THE HEINZ CENTER'S NEW SPORTS WING

BY DENIS REPP

I met with Anne Madarasz of the Sen. John Heinz Pittsburgh Regional History Center recently regarding a few baseball matters.

In refering to the Heinz Center's Sports Wing they want your help.

They are still looking for your ideas as to any exhibits that ought to be included in the baseball section of the wing.  Here are some questions and ideas for you to ponder.

-  They plan to have a display containing every baseball card ever made with a Pirate on it.  All makers, all years.  (This amounts to 2500-odd cards.)  Initially, this display will include the few hundred cards they already have, along with a lot of empty slots.  When that's in place, the idea is to get lots of area residents to donate a card or two to fill the gaps.  To have us all participate, that is, rather than one big collector.  So dig through the ones your mom didn't throw out, and maybe you can contribute to this project when the time comes.  (Time to cough up that Honus Wagner T-206 that you.ve been sitting on.)

-  Which audio clips from historic Pirate broadcasts should be included in this exhibit (assuming that they can find them)?

-  Do you know where we can get a picture (or other image) of Recreation Park?  The Heinz Center and the Carnegie don't have any.  Weren't a couple of you looking into the early, pre-Pirate, pre-major league days of area baseball?

-  Can you think of any hands-on exhibits that ought to be included in the baseball exhibit?

-  The museum will contain an area dedicated to the ten greatest sports moments in area history.  (That's all sports, not just baseball.)  People are now able to vote online for which events ought to be included here.  The ballot will include 25 events to choose from (along with a write-in slot). .

This ballot, along with news and announcements about the new exhibits in general will appear on the museum's website - www.pghhistory.org . 

-   At an earlier meeting involving the museum and some SABR people, a project involving maps and local areas of historical sporting significance was discussed.  The final form that this idea will take is still not determined . it may be online, it may be a handout available to museum visitors - but it's never too early to come up with data for this.  What local landmarks, fields, parks, gyms, towns, etc., past and present (all sports) should be included on such a map, or database?   Here are some samples to get you going:

Places:

Duquesne Gardens

Latrobe C.C. (Arnie.s incubator)

Greenlee Field

Towns:

Beaver Falls (Joe Namath)

Donora (Musial, Griffeys)

Carnegie (Honus Wagner)

Butler, Vandergrift, Uniontown and the other MAL cities

Graves:

Calvary (Galvin)

Allegheny (Gibson, Greenlee)

Homewood (Traynor)

You get the idea.  What other places should be in this database?

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In short, the museum's mantra has been .What is that thing that ought to be in this museum so that no one shows up in 2004 and says .How could they leave this out? They are coming to us for our baseball expertise in particular, but all good ideas are appreciated.

Think about these things, and get back to me with your ideas.  I'll collect them, and present them to the Heinz Center.