In the same week that Michael Phelps stepped onto dry land and nearly drowned himself in bad judgment, we had three other magnificent swimmers, Kimmie Meisner, Katie Hoff and Jessica Long, who slipped into the Sports Legends Museum and just floated above everything.
They showed up at the annual birthday bash for Babe Ruth the other night, and blew out candles on a big cake marking the great man’s 114th birthday.
And you know who else was there?
The Orioles’ Melvin Mora. Maryland football coach Ralph Friedgen. Old Baltimore Colts such as Jim Mutscheller, Tom Matte, Ordell Braase, Bruce Laird, Toni Linhart, Rick Volk, plus Sandy Unitas and a couple of her kids. Carlos Garcia and P.J. Wakefield from the Blast. Bert Simmons, from the Elite Giants of the Negro League. The former Baltimore Bullet Bob Ferry. Plus such broadcasters as Fred Manfra, Ted Patterson, Keith Mills and John Patti.
They didn’t show up just to please the ghost of the Babe. There were 700 people who paid their way in Friday night, and they came from all over the state for the get-together.
This was one more way that the Sports Legends people do precisely what they set out to do when they opened the place a few years back: As you blow out the candles on the Babe’s birthday cake, you’re symbolically passing the torch of athletic greatness across the generations.
And you’re reminding people of the remarkable sports history around here, which is worth preserving not only for victories and championships but for the triumphs of the human spirit, and the ways in which some special teams, and some terrific athletes, have helped bind us as a community across the decades.
That’s why it’s good to see the progress the museum’s making at the gate, in its marvelous gift shop, and with special events. The other night, for example, they drew about a hundred people – at $500 a ticket – to spend some time with Cal Ripken and Eddie Murray.
Ripken was, as usual, genial as could be. And, for those who once thought of Murray as withdrawn and sometimes surly, they got a whole new take on the guy. He was funny and he was gracious, and the crowd loved him.
They also got to walk around the place and see the brand new exhibit on the 1958 championship Colts, with some spectacular photos and artifacts – and a mock 1958-style living room with a TV set showing the whole game in glorious black-and-white.
But that’s only part of the museum’s current status. The other part is the ongoing financial struggle – particularly in today’s economy. It’s easy for some politicians to say: Why should we send money their way? It’s only sports.
Yep, it’s only sports in the same way that the Museum of Art’s only some old paintings and the Walters Art Museum’s only a bunch of sculpture and the American Visionary Art Museum’s only a bunch of indescribable off-beat stuff.
They’re all a part of who we are. They’re our municipal attics, the places we keep our stuff and show it off when company comes around.
And yet, there are still those who would hold the Sports Legends Museum’s head under water any time they try to come up for financial breath.
“We’re doing much better,” the museum’s director, Mike Gibbons, was saying the other day, “but we’re still living hand to mouth. There’s a $4 million capital debt left over from construction, and we’ve got to get through the winter in a time when credit’s real tight. But we’re certainly headed in the right direction.”
The museum got a pretty bad scare last year when state Comptroller Peter Franchot tried to block rent relief. It’s Franchot’s job to watch the books – but he’s far too smart not to realize that museums involve far more finances.
Meanwhile, the city of Baltimore, which benefits from Sports Legends’ mere presence, signed a financial aid deal back in 1983, when the museum consisted only of the original Babe Ruth birthplace, a few blocks west on Emery Street. That deal hasn’t changed in 26 years. The city gives $55,000 a year to the museum. That’s an astonishingly small number.
This is a place that holds our gladdest history. You step inside and hear the roar of the crowds. Some time this week, Orioles General Manager Andy MacPhail’s taking his first tour of the museum.
“Just to tell him, ‘Andy, this is our history, and it’s your resource.’ No other ballclub can say that,” Gibbons said.
What a notion: Bring in some of these big-time free agents. Let ’em know: You’re not just signing on with a ballclub. You’re buying into a whole history. Here it is, right before your eyes. Imagine yourself here.
Thus, the torch is passed to a new generation.
