Thanks to my friend Andrea, I got in to the Members Preview party for Baseball as America at the Museum of Fine Arts on Friday. It’s definitely worth seeing. There’s so much stuff that it’s hard to boil it down into a capsule review – Mickey Herskowitz captures a lot of it. One part of the exhibit he didn’t mention was the one that I think was my favorite (it’s hard to pick just one), and that was an exhibit on fandom. The highlight of that was various forms of self-expressed love for baseball and/or a specific team or player made by regular fans – artwork carved out of bats or drawn onto balls, a dress made from 35 years’ worth of World Series tickets, an amazingly detailed scrapbook of the 1912 season made by two boys. When some people say “I live for this”, they really mean it.
Anyway, two thumbs up. There’s supposed to be a trivia contest on June 25, for which Chron columnist Ken Hoffman is a judge. I will do my best to make it to that. There will be book signings, movie screenings, and other stuff going on through the summer as well. Whatever else you do, make sure you see “Baseball as America”. You’ll enjoy it.
I definitely enjoyed this exhibit when it was in NYC a few years ago. If you’re a baseball fan and in the Houston area, take the time to see this.