For Immediate Release – July
9, 2008
Contact: Terry Cannon, Executive Director, The
Baseball Reliquary
Phone (626) 791-7647; e-mail:
terymar@earthlink.net
SHRINE OF THE ETERNALS:
2008 INDUCTION DAY
Sunday, July 20, 2008 ~ 2:00 PM
Donald R. Wright Auditorium, Pasadena Central
Library
285 East Walnut Street, Pasadena, California
Free Admission / Information (626) 791-7647
www.baseballreliquary.org
The Baseball Reliquary will
present the 2008 Induction Day ceremony for its
historic tenth class of electees to the Shrine
of the Eternals on Sunday, July 20, 2008,
beginning at 2:00 PM, at the Donald R. Wright
Auditorium in the Pasadena Central Library, 285
East Walnut Street, Pasadena, California. The
doors will open at 1:30 PM, and admission is
open to the public and free of charge. The
inductees will be Buck O’Neil, Emmett Ashford,
and Bill Buckner. The keynote address will be
delivered by Albert Kilchesty. In addition, the
Baseball Reliquary will honor the recipients of
the 2008 Hilda Award, John Adams, and the 2008
Tony Salin Memorial Award, David W. Smith of
Retrosheet.
The festivities will commence
with an Induction Day tradition, the ceremonial
bell ringing in honor of the late Brooklyn
Dodgers fan Hilda Chester; everyone who attends
is encouraged to bring a bell to ring for the
occasion. The National Anthem and “Take Me Out
to the Ball Game” will be performed on the pedal
steel guitar by Doug Livingston.
For further information, contact
the Baseball Reliquary by phone at (626)
791-7647 or by e-mail at terymar@earthlink.net.
The 2008 Induction Day is co-sponsored by the
Pasadena Public Library and is made possible, in
part, by a grant from the Los Angeles County
Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles
County Arts Commission.
2008
INDUCTEES
The highest honor afforded an
individual by the Baseball Reliquary is election
to the Shrine of the Eternals. Three individuals
are elected on an annual basis in voting
conducted by the membership of the Reliquary.
Similar in concept to the National Baseball Hall
of Fame, the Shrine of the Eternals differs
philosophically in that statistical
accomplishment is not a criterion for election;
the Shrine, rather, honors individuals who have
impacted the baseball landscape in ways that do
not necessarily have anything to do with
numbers. The 2008 electees will join previous
inductees Jim Abbott, Dick Allen, Moe Berg, Yogi
Berra, Ila Borders, Jim Bouton, Jim Brosnan,
Roberto Clemente, Rod Dedeaux, Dock Ellis, Mark
Fidrych, Curt Flood, Josh Gibson, William
“Dummy” Hoy, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Bill James,
Bill “Spaceman” Lee, Marvin Miller, Minnie
Minoso, Satchel Paige, Jimmy Piersall, Pam
Postema, Jackie Robinson, Lester Rodney,
Fernando Valenzuela, Bill Veeck Jr., and Kenichi
Zenimura.
The playing career of BUCK
O’NEIL (1911-2006) was in decline by the
time Jackie Robinson debuted with the Dodgers in
1947, and while he never had the chance to play
in the Major Leagues, he was recognized as the
slickest first baseman in the Negro Leagues.
Born John Jordan O’Neil, Buck picked up his
nickname during a short stint with the Zulu
Cannibal Giants, a novelty barnstorming act. He
found a home eventually in Kansas City in 1938
where he starred with the fabled Kansas City
Monarchs, a team he later managed as well. He
played in the Negro League All-Star Game three
times, won the Negro American League batting
title in 1946, and led the Monarchs to numerous
pennants. After the Negro Leagues dissolved
following integration, Buck was named as a coach
for the Chicago Cubs in 1962, the first black
coach in Major League Baseball. With the Cubs he
mentored players such as Ernie Banks,
sweet-swinging Billy Williams, and young Oscar
Gamble. He wrote and spoke incessantly about the
Negro Leagues and its players, doing more to
keep their memories alive than anyone. When the
idea came about for establishing a Negro Leagues
Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Buck was the
consensus choice as spokesman/organizer. He
cemented his position as the premier oral
historian of the Negro Leagues with a
captivating series of interviews in Ken Burns’
PBS documentary, Baseball, entrancing
generations of fans with his folksy narrative
style and effervescent smile. He kept a grueling
schedule of personal appearances and speaking
engagements at ballparks and in small
communities throughout the country well into his
nineties, before his passing at the age of 94 in
2006.
