Play Ball

LISA ANDERSON

President and CEO Lisa Anderson has been directing the Mesa Historical Museum for over five years. In addition, Lisa has a distinguished career as a museum professional spanning 21 years. Lisa currently serves as the President of the Museum Association of Arizona, serves on the Professional Development Committee of the Association for State and Local History (AASLH), and is the Arizona Captain for the national awards issued by that organization. Since becoming President and CEO of the Mesa Historical Museum, the organization has been recognized with a national Award of Merit from AASLH and the Award of Excellence from the Museum Association of Arizona. Lisa was also awarded the City of Mesa’s Preservation award.

ROBERT BRINTON

Mesa Historical Museum Board Member and Cactus League President Robert Brinton has turned his lifelong love of Chicago Cubs baseball into passion for the Play Ball project, supporting the effort with financial aid and program resources. Robert grew up looking forward to the Cubs return to Rendevous Park each spring and has spent much of his adult life working to ensure a strong future for the Cactus League. As President of the League, he works with representatives of the all the host Arizona cities to ensure they too have an opportunity to participate in the project. Robert was fully engaged in 1988 when then Arizona Governor Rose Mofford rallied the state’s civic leaders to save the League and prevent teams from going to Florida. Today, he is similarly involved in the effort to identify new public and private funding to keep the Cubs from moving to Florida.

ROBERT JOHNSON

Mesa Historical Museum Board of Directors Vice-Chairman and Play Ball Project Board Liaison Robert Johnson shares a passion for the game of baseball that dates back some 35 years when he would carry an AM/FM radio around his family’s farm in rural Missouri listening to each and every Kansas City Royals game. As a teenager, he worked two seasons in the radio booth at Cleveland Indians spring training games in Tucson, timing commercial breaks and making sure the equipment worked for Indians pitching icon turned broadcaster Herb Score. Robert helped plan news coverage of Governor Rose Mofford’s effort to save the Cactus League in 1988 and then provided public relations guidance to the committee looking to create a new funding stream for Cactus League ballparks in 2000. In 2001, he went to work with officials in Surprise, Az. to build the first new spring training complex with funds from the new law for his hometown favorite Kansas City Royals and Texas Rangers, and continues to support political efforts to protect and expand the League. Robert shares Brinton’s dream of one day opening a permanent Cactus League museum in the Valley and uses his skills as a political consultant to help build public and community support for the project.

RODNEY JOHNSON

Play Ball Project Research Coordinator Rodney Johnson saw his first Cactus League game in 1978 when he was a student at Arizona State University. He hasn’t missed a spring training season since then. Rodney served for five years on the board of directors for the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) and is now the Arizona Chapter President. For the past 10 years he has worked for both MLB.com and as an official scorer at Arizona Diamondbacks games. Rodney has become the foremost expert on the rich and colorful history of the Cactus League. He is committed to creating a complete and accurate record of spring training in Arizona and looks forward to the growth and expansion of the Play Ball project.

CHARLIE VASCELLERO

Author, traveler, historian, and baseball fan, when Charlie first discovered Major League Baseball in Arizona, his junior high school attendance suffered. Thirty years later, he still takes a month-long hiatus from his life in Baltimore, MD to make an annual pilgrimage to Arizona for Cactus League spring training. A former 20-year resident of Arizona, Charlie is a constant contributor to many of the Cactus League teams’ spring training programs as well as other Arizona tourism and travel periodicals. His previews and travel stories appear annually in U.S. Airways and Key Magazine. He is a regular contributor to many Baltimore and D.C. area publications as well the Los Angeles Times travel section.