth a little bit.”

Now 42 years old, the native of New York City moved at age 11 to California, where he was able to play baseball year-round.

“Early on baseball was my life,” Easley said. “As you grow and get older I have my wife and my kids and obviously they took over my heart. But I still love the game.

“My dad introduced me to the game at a very young age and I took it and ran with it. It’s still a passion of mine. I coach it and I can’t get enough of it. I’ve coach at the youth, high school and pro side now.”

Calling Glendale, AZ home, Easley is currently a coach with the San Diego Padres’ affiliate in the rookie Arizona League.

“I enjoy working with the young guys who don’t know what it takes yet. They think they do but they really don’t,” Easley said. “And I’m sure I was that way coming up, too. But I enjoy working with them and helping them along.”

Helping Easley along in his professional career was Hall of Famer Rod Carew, the young infielder’s first batting coach when he got to the big leagues. But he also played against many of the Hall of Famers elected recently, a fact that makes his trip to Cooperstown even more meaningful.

“It helps you appreciate some of the greatness that you’ve been around because when you’re playing you don’t have time to think about it,” he said. “You admire somebody for his talents but you’re out there trying to compete and trying to survive and you don’t have time to be in awe of somebody.

“Now that you’re away from it you can sit back, relive the moments, and think, ‘Man, this was really special to live a dream and rub elbows with greatness.’”

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

By Craig Muder

After striking out 27 batters in one minor league game in 1952, Ron Necciai was destined for the big leagues.

When he was called up to the Pittsburgh Pirates in August of 1952, the Bucs’ management – by way of locker selection – let Necciai know that he was ready for prime time.

“They put me between Murry Dickson, who had been in the big leagues for (11) seasons, and Ralph Kiner, who as you know is a Hall of Famer,” said Necciai at a program on Thursday at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. “Then, I went out in that first game and gave up a huge homer to Hank Sauer of the Cubs. It hit off the clock in left field in (Pittsburgh’s) Forbes Field, and I swear that clock was rocking back and forth for a few minutes.

Former big league pitcher Ron Necciai discusses his 1952 minor league no-hitter in which he struck out 27 batters on Thursday at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. (Milo Stewart Jr./National Baseball Hall of Fame Library)

“It was sure different from the minor leagues.”

Necciai visited the Hall of Fame on Thursday and recounted his famous outing on May 13, 1952, when he struck out 27 batters in a nine-inning no-hitter for the Bristol Twins of the Class D Appalachian League. Necciai is the only professional pitcher to record 27 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, and a ball from that 7-0 win over the Welch Miners – which Necciai donated to the Hall of Fame in 2001 – is on display in the Museum’s One for the Books exhibit.

Once in the big leagues, Necciai lasted only one season with the Pirates before a rotator cuff injury ended his career. But his amazing game during that 1952 season lives on in baseball lore.

“The doctor I saw (when he hurt his shoulder) told me that I’d never pitch again and that I should go home and buy a gas station,” said Necciai, who still lives in the Pittsburgh area. “I didn’t do that, but I’ve been married for 57 years, so I must have done something right.

“And on that day (of the no-hitter), everything went right.”

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

By Craig Muder

Charlie Millard plucked his Texas Rangers cap off his held and held it up between the caps of Hall of Famers Roberto Clemente and Tom Seaver.

“You think that cap might be in the Hall of Fame someday?” said Charlie’s dad Bart Millard, whose band MercyMe toured the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday. “Wouldn’t that be something!”

Members of the band MercyMe (from left) Robby Shaffer, Michael Scheuchzer and Bart Millard — along with Millard’s sons (from left) Charlie and Sam — received a special tour of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Friday. (Milo Stewart Jr./NBHOF Library)

Hours before a concert in nearby Utica, N.Y., Bart Millard took a break from his job as MercyMe’s lead singer and fulfilled a lifelong dream by visiting the Hall of Fame. A self-described “Rangers fan from birth,” Millard – a Greenville, Texas, native – visited the Museum with his sons Charlie and Sam and MercyMe band-mates Robby Shaffer and Michael Scheuchzer.

“This is amazing,” said Millard after viewing Josh Hamilton’s four-home run bat, which is on display in the Museum’s Today’s Game exhibit and has been since Hamilton crushed four dingers in Texas’ 10-3 win over the Orioles May 8. “It’s been a great stretch of baseball for the Rangers, even though the two World Series losses have been tough. But they have really begun to change how baseball is perceived in Dallas.

“It’s still a Cowboys town, but the Rangers are more popular than ever.”

So is MercyMe, which has produced four certified Gold Records since forming in 1994.

“All musicians want to be athletes, and I think most athletes want to be musicians,” Millard said. “To be here with all this history is incredible.”

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

By Tim Wiles

Cooperstown is home not just to the Hall of Fame, but also to several other “big league” tourist attractions, including the 37-year-old Glimmerglass Festival, which presents opera and musical theatre at the north end of Otsego Lake.