Buck O’Neil’s induction will be
accepted by a representative of the O’Neil
family and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in
Kansas City, although that person had not yet
been identified at the time this press release
was issued.
EMMETT ASHFORD
(1914-1980) holds the distinction of being the
first African-American umpire to officiate in
both Minor and Major League Baseball. Born in
Los Angeles, Ashford took a job with the Post
Office prior to World War II, where he became
involved in umpiring Post Office games in an
independent league. After service in the Navy
during the war, Ashford returned to a world
suddenly fraught with new possibilities for a
black man interested in umpiring: Jackie
Robinson had integrated the Major Leagues in
1947. Roles for black umpires couldn’t be far
behind. Ashford began umpiring in the Minors in
1951, eventually working his way up to the
Pacific Coast League, where he was named Umpire
in Chief. Recognizing the social changes
happening around the country, the American
League bought Ashford’s PCL contract, and
beginning in 1966, he became the most visible
and easily the best dressed umpire in the Major
Leagues. Ashford’s relatively small size (he was
roughly 5’7” and 180 pounds) and personality
caused him to develop an animated style, where
he was often described as dancing with great
agility around the plate. He indulged in extra
physicality and animation, and often made his
voice boom to gain attention. Ashford was a
tremendous showman, a styler. He was also
a very sharp dresser, a reputation that would
follow him throughout his career. Ashford worked
the 1967 All-Star Game and the 1970 World
Series. After his mandatory retirement in 1970,
Ashford kept his hand in baseball as a special
assistant to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn and also
found work as a performer in the entertainment
industry, including a role as the plate umpire
in The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor
Kings, the 1976 comedic film about a team of
enterprising Negro League ballplayers in the era
of racial segregation. This baseball pioneer
died from a heart attack in 1980.
Emmett Ashford’s induction will
be accepted by his daughter, ADRIENNE
ASHFORD. Mr. Ashford will be introduced
by another legendary arbiter, CECE
CARLUCCI, who umpired in the Pacific
Coast League from 1950-1961 and is the first and
only umpire inducted into the Pacific Coast
League Hall of Fame. Carlucci, who was Ashford’s
crew chief when he broke into the PCL in 1954,
is still going strong at age 90, and operates a
successful business out of his home, producing
customized gear for umpires.
Born in 1949, BILL BUCKNER
is living proof that history is not
always kind or just. He resides in that infamous
fraternity of former players, including the
likes of Fred Merkle, Fred Snodgrass, and Mickey
Owen, who have been stigmatized by one momentous
misplay. In the case of Buckner, the harsh
shadow cast by his notorious miscue has
prevented a fair and reasoned assessment of his
career. Despite chronic and crippling injuries
and often playing in excruciating pain, Buckner
produced impressive numbers in twenty-two Major
League seasons (1969-1990), mostly with the Los
Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, and Boston Red
Sox. He finished with 2,715 hits, won a batting
title in 1980, and is among a select few to have
recorded 200-hit seasons in both the American
and National Leagues. Yet on October 25, 1986,
the first baseman’s legacy would be tarnished,
particularly in the minds of many Boston fans,
by booting Mookie Wilson’s grounder and enabling
the New York Mets to climax an incredible
come-from-behind victory against the Red Sox in
the tenth inning of the sixth game of the 1986
World Series. Although Buckner has endured the
brunt of the responsibility for the Red Sox’
failure, there were others who could easily
share some of the blame, including pitchers
Calvin Schiraldi and Bob Stanley, who failed to
hold the lead in the bottom of the tenth inning.
