Red Sox fans haven’t had much reason to cheer so far this season. But even in a down year, there’s something eternal about the draw of baseball – and that’s the idea behind a new exhibit at The Concord Museum celebrating The Art of Baseball. With memorabilia, folk art and an honorary curator in Doris Kearns Goodwin, the museum is hoping for a home run.
You can see a video version of Jared’s story on our website at WGBH News – dot – org (slash) open studio. Or visit The Art of Baseball yourself. It’s on exhibit at The Concord Museum through September.
When it comes to the art of baseball, there’s a certain pitch, says Doris Kearns Goodwin.
“People who have written about it, painted about it, written poetry about it, feel that emotional connection to the game, and that’s what’s expressed in the works of art and literature.”
The writer and historian is the honorary curator of "The Art of Baseball", now on display at The Concord Museum. From a bronze statue of a lone pitcher intently focused on an unseen batter, to a painting capturing the roar of excitement in the stands, the ephemera on display tugs us into the sights and sounds of a crowded ballpark, says Kearns Goodwin — herself a lifetime fan of the game.
“My father taught me how to keep score with all of those miniature symbols when I was only 5 or 6 years old. When he came home from work at the end of the day, I could record for him the history of that afternoon’s Brooklyn Dodgers game.”
It’s those personal connections at play in the work and objects here—all derived from the Gladstone Collection—a singular, private collection gathered over the last 40 years says the museum’s Executive Director, Peggy Burke.
“The representation here really looks at the development of the sport from the very early periods, so there are a number of works of art from the middle of the 19th century.”
Even then, teams were as adept at trash talk as they are today. Burke points me with a small rectangular black box…
“We have a little coffin with the little player in it and a box that the coffin arrived in. One new Hampshire team in the late 29th century that was competing with a VT team, sent in advance of the game this little coffin, sort of putting it out there we intent to bury you.
Baseball was a part of the American experience from the mid-1800s on, and that’s reflected in some of the everyday artifacts on display. A game dotting the register of a Central Massachusetts family in 1855. Players engraved on a late-1800s powder horn… even masquerading in the embellished handle of a tortoise shell comb.
Says Kearns Goodwin:
"You see it was part of the American allure even then obviously if people are putting them into a painting or sculpting from them, so it does go back further and it makes sense cause it’s the kind of game you can play on a corner, you don’t need the great kinds of equipment that you need for other sports, that was true for a lot of people in a lot of places in the country. And obviously from these pictures, so it dates it.”
The pictures date from a late 1800s William Merritt Chase sketch to a contemporary work by Robert Rauschenberg. And the sculpture intersects with history, including a bronze of a First Baseman that’s visible behind Babe Ruth – in a black and white photo taken the day he was released from the Yankees.
“It’s just like the seasons a part of who we are as human beings, so baseball is such a seasonal game. There’s all that hope of spring that your team is going to win no matter what, and then there’s the reality of summer and even if they’re not doing well, there’s still that great pleasure of being in the park on a summer day. And then the dramatic excitement of fall if your team is still in it, and then the sadness when baseball is over and winter comes and you cant wait until spring training again.”
The art of baseball also features the tools of giants. Ted Williams’ glove, Jim Rice’s tarred up baseball bat. Carl Yastrzemki’s cap and Carlton Fisk’s mask. Not to mention a glittering array of Red Sox World Series rings.
Kearns Goodwin obviously deals with materials like this all the time in her research and writing, but what experience does she get when she experiences something like this up close and personal?)
"I think there’s something about that moment when you’re actually able to see a piece of something that was a part of the person that you’re studying, for example when I see the emancipation proclamation or I see a glove that Lincoln wore. You’re feeling an intimate connection to the person, that person comes alive in that moment, so you see a Ted Williams glove ad you know that he wore that glove and he’s no longer alive but he’s connected to that glove."
It’s a magical moment, Goodwin says, if you’re willing to take your eye off the ball.
