Baseball Gateway to West Exhibit at St. Louis Arch Held Over through 2010.
The highly successful and attractive baseball exhibit in St. Louis that opened in the Mound City prior to the 2009 All Star Game has been held over for most of 2010 by popular demand. “Baseball’s Gateway to the West” display will continue at the Jefferson National Arch on the Mississippi River through October 31, 2010, sponsored for s second year as a collaborative effort of the St. Louis Cardinals Museum and Hall of Fame in conjunction with the National Park Service at the St. Louis Arch.
If you are planning to be in the St. Louis area on vacation or business between now and Halloween, you owe it to yourself to take in the show. Under the careful guidance of St. Louis Cardinals curator Paula Homan, the exhibit is packed with authentic one-of-a-kind items that are associated with the western expansion of baseball to the hinterlands of all western regions of the country. Three of my own loans to the show all came from items given to me by one of the foremost former Buffs, the late Jerry Witte. These include (1) a home plate from Jerry Witte’s last 1952 season of play at Buff (Busch) Stadium in Houston. I accepted the gift years ago after asking the donor to sign it “Jerry Witte” for the sake of history; (2) A 1951 Houston Buffs Scorecard; and (3) a 1951 Texas League All Star Game Program from the contest played at Buff Stadium that year. All of these items and others from my personal collection of over sixty years will someday be donated to an appropriate museum that can guarantee their protection and appropriate display in perpetuity. As to where that place is, I’m still looking. For now, at least, three of them are doing just fine as artifactual greeters to the thousands of fans still streaming through the Arch.
The Arch is only a few blocks away from Busch Stadium III in downtown St. Louis.
If you’ve never been to St. Louis, you owe it to yourself to visit one of America’s great baseball cities before you die. The place simply reeks with baseball history and people who are capable of talking about same – and there few places finer for watching a game than Busch Stadium III. I prefer the intimacy of Minute Maid Park in Houston, but the vistas of the Arch and downtown St. Louis from the open-feeling Busch venue can’t be beat. Unlike MMP, however, where it’s possible to walk completely around the field of play on the first concourse without taking your eyes off the field, Busch is chopped up into sections that prevent visitors from doing the same in St. Louis.
Either way, both places are about baseball, and the cities of St. Louis and Houston shall be forever joined in baseball history as members of the same family tree. As a top farm club of the Cardinals for the better part of nearly four decades, the Houston Buffs will always be more than just a little bit “St. Louis” like in their baseball bloodlines. Former Buff greats Dizzy Dean, Pepper Martin, Joe “Ducky” Medwick, George “Red” Munger, Howie Pollet, Eddie Dyer, Johnny Keane, Solly Hemus, Wilmer “Vinegar Bend” Mizell, and Ken Boyer are all former Buffs who passed through the Bayou City on their ways to the City of the Mound.
Baseball ties are forever. It’s best we try to remember them with the honor they each deserve. The Arch program is run by people who understand that old-fashioned notion. Give them your support this summer. Check out the show in St. Louis.
The Pecan Park Eagle 
June 8, 2010 at 2:59 pm |
Thanks for the info, Bill. I hope to get there this summer.
June 8, 2010 at 4:57 pm |
Bill
I just got back from Birmingham as part of the Birmingham Black Barons Reunion. 48 of us players were recognized at the Rickwood Classic to commeorate 100 years of baseball in the ballpark. There were a little shy of 10,000 fans and we got a standing ovation when we went on the field. We were recognized at the Alabama Hall of Fame on Thursday and then on Friday at a banquet where we all were recognized by the Center for Negro League Research and were told that all of us will be in the new Museum and Hall of Fame when it is built in 2011. What an honor. I was humbled. Larry Smith, Smitty in the book, was also honored at the banquet. We were the only two white players at the events that week.
I am going to St. Louis on 26 June-1 July to participate as a visiting author at the Internationl Christian Retail Book Convention. I am staying real close to the place you are talking about. I will make sure I see it. I’m going to a game on Wedesday night beforee I leave.
Keep pushing the book “Dreamin g of the Majors; Living in thr Bush” Your blog has helped in my cause so much so far. I’m starting to get a lot of speaking engagements. I will be over tghere in Houston some time this summer for a game with Dierker. It would be great to have a book signing in Houston. Thin of a venue for me.
God speed
Lefty O’Neal
June 8, 2010 at 7:08 pm |
I saw this exhibit last month while visiting a relative in St. Louis prior to my daughter’s graduation from Mizzou. I’ve been to St. Louis and the Arch Museum several times before and on the occasion of this rainy morning did so again. I stumbled on this exhibit and spent the better part of the morning there. Although small, it is extremely high quality. I noticed that a “Dr. Bill McCurdy” was cited for his contribution and emailed him about it later when he confirmed it was “our” Bill McCurdy. The state history museum in Forest Park (site of the World’s Fair) also has a nice but even smaller exhibit of St. Louis professional teams. Busch III is the third St. Louis venue for me, having attended games at Busch II and Sportsmen’s, where I saw my first game in 1961. I agree that the Cardinals fans are classy and support their team like no other. Cardinal Red in Busch is brighter than Dodger Blue at Chavez Ravine. And don’t miss the great photo of Denkinger blowing the call against the Royals featured prominently at Shannon’s Steak House. Denkinger has scrawled his name and “Safe!!!” across the clearly out runner.