El Tecolote September, 2001

Perez, Ramirez inducted in Hispanic Museum

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

By CESAR LOVE
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The Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum inducted its first members - Tony Perez and Rafael Ramirez - on August 15 in a pre-game ceremony at Pacific Bell Park, even though the museum has yet to find a site for its building.

The ceremony was conducted by Giants broad-caster Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, Museum President Gabe Avila and District 11 Supervisor Gerardo Sandoval. Perez and Ramirez, who are both members of the Florida Marlins organization, were in San Francisco for a three-game series against the Giants.

Earlier in the day, Perez and Ramirez were pre-sented a separate award, the Orlando Cepeda Lifetime Achievement Award, by Cepeda, the Giants Hall of Fame player who is also a member of the museum's board of directors. "I've earned a lot of awards in my career, but this one is very special because it has the name of my compadre, Orlando Cepeda," Perez said.

Last year, Tony Perez, the current manager of the Florida Marlins and a star player with the Cincinnati Reds of the 1970s, was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame after a long wait, which some viewed as racist because players with less impressive careers were inducted before him.

Rafael "Felo Ramirez is the Spanish-language radio broadcaster for the Florida Marlins. This year, Ramirez was inducted into the

Tony Perez is inducted in the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Museum

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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