The latest collaboration between Glimmerglass and the Hall of Fame is a short musical program called “Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience,” being presented Thursdays in the Bullpen Theatre here at The Hall – with the final show on Aug. 23 at 2 p.m.

“Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience,” being presented Thursdays in the Bullpen Theatre here at The Hall – with the final show on Aug. 23 at 2 p.m. (Milo Stewart, Jr./NBHOF Library)

The program consists of seven songs with a baseball theme, sung wonderfully by four of the Festival’s African-American singers. Unifying the songs is a script which sketches the outline of African-American baseball history, beginning in 1865 and running right up into the present day.

The Singers include baritone Amos Nomnabo, from Queensland, South Africa; tenor Chase Taylor, from Durham, N.C.; bass baritone Phillip Gay of Beaumont, Texas; and baritones Allan Washington, of Indianapolis, and Thomas Cannon, of New Orleans, who take the same part in alternate weeks. Each is costumed in a baseball uniform with “Hall of Fame” emblazoned across the front. They are ably accompanied on piano by Coach Accompanist Katherine Kozak of Cleveland, Ohio.

The show was developed by Debra Dickinson of Houston, Acting and Movement Instructor for the Young Artists Program at Glimmerglass, and Dennis Robinson, one of the Young Artists Stage Directors and an Assistant Director for “Lost In the Stars,” an opera by Kurt Weill and Maxwell Anderson which deals with apartheid in South Africa. The baseball music program deals with our own history of legal and enforced segregation in baseball’s Negro Leagues.

As sad as that history can be, the program itself is exuberant and joyful, as these gifted singers take us through seven songs, each preceded by just enough commentary to set the scene. Dickinson and Robinson began early this summer by visiting the Hall’s Library, reviewing the hundreds of pieces of sheet music in the collection and selecting those which fit their story musically and/or thematically. After five weeks of practice, the show debuted just after Hall of Fame Weekend.

The first three songs, “Brother Noah Gave Out Checks For Rain, (1907), “Pickaninny Rose,” (1924), and “Little Puff of Smoke—Good Night,” (1910) represent the reconstruction era, when portrayals of Black culture were often cartoonish and stereotypical. Despite that potential handicap, the music is delivered with style and grace. The last song was one of several written by Guy Harris “Doc” White, a multitalented pitcher for the White Sox and Phillies from 1901-13.

The next two songs deal with the integration era, which began in 1947, with the debut of Jackie Robinson. The group delivers a brilliant version of “Did You See Jackie Robinson Hit that Ball,” the 1949 song by Count Basie and Buddy Johnson. The next piece is “Move over Babe, Here Comes Henry,” written in 1974 by legendary baseball broadcaster Ernie Harwell. Phillip Gay then goes into an a cappella version of the National Anthem, which brings the fans to their feet and brings goosebumps to them as well – later in the song his compatriots join in.

The 20-minute program concludes with “Heart,” by Richard Adler and Jerry Ross, from the 1955 musical “Damn Yankees.”

Make sure to join us in the Bullpen Theater next Thursday!

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

By Bill Francis

While an assortment of injuries have derailed Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch’s season, it did afford him the opportunity to accompany his father for a recent visit to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The connection between fathers and sons and the National Pastime is a common sight at the Cooperstown institution. And such was the case as the 27-year-old right-handed hurler, currently on the 60-day disabled list and lost for the season due to shoulder and bicep problems, talked about the motivation for Saturday’s trip with his father, Rick, to Upstate New York.

Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Jesse Litsch and his father, Rick, stopped by the Hall of Fame on Saturday to take in the history of the game and build a memory together. (Bill Francis, NBHOF Library)

“We just wanted the whole memory,” Litsch said. “It’s something we’ve wanted to do for awhile and we had time right now so decided to shoot up here and get the whole experience.

“Obviously rehab is not what you want to be doing this time of year, but being able to bring my dad here is a special treat.”

Litsch’s only other time spent in Cooperstown came when he accompanied the Blue Jays to face the Baltimore Orioles in the 2007 Hall of Fame Game.

“That was my rookie year and I remember A.J. Burnett made me do the bucket,” Litsch recalled. “They were playing Home Run Derby out there and I had to get all the balls as the come in from the outfield.”

A Florida native, he grew up a Cincinnati Reds fan whose favorite player was inducted into the Hall of Fame last month.

“My favorite player is Barry Larkin,” Litsch said, “so it’s kind of cool to come here the year the year he gets enshrined.”

As for his own future, Litsch, who has spent his entire five-year big league career with the Blue Jays, says things look bright. Though he will miss the entire 2012 season, his career big league numbers include a 27-27 record, topped by a 13-9 mark in 2008.

“It’s been a hectic year,” Litsch said. “I had an infection that caused an emergency surgery and since then I had to have another surgery that is hopefully the key, so it’s a matter of getting through it and getting back ready for next year.

“Everything is coming along well. It’s a process. You just have to sit and wait, wait, wait and let it get better.”

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