Play Ball

The opening of the Play Ball exhibition at the Arizona Museum for Youth marks an important milestone for the Cactus League history project as it accelerates the profile of the effort and will lead to a permanent home for Arizona’s spring training history much sooner than was anticipated or planned.

The concept for Play Ball was hatched in early 2008 as an idea for a popular exhibition by the Mesa Historical Museum’s Director, Lisa Anderson, but was never envisioned as anything more than a presentation of history to occupy one or perhaps two of the rooms in the historic schoolhouse converted to a museum in Mesa’s Lehi neighborhood.

However, soon after the show opened there in late January 2009, it was clear to Anderson and her team of dedicated baseball fans turned volunteers that this idea had the potential to become much more than a one-room show. In fact, even before the first season of spring training baseball fans had passed through the exhibit, plans were being laid for massive expansion and ultimately a permanent “home field” for the project.

With the support of longtime Mesa resident and Cactus League President Robert Brinton, Phoenix political consultant Robert Johnson, and teacher and baseball researcher Rodney Johnson, the project first envisioned by Anderson now had the makings of an effort with the political, financial and volunteer support to become a national attraction.

Every day during the 2009 season the collection grew, as fans learned of the project and wanted to take part, through donations and loans of objects and photographs, stories and leads on people who witnessed the early history of Major League Baseball warm-ups in Arizona.

Hall of Fame pitcher Gaylord Perry gave early prominence to the project by launching the exhibit with a visit on opening day, and signing autographs for hundreds of fans wiling to donate to the museum cause. He was followed the first spring by Jimmy Wynn, a slugging outfielder who spent his first seasons of pro baseball training in Apace Junction with the now defunct Houston Colt 45s, and Marty Pattin, a pitcher who was part of the Seattle Pilots roster the only year they trained under that name in Tempe.

Chicago Cubs great and Hall of Famer Fergie Jenkins and A’s catching legend Ray Fosse also made stops at the museum to see the fledgling history project and lend their efforts to early fundraising for the collection.

Corporate support for the project has been strong with in-kind and cash donations helping make sure the presentation and promotion of the project was second-to-none. Wells Fargo Bank, Salt River Project and Hunt Construction joined the Mesa Convention and Visitors Bureau as headlining sponsors of the project, and since have been joined by the City of Mesa as leading backers for the effort.
Whereas the sluggish economy has led to the demise of many history museums across the country, the result here has been an even more concentrated effort to ensure the success of the project during these difficult times.

Mesa Mayor Scott Smith and members of the Mesa City Council in mid-2009 voted to bring the Play Ball exhibit into the City’s fold by moving the show from the private Mesa Historical Museum to the City-owned Arizona Museum for Youth, a venue with higher annual traffic and a better location in downtown Mesa.

The move has placed the project, still produced and managed by Anderson and her team of volunteers working under the umbrella of a partnership between the City and the Mesa Historical Museum, in a position to achieve its longterm goal of a permanent home much faster than the five to seven year projection when the idea was conceived.

It also puts the Play Ball project in the center of the action as Mayor Smith and the Arizona Legislature work to develop a funding mechanism capable of financing a new spring training home for the Cubs at a site still to be determined within the Mesa city limits.

Organizers now expect to push for development of a new and permanent home for the Play Ball project within the friendly confines of a mixed-use retail and entertainment complex being planned alongside the ballpark, to be called “Wrigleyville West.” They believe the nation’s only collection of Arizona spring training history would be a perfect year-round attraction for baseball fans seeking a little taste of Wrigley Field atmosphere whenever the desire hits them.

The sophomore season of Play Ball – The Cactus League Experience will run through November 7, 2010 at the Arizona Museum for Youth, 35 N.Robson Street, in downtown Mesa.