San Francisco Chronicle March 23, 2001

Plans in Works for a Hispanic Baseball Museum

For the past two months, the San Francisco Public Library has hosted an
exhibit by the Hispanic Heritage Baseball
Museum, displaying all kinds of memorabilia connected with Latinos in baseball, here and else-where. But the exhibit, which runs through Monday, also serves as a prelude to the grander plan envision-ed by its organizers.

They hope for a permanent home for the museum, built from the ground up in San Francisco, as complete and all-en-compassing as Major League Baseball's official shrine, but devoted to the history and culture of Hispanic baseball- a history that isn't addressed in Cooperstown or
elsewhere.

Gabriel Avila Jr., a San Francisco resident and the museum's founder and president, has visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum and, as a lifelong baseball fan raised in East Harlem as a Yankees fan, loved what he saw. But that's not the kind of museum I want this to be,” said Avila, who conceived the idea in 1992.

"I want it to be a museum, but I want it to be a cultural thing, too. People will be able to go in there and read and understand the history. We'll be a source of information for the young, the old, the cross-cultural... We want to tell the players' story, from the players' perspective. And their stories are tremendous, about baseball and about what they endured and survived".

The stories told by the exhibit, in the sixth floor atrium at the Larkin Street main lib- rary, are enlightening enough, and emo- tional for many and the collection in its comparative infancy. Many of the displays and the players honored are familiar to even the most casual baseball fan; the largest so far

far is Orlando Cepeda, who is on the board of directors, has actively campaigned for it and participated in a panel discussion about Latinos in baseball at the exhibit's late January opening.

There is memorabilia about dozens of players, teams, coaches and executives, past and present, from Hall of Famers such as Cepeda and Martin Dihigo, the Cuban who starred in the Negro Leagues (where Latino players performed throughout its history.)

Just as informative are the displays about leagues, teams and players in Latin coun- tries, dating well back into the previous century, much of which is unfamiliar to the average U.S. fan. Those displays and others have touched visitors from those countries, who have never seen so much of their history collected in one place.

Avila recalled seeing a Nicaraguan man who had survived the devastating earth- quake in that nation in 1972 and who never forgot Roberto Clemente's ill-fated flight to bring humanitarian aid. He was at the Clemente case, telling his son what it meant for the great Clemente to do that. Avila said. "People have knelt in front of that exhibit, people have left flowers at the displays. It's a spiritual thing with a lot of people".

Expanding the museum to its desired goal, however, will be a financial thing the est- imated price tag, for now, is between $15 million and $20 million. Avilas' dream is to have a two story space, with 55,000 square feet or more, near Pacific Bell
Park, with all the amenities, including an actual Hall of Fame that will honor players for their contributions and impact on their
community as much as for their accomp-lishments on the field.

Architect Ernest Manuel has sketched a preliminary plan for the building; now, organizers hope to get what will have to be a very generous donation either of land or of money for purchase and building.

Naturally, all donations are encouraged (the museum can be contacted at (877)-4426, or through its web site,
www.hispanicbaseballmuseum.com"

Avila and the other board members (including Giants Spanish language broadcaster Amaury Pi-Gonzalez, the museum's treasurer), spend much of their time fundraising and politicking, in the Bay Area business community, from major corporations and within Major League Baseball.. The fact that the library hosted the exhibit for two months, and that opening featured a proclamation honoring it from the city chamber of commerce, indicates that there is some support for it from San Francisco itself..

The Giants and As are solidly behind the effort, and plans are forming for Juan Marichal to donate some of his memorabilia to the museum sometime this summer. Those teams support is particularly meaningful because the Giants were at the forefront of cultivating Latin talent in the 1950s and 60s, and the As play the same role today. "it's the ideal marriage,” Avila said. When people see the Giants and the A's, they see us".

In fact, the timing of the museum's push couldn't be better all around, in light of the surge in Latinos in the majors (estimates run as high as 25 percent) and in the population (according to the just released census figures indicating that they are now the dominant minority).

The history of that population in the national pastime remains largely hidden – from them and the mainstream. Avila said: That's my dream, to be able to tell that story, to tell the would what it's all about."

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