Cuba’s baseball heritage on display at Burbank Central Library
Cuban baseball memorabilia is on display at the Burbank Central Library as part of an exhibit called Feeling the “Heat: Cuba’s Baseball Heritage.”
Terry Cannon, executive director of the Baseball Reliquary, recently launched an exhibit at the Burbank Central Library called “Feeling the Heat: Cuba’s Baseball Heritage,” which highlights Cuba’s extensive history in the sport.
The Baseball Reliquary is a nonprofit organization that Cannon, a Pasadena librarian, runs and is a traveling baseball museum of sorts. It has organized numerous exhibits that have been on display in Burbank, Pasadena, South Pasadena and Arcadia.
Cannon teamed up with Canadian baseball memorabilia collector Mark Rucker, who has a large collection of Cuban baseball items and has written about the history of the sport in Cuba.
“The exhibit is to provide a taste of Cuban baseball history and to acquaint people with some of the significant figures and issues that Cuban baseball faced,” Cannon said.
Cuban baseball memorabilia is on display at the Burbank Central Library as part of an exhibit called Feeling the “Heat: Cuba’s Baseball Heritage.”
He added that the exhibit in the Burbank library is nowhere close to telling the complete history of baseball in Cuba, but it does offer some insight into the sport’s impact on the island, which he hopes will encourage people to learn more about it.
Two display cases in the front lobby of the library house Cuban baseball jerseys, scans of photographs of players and various baseball trinkets.
Because of the humid weather in Cuba, Cannon said it’s difficult to find baseball photographs and memorabilia in the country. Also, collector items that are found on the island are usually taken by memorabilia scavengers, he added.
“The climate in Cuba really has not lent itself to preserving a lot of the materials,” he said. “Paper goods do not do well with humidity. Every time you see a lot of paper pieces related to Cuban baseball, they’re usually in pretty bad condition.”
Cuban baseball memorabilia is on display at the Burbank Central Library as part of an exhibit called “Feeling the Heat: Cuba’s Baseball Heritage.”
With the United States and Cuba entering into a new era where the relationship between the two nations is the warmest it has been in decades, Cannon said that baseball may become bigger and more popular for both countries.
“There’s going to be more ability for Cuban ball players to come and play in the U.S.,” he said. “Over the years, there’s been players that have had to defect from Cuba to play in the U.S. and are not allowed to go back to Cuba. So, I think now, Cubans can come more freely into the United States to come play, if they choose to do that.”
Cannon added that as more Americans travel to Cuba to learn more about its history, he hopes that motivates Cuba to push for preservation of its memorabilia.
“Baseball is the nation sport of Cuba, even more so than [in the United States],” he said.
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Anthony Clark Carpio, anthonyclark.carpio@latimes.com
Twitter: @acocarpio
