Neat baseball experiences for the off-season

The St. Louis baseball season may be over. But, the Missouri History Museum has a couple baseball events to help tide you over until spring training starts.

Starting in December, the museum will host the first-ever traveling exhibit from the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. The exhibit opens Dec. 19 and extends through April 24, 2005.

And, during November, you'll get several chances to see a special 30-minute TV program that previews the exhibit. The museum program will run at 8 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays on KETC-TV.

The show will be telecast on cable Channel 13 in the city and Channel 26 in the county.

The TV show features an original musical song about baseball history. It was written and performed by local rapper King James.

The museum has a regular TV program called "Place in Time." Before every museum exhibit, the museum produces a preview show on television.

The baseball preview is titled "Baseball as America."

The TV preview tells a lot about the national Hall of Fame exhibit.

But, there's also lots of good St. Louis history from the Cardinals' own Hall of Fame. The museum will have a separate exhibit for Cardinal memorabilia in December.

Of course, St. Louis has been a big part in the country's baseball history. Organized baseball started here way back in the 1800s. That includes a lot of history of the Negro baseball leagues.

At one time, St. Louis had two major league teams, the Cardinals and the St. Louis Browns. In 1944, the Cardinals and the Browns had a "streetcar" World Series, which the Cardinals won.

The Cardinals hold the record for most World Series titles by a National League team.

Both the TV show and the museum exhibit also focus on "fun" things from baseball's long history. One of the most famous happened in St. Louis.

That was the day midget Eddie Gaedel appeared as a pinch-hitter for the St. Louis Browns. Wearing number 1/8 on his uniform, the four-footer walked on four pitches.

That incident shows the connection between the past and present in St. Louis baseball.

The batboy who had to give up his uniform to Gaedel was Bill DeWitt Jr. At the time, DeWitt's father owned the Browns. Today, DeWitt Jr. is the lead partner of the group that owns the St. Louis Cardinals.

And the player who pinch-ran for Gaedel still lives in St. Louis. That's Jim Delsing, an outfielder for the Browns at that time. He and other Browns are interviewed in the show.

Other subjects from the TV program include:

• Cardinal Hall-of-Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith's recounting his 1985 home run that let the Cardinals advance to the World Series. Broadcaster Jack Buck made it more famous with his "Go Crazy" call on the play.
  
  
• An interview with St. Louisan' Dan Rosen who has one of the best private collections of Brooklyn Dodger memorabilia. A Brooklyn native, Rosen was formerly the manager of the Chase Park Plaza Hotel in St. Louis.
  
  
• The story about the origin in 1922 of the famous "Birds on the Bat" logo on Cardinal uniforms. The story includes former Cardinal General Manager Frank Lane's effort to move the logo from the front of the uniform to the sleeve in 1956.
  
  
• Then, Lane's effort to trade Hall of Fame outfielder Stan Musial that same year was a final straw. Cardinal owner August Busch of the Anheuser-Busch Brewery fired Lane.
  
  
• There's also an interview with St. Louis Post-Dispatch baseball writer Rick Hummel. He lists chances of current and recent Cardinals of getting in the Hall of Fame. He thinks Mark McGwire is a cinch but maybe not as a Cardinal. McGwire played much of his career in Oakland.
  
  
• Hummel likes the Hall chances of Albert Pujols if he can continue at the level set in his first four years. Hummel is less sure about Scott Rollen and Jim Edmonds.
  
  
• One of the modern highlights of the TV show is the performance of St. Louis rap artist Jamie Dennis. His stage name is King James. He composed the lyrics and tune for "Baseball in the USA" especially for the museum's program.

The museum also used another original piece by King James to promote its earlier Lewis and Clark program.

Donn Johnson is the museum's director of communications. He said enlisting help from modern musicians is an effort to convince Missourians that history can be up-to-date.

St. Louisans know that baseball's past, present and future run together in his area.