Who says big league teams aren’t collectors? The St. Louis Cardinals continue to stockpile artifacts from the team’s long history for a museum that…well…doesn’t exist. Not in physical form anyway, although they have launched a nice Cardinals Museum Website. Now, they’re loaning out some of the club’s massive collection.
A delay in construction of Ballpark Village, located just beyond the outfield gates, has kept the museum in a holding pattern for more than three years. Club officials are still optimistic it’ll happen as the economy improves. The team has quite a collection. 16,000 artifacts and 80,000 photos are waiting to be rotated into displays and current players have been generous.
Still, they’d like the public to see at least a fraction of what they own, so the team is loaning part of the stash to the Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, a Cardinals’ hotbed.
They have shipped almost 100 items to the library, which will feature them in an exhibit called “Play Ball! The St. Louis Cardinals” that runs from March 3 to Sept. 16.
“It’s been challenging in some ways because we know that there is a segment of our fan base that really misses the opportunity to come to the museum and see what we have to offer,” Paula Homan, the curator of the Cardinals Hall of Fame Museum, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “On the other hand, we’re taking care of the collection as best we can.”
Get a look at some of the items and hear from team owner Bill DeWitt III here.
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