The 161st Street Business Improvement District has combined lineup cards with The Bronx Museum of the Arts for the new season.
“Baseball in the Bronx” will feature photographs, memorabilia and artifacts from across the borough and across the decades at the museum at 1040 Grand Concourse at 165th Street.
Baseball knowledge is on deck, as well.
A series of talks and book signings with prominent sportswriters and historians, plus a screening of the 2008 film “Sugar,” will take place April 15 – 30. During opening week, a free trolley will run between Yankee Stadium and the Bronx Museum. The first thousand visitors to the exhibition get free Topps baseball cards. Sunday, April 15, is the kickoff. The exhibit ends May 13.
“There’s never been anything like this,” said Cary Goodman, executive director of the show’s moving force, the 161st Street Business Improvement District (BID). “Visitors will be able to view Joe DiMaggio’s bat, Elston Howard’s Golden Glove, and see photographs of the Negro League World Series at Yankee Stadium. They can meet a movie star, talk to an ESPN broadcaster and learn about the history of Bronx baseball.”
The exhibit also includes material about the history of Latino baseball via Club Cubano Interamericano of Melrose; Little League teams from Hunts Point, Crotona, Riverdale and Van Nest; College baseball at Fordham and NYU; and diamond greats from the Bronx.
In a hyper-local twist, the exhibit features family photographs from the 1950s to the present day, submitted by the public.
Museum-goers can ride a trolley to Yankee Stadium for free on April 15. The trolley will continue to operate for free during the show’s duration.
Brian Richards, Museum Curator for the New York Yankees, is the show’s curator. Private collections from Fordham University, The Bronx County Historical Society, NYU, The Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College, Mrs. Elston (Arlene) Howard and Ricky Martinez will be on display. Arlene Howard will be on hand April 15 at 3 p.m. to sign her book, “Elston and Me: The Story of the First Black Yankee.”
Following events include a talk and book-signing by DiMaggio author Kostya Kennedy who will be introduced by Councilman James Vacca on Tuesday, April 17, New York Times columnist George Vecsey on April 17, and ESPN writer and author Howard Bryant on Wednesday, April 18, all at 3 p.m.
Additional talks feature historians George Kirsch of Manhattan College and Bronx Borough historian Lloyd Ultan at 5 p.m. on Thursday, April 19; Sports Illustrated writer Melissa Ludtke introduced by Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson at 11 a.m. on Saturday, April 21; Senator Adriano Espaillat introducing “Sugar” with actor Angelis Perez Soto at 3 p.m. on Friday, April 27; and New York Times writer Bob Lipsyte at 3 p.m. on Monday, April 30.
