Date & Time: Saturday, September 23, 2017, 2:00 p.m.
Location: Cay Mortenson Auditorium, Arcadia Public Library
Address: 20 W. Duarte Road, Arcadia, California 91006
In conjunction with the exhibition “Baseball: A Global Pastime” (on view through October 26 at the Arcadia Public Library), the Baseball Reliquary presents a panel discussion on the global impact of baseball on Saturday, September 23, at 2:00 p.m., at the Cay Mortenson Auditorium, Arcadia Public Library, 20 W. Duarte Road, Arcadia, California. Panelists will include former major leaguer Roger Repoz, author and historian Byron Motley, and former international baseball scout Mark Garcia. The program is open to the public and free of charge.
Roger Repoz played nine years in the major leagues from 1964-1972 as a left-handed hitting outfielder and first baseman for the New York Yankees, Kansas City Athletics, and California Angels. He then played five seasons of professional ball in Japan from 1973-1977 for the Taiheiyo Club Lions of the Pacific League and Yakult Swallows of the Central League. Repoz became one of the most feared gaijin (foreign) power hitters in Japan, connecting on 122 home runs in the Land of the Rising Sun. Repoz currently resides in Orange County.
Byron Motley is a Los Angeles-based author, photographer, and filmmaker, and has written and lectured extensively on baseball in the Negro Leagues and in Cuba. He co-authored Ruling Over Monarchs, Giants & Stars: Umpiring in the Negro Leagues & Beyond, a memoir of his father, Bob Motley, the last surviving umpire in the Negro Leagues. His most recent book, Embracing Cuba, is a collection of photographs that Motley has taken throughout the island nation over the last ten years. The book documents the Cubans’ adoration of baseball, a love so intense as to be nearly religious.
Mark Garcia was a professional baseball scout for several major league organizations between 1982 and 2006, including working as a territorial scout in Southern California for the Milwaukee Brewers, and as an administrative assistant to the director of international operations for the California Angels. As an international scout for the Boston Red Sox, he covered Australia and Russia, as well as the Latin American and South Pacific markets, evaluating talent in Mexico, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan. Garcia resides in the San Gabriel Valley.
Following the panel discussion and Q&A, Byron Motley will sign his book, Embracing Cuba, copies of which will be available for purchase. The program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.
For further information, contact the Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626) 791-7647; by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net; or visit www.baseballreliquary.org. For directions to the Arcadia Public Library, phone (626) 821-5567.
