Cactus League exhibit opens in downtown Mesa
If you’re headed out to spring training in Mesa, or anywhere else in the Phoenix area, you may want to take some time to see the exhibit Play Ball, The Cactus League Experience. Now in its new home in the Arizona Youth Museum in Downtown Mesa, Play Ball tells the story of the Cactus League and spring training in Mesa and the Phoenix area. Cubs artifacts are abundant in the exhibit, as they should be. The Cubs, Mesa, the Cactus League and Spring Training go together.
Walking through its old home in the Arizona Historical Museum, it was hard to ignore the rich history of the Cactus League and the Cubs’ place in that history. Visitors to the exhibit in the new space will find that rich history, much of it in interactive form.
Among the artifacts you will find is a freeze-dried grapefruit signed by Sammy Sosa. It was given to the museum by Charlie Vascellaro, a writer from Baltimore. The shortened form of the story goes that Vascellaro was at a game and had not brought anything for a player to autograph. He reached for a grapefruit, and Sammy signed that. Realizing later on that the Grapefruit League was in Florida, Vascellaro decided to file down a piece of cactus and have Prince Fielder sign it a couple of years later. You’ll find both pieces of memorabilia in the exhibit.
Also in the exhibit are “surprises in the attic,” as described by Lisa Anderson, Executive Director of the Mesa Historical Museum and Museum Resources Developer, City of Mesa. Her favorite story comes from the Museum’s own attic. Her curator was clearing out attic space at the Mesa Historical Museum and found in a corner a paper bag. In it were a uniform, socks….. “It dates back to probably the 1920s,” said Anderson. “And because the Cubs were the most popular team then, as they are now, one of the local restaurant owners, his name is on the back, he had these jerseys made up by hand and he sponsored a team and they were called the Cubs.”
Of particular historical interest to Cubs fans will be the camera system that was used to tape Cubs spring training games. According to Anderson, every game was filmed on the old system and after every game it had to be driven from Mesa to Sky Harbor Airport to get it on a plane and to WGN in time to show highlights on the news.
“This was before highways and freeways,” Anderson said. And while the camera system is in the possession of the museum, the footage is in the possession of WGN. Anderson said she is trying to work with WGN to obtain some of the footage to add to other visuals throughout the exhibit.
The exhibit opened in its new temporary home on Friday. If you go thinking all you’ll see are Cubs memorabilia, think again. This is an exhibit of the Cactus League, and as more artifacts and memorabilia are collected, they will be added to the exhibit, including artifacts and memorabilia from teams no longer training in Arizona. On display now are about 250 of the 400 pieces collected by Anderson and her staff. And as word spreads of this exhibit, people are calling and offering artifacts.
“After we opened, we had a gentleman come in and he had a bat and a signed Oakland A’s program. He said he said [something about us] on TV and wondered if we wanted these things. They’re in good condition,” Anderson said.
Anderson is looking for more memorabilia, particularly from teams no longer training in the Phoenix area. “We don’t have anything for the Red Sox during their time here and we don’t have anything for the Orioles during their time here,” she said. Anderson and her staff are looking for programs, hats, ticket stubs, anything that identifies a team with the Cactus League. And while there are teams for which they have no items, they do have some items from the Seattle Pilots.
The Arizona Youth Museum is another temporary site for the exhibit. Eventually, Anderson said, they would like to have a partnership with the Cubs to have a permanent spot in the new stadium. If that does not work out for any reason, they will find another permanent spot to the exhibit.
