The National Baseball Hall of Fame’s new YouTube series will help fans connect with the national pastime.
The Hall of Fame announced a 13-episode series, “Hall of Fame Connections,” which will give fans a unique perspective of the museum in Cooperstown, New York. The series is produced by MLB Network and received funding from New York’s division of tourism.
The series will be available to stream for free through the Hall of Fame’s YouTube channel, youtube.com/baseballhall.
New episodes will be released each Wednesday through September, and will also be featured across MLB Network’s studio programming.
Each episode will show how two seemingly unrelated artifacts in the museum are connected. Each two-part episode will feature the Hall’s curators discussing the artifacts with former major leaguer and current MLB Network personality Carlos Peña, and sports journalist Lindsay Berra, the granddaughter of Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra.
“We are thrilled to be launching ‘Hall of Fame Connections,’” Ken Meifert, vice president of sponsorship and development for the Hall of Fame, said in a statement. “The series connects events from baseball history through common threads, with each episode featuring artifacts from the Museum’s priceless collection that bring the stories to life.”
The first episode, called “The Catch to The Steal,” is available now. It takes a closer look at the glove Willie Mays used to make “The Catch” during the 1954 World Series, and, using five other artifacts, explains how the glove connects to the cleats Dave Roberts wore when he made “The Steal” for the Boston Red Sox during the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.
It’s an interesting progression that includes Mays’ glove, a ticket stub from the Giants’ first game on the West Coast, the 1962 World Series between the Giants and Yankees, the Earthquake World Series of 1989, Rickey Henderson and then Roberts and his cleats.
Roberts’ steal was the spark that led to Boston’s comeback from a 3-0 series deficit against their ancient rivals.
The second part of the inaugural episode contains a fascinating story about Mays’ glove he used to Make “The Catch.” The glove was given by Mays in 1955 to the son of Don Liddle, who needed a glove to play Little League baseball. Liddle is the trivia answer to the question, “What pitcher up the long drive by Vic Wertz that Willie Mays caught in the 1954 World Series?”
“Make a big play on the big stage, and we’ll play it over and over again,” Peña says in the opening segment.
Click here to watch the premiere episode.
The next three episodes in July will be:
- “Yogi to a King,” connecting Hall of Famer Yogi Berra to King George V, to air on July 7;
- “Dirt in the Skirt to the Sandman,” connecting the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League to Hall of Famer Mariano Rivera, on July 14;
- “Triple Play to Shohei,” connecting the first unassisted triple play in major league history to Angels star Shohei Ohtani on July 21.
Additional artifacts will include the catcher’s mitt Berra wore to catch Don Larsen’s perfect game in the 1956 World Series, the bat Roberto Clemente used to record his 3,000th and final hit in 1972, and the San Diego Chicken mascot. Many of the artifacts are already on display in Cooperstown.
“‘The Catch to the Steal,’ ‘Yogi to the King,’ and ‘Dirt in the Skirt to the Sandman’ are just a few of the exciting episodes that will highlight the treasures and stories visitors can discover when they make the trip to Cooperstown,” Meifert said in a news release. “We are grateful for the support provided by Market New York through I LOVE NY/ New York State’s Division of Tourism as a part of the Regional Economic Development Council awards, which made the release of ‘Hall of Fame Connections’ possible.”
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