The Board of Directors of the Baseball Reliquary is pleased to announce that Chris Epting will deliver the Keynote Address at the Shrine of the Eternals Induction Day on Sunday, July 14, 2019 at the Donald R. Wright Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library, Pasadena, California. The festivities will include the induction of the 2019 class of electees to the Shrine of the Eternals (J.R. Richard, Billy Beane, and Lisa Fernandez), and the presentation of the 2019 Hilda Award and the 2019 Tony Salin Memorial Award.
CHRIS EPTING is an award-winning journalist and the author of over 30 books on history and popular culture. His passion for storytelling has made him a sought-after speaker around the country, and whether he’s sharing little-known, hidden history about Americana, music, landmarks, and more, his presentations are always stimulating, engaging, and just as entertaining as they are educational.
For ten years, Epting wrote a weekly column for the Los Angeles Times, sharing stories nobody had heard before. He did the same thing for the Huffington Post for five years. He’s written for Travel + Leisure, the Wall Street Journal, AOL.com, Loudwire, and dozens of other high-profile outlets and music/travel publications. Many of his best-selling books make him a regular on radio and television programs all over the country.
In March of 2018, the docu-series It Happened Here began airing on the Reelz Network. Created and executive produced by Epting (who also appears in each episode), the program is inspired by his pop culture travel books, and retraces the footsteps of many of the world’s leading pop culture figures, from John Lennon to Janis Joplin.
But nothing stirs his heart and soul like baseball, in particular the search for baseball’s past. Epting has authored several popular baseball titles, including The Early Polo Grounds, Baseball in Orange County, Los Angeles’s Historic Ballparks, and Roadside Baseball: The Locations of America’s Baseball Landmarks, the third edition of which was released in April 2019.
Capturing such quintessentially American pastimes as baseball and road trips in one work, Roadside Baseball is packed with historical data, trivia, photographs, and baseball lore, including the birthplaces of baseball legends, former ballpark sites, museums and halls of fame, final resting places, and many locations that are no longer standing. Covering out-of-the-way spots to the most popular stadiums in the U.S. and Canada, the book has attracted fans all over the world, and this summer Epting will back at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown as part of their prestigious authors series.
Epting, along with his son Charlie, has also spent years collecting pieces of old ballparks, from seats and bricks and dirt to signage and more – his love of old ballparks represents his most passionate connection to the game. His most unforgettable in-person baseball moment was attending Game 6 of the 1986 World Series.
Epting has said, “I am deeply honored to deliver the Keynote Address to this organization that celebrates not just weird and wonderful ephemera of the game, but also baseball’s most colorful, unsung characters.”
