Malcolm: Baseball Reliquary’s never-ending sizzle ups the stakes
From SABR member Don Malcolm at The Hardball Times on July 15, 2016:
The second act of the 2016 baseball season is upon us, and that tiny but vast world is caught up in the ongoing drama of the Chicago Cubs, whose exploits this year have recently careened from invincible to unmentionable, with no one certain as to which way it will all wind up. After all, there’s more than a hundred years of “outside-looking-in” still on the table…
“Outside-looking-in” is not a condition so fraught with anxiety for the Baseball Reliquary, however. As that unique organization enters into full-fledged adulthood (2016 marks its 21st year of existence) there is an increasingly serene sense of purpose behind its often-antic efforts. You’ll notice it when you visit its website, which has left the 1990s behind at last, but still retains a strong echo of its original homespun aura.
And “aura” is what the Reliquary does best. Its alchemical wedding of baseball, art and cultural history is a blending of sizzle and steak, a benevolent sleight-of-hand that leaves you as pleasingly puzzled as was the case when the great magicians of yore would hide their tricks in plain sight and let you do all the misdirecting by yourself.
Read the full article here: http://www.hardballtimes.com/tht-live/the-baseball-reliquarys-never-ending-sizzle-ups-the-stakes/
Originally published: July 15, 2016. Last Updated: July 15, 2016.