A successful businessman in Idaho, Buckner
returned to Boston this year to throw out the
ceremonial first pitch at the Red Sox home
opener, where he received a lengthy standing
ovation from the Fenway faithful. Hopefully his
appearance in Boston, combined with his election
to the Shrine of the Eternals, marks the
beginning of a period of healing and will allow
us to remember Buckner for the great player that
he was and not for the mistake that he made.
Bill Buckner will be introduced
by longtime Sports Illustrated
contributor and former Chicago Sun-Times
sports columnist, JOHN SCHULIAN,
who covered Buckner when he played for the Cubs.
Schulian’s widely anthologized work has been
included in many sports books, and his 2005
book, Twilight of the Long-ball Gods:
Dispatches from the Disappearing Heart of
Baseball, reaffirmed his status as one of
the preeminent sportswriters of our time.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS AND AWARDS
The keynote address for the 2008
Induction Day will be presented by ALBERT
KILCHESTY, the Archivist and Historian
of the Baseball Reliquary. Kilchesty delivered
the keynote address at the inaugural Shrine of
the Eternals Induction Day in 1999, and returns
to the podium now for the tenth anniversary
ceremony.
The ceremony will also feature
the presentation of the 2008 Hilda Award, named
in memory of the beloved Brooklyn Dodgers fan
Hilda Chester and given annually to a fan for
his/her extraordinary passion for and dedication
to baseball. This year’s recipient is JOHN
ADAMS, a lifelong Cleveland Indians fan
who is celebrating his 35th
consecutive year of pounding his bass drum in
the bleachers at Indians games, come rain or
come shine. Adams, who has twice thrown out a
ceremonial first pitch at Jacobs Field and was
honored last year with his own bobblehead night
(naturally, the toy was designed so that Adams’
arms can be bobbled up and down to bang on the
little instrument), will appear in person with
his drum to accept the award.
Another highlight of the
ceremony will be the presentation of the 2008
Tony Salin Memorial Award, named for the late
baseball author and researcher, which annually
honors one individual for his/her dedication to
preserving baseball history. This year’s
recipient is DAVID W. SMITH, a
Biology professor at the University of Delaware
since 1975. Always attracted to baseball
history, both numerical and literary, Smith
began keeping detailed records from his homemade
scorecards at the age of 11. In 1989 he founded
Retrosheet, a nonprofit, all-volunteer
organization dedicated to the collection,
computerization, and free distribution of play
by play accounts of Major League games. There
are now over 107,000 game accounts available
free of charge at www.retrosheet.org. The
Retrosheet effort continues as additional
seasons are added to the Web site each year.
Smith, who resides in Newark, Delaware, will
accept the award in person.
PARKING INFORMATION
A limited number of free parking
spaces are available at the north end of the
Pasadena Central Library in the library lot, on
Garfield Avenue just north of Walnut Street.
Please note that additional free parking is
available at the adjacent University of Phoenix
underground parking structure, which is located
just north of the library parking lot. To access
the University of Phoenix lot, enter the
driveway near the corner of Garfield Avenue and
Corson Street.
|
This
vintage UPI wire service photo,
dated April 24, 1954, was titled
"First Negro Ump Gets Tips." Emmett
Ashford, the first black umpire in
organized baseball, gets a few
pointers on roughing up baseballs
from Pacific Coast League senior
umpire Cece Carlucci (center) as
umpire Mickey Hanich looks on.
Ashford had recently joined the PCL
after working as an umpire in
several lower minor league
classifications. Carlucci, now 90
years old, will introduce Ashford’s
induction into the Shrine of the
Eternals in Pasadena, California on
July 20, 2008. Ashford’s daughter,
Adrienne, will accept the induction
on behalf of the pioneering arbiter. |
|