The Los Angeles Times March 17, 2001

Museum Showcases Latino Heroes
of the Game

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BASEBALL: Roberto Clemente
exhibit is the cornerstone of the traveling exhibit

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By PAUL GUTIERREZ

"Hopefully, little by little, he'll build some kind of passion for our Latino heroes."

That's what Tito Avila had in mind when he founded the traveling museum two years ago and oversaw its first viewing with a gala opening reception on Jan. 26.

"Our youth is lost, it's lost," said Avila also the museum's president and CEO.

The library's Skylight Gallery serves as the temporary home for the exhibit, which currently consists of more than 100 mementos in 15 glass cases and toe wall displays containing photo collages.

One case is dedicated to Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda and contains a Giant jersey autographed by the Baby Bull, who entered Cooperstown in 1999.

To the left is the poster from La Primera Serie, the first major league series played in Mexico, between the San Diego Padres and New York Mets, Aug. 16-18, 1999. in Monterrey, Mexico.

A display dedicated to Dominicans contains a black

broadcaster's wing of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Ramirez, who began broadcasting in 1945, is a well-known voice for Latino baseball fans in the East Coast and the Caribbean region. Amaury Pi-Gonzalez and Giants coach Carlos Alfonso both said they grew up listening to broadcasts of Ramirez.

Latino players who are already enshrined in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, such as Martin Dihigo and Roberto Clemente, will be automatically inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum. But the new museum will induct players who are not

enshrined in Cooperstown according to its own criteria; it will value community involvement and upstanding character more so than the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Avila said.

District 11 Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval has joined the project and id assisting the effort to obtain land on seeking support from other city officials. "I'm doing everything I can to prep the government," Sandoval said. "This is akin ti Cleveland getting the rock 'n' roll museum."

Sandoval would not identify the addresses of possible sites for the museum but he said he has a "short list' of 10 locations in the China Basin and South of Market neighborhoods. All the sites are privately owned.

Sandoval, who grew up in Los Angeles, said his family refused to root for the Los Angeles Dodgers after that organization displaced an entire Mexican community that lived in Chavez Ravine when Dodger Stadium was built there in

the early 1960s. He also said his family became Giants fans because the team had many Latino players,

The museum project will need an estimated $15 million before it becomes a reality. Avila would not reveal how much money has been raised or how much is still needed. But he did say they have received corporate sponsorships from Toyota, Prudential, and Southwest Airlines, and that they will refuse to accept money from tobacco or alcohol companies.

Avila estimates that professional Latino Base- ball players will earn a combined $120 million this year, which could be tapped to fund the museum.

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San Francisco - Shuffling through each exhibit, Mario Zunga's eyes grew wider in wonderment and his voice rose higher with excitement as he beckoned across the room to his teenage son, Enmanuel.

Mario, 41, had taken Enmanuel, 14, to the San Francisco Main Public Library in the Civic Center for the first exhibition of Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum, a traveling show paying homage to the rich history carved by Latinos.

When Mario, a Nicaragua native who moved his family to the Bay Area 10 years ago, came across one of two glass cases dedicated to the late Roberto Clemente, his demeanor changed.

"Mijito, mira," Mario somberly called to Enmanuel, motioning for him to read the display explaining how the Puerto Rican-born Clemente died in a plane crash while flying relief supplies to an earthquake-ravaged Nicaragua on New Year's Eve of 1973.

"My son, look. This is what happened to him and I remember very clearly when I heard the news that Roberto Clemente died. This brings it all back."

Having spent his formative years in the United States, and as a stereotypical teen, Enmanual did not seem moved.

"It's really important to me that he understands and also that he feels proud of these accomplishments," Mario said of Enmanuel.

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