Baseball Reliquary

It was a warm and muggy afternoon so a day at the library sounded like a great idea. Afterall, possibly witnessing the Dodgers extending their recent losing streak did not sound appealing. I walked into the Donald R. Wright Auditorium at the Pasadena Central Library to enjoy this afternoons Induction Day ceremony of The Shrine of the Eternals.

It started with the serenading of Ellie Choate on the harp as she played the National Anthem to start the festivities. On this day, Bill Murray, of comedy fame, was awarded the Hilda Chester Award and Kerry Yo Nakagawa was awarded the Tony Salin Memorial Award. As you probably know, Hilda Chester is the famous, and sometime infamous, Brooklyn Dodger faithful fan. She is probably the best known baseball fan in baseball history. She is remembered for going to games with a cow bell and banging away at any time with delight.

Inducted on this day was Negro League great and Baseball Hall of Famer Josh Gibson, Los Angeles Dodger great Fernando Valenzuela and California Nisei League player, coach and trailblazer Kenichi Zenimura. It was quite a multi-cultural event featuring the triumphs of minorities in America and their determination to succeed in the face of so many obstacles. Baseball was their common denominator. The grandson of Josh Gibson, Sean L. Gibson, accepted the award for his family, former Dodger Bobby Castillo accepted the honor for Fernando Valenzuela and the son of Kenichi Zenimura, Kenso Howard Zenimura accepted his award. Check out The Shrine of the Eternal Induction Day link for biographical information about them.

I took some photos of the event. So please feel free to check out my photoalbum. There are also pics of various paintings and Shrine of the Eternals Plaques from other years in display throughout the library. There is nothing like walking around a library staring at the walls as folks are roaming the halls with books in their arms and laptops open to MicrosoftWord.

Shrine of the Eternal Link

Update: At the ceremony I received a postcard advertising The Negro Baseball League exhibit at the California African American Museum at Exposition Park. I had no idea this was in town. This is a must see for any Baseball fan interested in finding out about this league. It's in town til August 16, 2006.