Baseball Museum

They want to rebuild a baseball museum almost nobody visits. To get the job done, the museum directors may have to find more than $30,000--or nearly four times the institution's yearly budget.
"We've got a way to go," said Jim Eisenbarth, a retired history teacher and vice president of the BRS Baseball Museum. "It's very slow and challenging."

The museum started in 1981 as a display in a local diner window to honor two Hall of Famers who played for the White Sox--pitcher Charles "Red" Ruffing and catcher Ray Schalk--and Hall of Fame first baseman James "Sunny" Bottomley, a St. Louis Cardinal most of his career. All of them were born or raised in or very near Nokomis and were major-league stars during the first half of the 20th century.
But few people seem to care. Beyond a group of local 4th graders who pass through on a yearly field trip, the museum gets about 24 visitors a year.

The good thing is, occasionally, we get a stranger who really shows an interest," said Eisenbarth, 63. "When that happens, it gives us kind of a big lift."

Reasons for the meager attendance vary. Some say interest in baseball among young people is weak. Some say few people know the BRS Museum exists. Others say Nokomis, a town of about 2,400 people 235 miles southwest of downtown Chicago, is too remote.

The museum elders have heard all that, yet they maintain belief in their scruffy, quirky institution. Eisenbarth calls it a "treasure." He and others contend the place could spark long-dormant community spirit and tourism in a county that ranks among the state's lowest in per capita income and a town enduring a steady population decline.

"I think it's pride," said Museum Treasurer Myron Schaefer, 79, a retired bank examiner and attorney. "It's tradition. ... We're going to lose the whole town if we don't keep this going."

Added museum board member Don Tooley, 79, a lifetime resident of Nokomis, retired teacher and contractor: "I attach a lot of importance to things handed down, and this is one thing that can keep Nokomis in the forefront of the public."

`We really need this place'

John Bailey, 84, of Nokomis, who is planning to join the board next year, said he feels obligated to continue the hard work of those who have gotten the BRS Museum this far.

"We got so little going in a community like this that we really need this place," he said. Besides, Bailey added, "We just enjoy shooting the breeze" in the museum.

For now, the inside of the BRS Museum looks as if someone started to move in then thought twice about it. Items are scattered and piled on tables and cabinets on the beige pattern carpet. Floral and burnt-orange couches and lounge chairs are pushed toward the back.

Somewhere in the disarray, however, are tributes, memorabilia and gear from Hall of Famers Bottomley, Ruffing and Schalk, three local boys who became baseball heroes.

Bottomley, given the nickname "Sunny" for his pleasant disposition, had a .310 batting average during his 15-year major-league career in the 1920s and 30s. He set a record by driving in 12 runs in one game and holds the record for the most unassisted double plays by a first baseman in one year: eight.

Ruffing lost four toes on his left foot while working in a coal mine around Nokomis, became a pitcher and suffered through six years of odious performances in the major leagues. But he persevered and became one of the game's most successful pitchers in the 1930s and '40s with the New York Yankees before retiring with the White Sox in 1947.

A catcher and manager for the White Sox from 1912 until 1928, Schalk stood only 5 feet 7 inches but was one of the most durable players at an injury-plagued position. He led the league in fielding percentage eight times and putouts nine times. His record for stolen bases by a catcher stood for 66 years. In a publicity stunt, he once caught a ball tossed from the top of the Tribune Tower.

Although Bottomley, Ruffing and Schalk are the museum's focus, the collection has grown and the mission has expanded. During the museum's 24-year existence, visitors may have been scarce, but donations of items have been robust.

Fire damaged building

To accommodate all that generosity, the museum has moved five times. Its current, somewhat unstable, home is the former Living Waters Church. When fire broke out in the building next door on Aug. 15 and led to its demolition about two months later, much of the roof and east wall of the two-story museum was lost.
The slightly more than 3,000 items covering more than 80 central Illinois ballplayers and dozens of other baseball people, some with no connection to the area, were saved and remain on haphazard display. The collective result is an intriguing, odd, obscure, even comical assortment of baseball artifacts.

Photographs, autographed baseballs and caps, and biographies on local boys who made it to the big leagues or came close are featured. Autographed photos of Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays and Joe DiMaggio also are on display.

So is a photo of Cyril "Cy" Wadzita, who played for Millikin University in Decatur in the first half of the last century. Former Cubs Manager Tom Trebelhorn and Milwaukee Brewers announcer and funnyman Bob Uecker also have contributed autographed photos.

A few steps from Bottomley's gloves is an Illinois High School Association umpire's shirt. A bat used by Cincinnati Reds Hall of Famer Edd Roush, who broke into the major leagues in 1913 with the White Sox, is in a case about 8 feet from two lawn chairs woven with red, white and blue rope honoring the 1998 home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa.

On one side of a cabinet is the Litchfield (Ill.) News-Herald from July 25, 1955, announcing "Ray Schalk Makes Hall of Fame." On the other, a DVD of "The Jackie Robinson Story," starring Robinson as himself.

A plastic seat back and bottom from Busch Stadium in St. Louis are propped against a pole. A Wheaties box commemorating Hank Aaron and an official program from the 1931 World Series are on display, as is a 1981 pennant from the Montreal Expos.

"We're easy," said a shrugging Eisenbarth, with a smirk, when asked to explain the reach of his museum.

Questions over costs

But the task ahead is difficult. It remains unclear exactly how much of the museum's $58,000 insurance policy the institution will receive. Schaefer, Eisenbarth and Museum President Tom Fly are determining how much it will cost to restore the structure or raze the museum and rebuild a new one.

If the museum receives its full $58,000, demolishing the building and cleaning the items would leave about $17,500 to build a new museum, thousands of dollars short of the total needed, said Fly, who, at 44, is the rookie of the group. Schaefer, the treasurer, said the museum is about $21,000 "underinsured."

How they plan to come up with the necessary funding is as uncertain as the path of a knuckleball. Directors said they will tackle that question after they receive the estimates and formulate a plan.

But the group remains optimistic. They maintain that they have come this far with very little support and will persevere through this setback. Then, perhaps, people will appreciate the patchwork baseball treasure inside 121 W. State St., they said.

"We'll rise out of the ruins," Eisenbarth said. "I really believe there will be a more attractive, appealing museum as a result. I won't think the other way. I'm not going to do it."