Polman: Veeck, as in Maverick

From SABR member Jeff Polman at Huffington Post on May 22, 2012, with mention of SABR members Paul Dickson, Terry Cannon and Joe Liss:

Arcadia is a pleasant little town at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, just east of Pasadena. Inside the Arcadia Public Library, around the corner from the main desk and just before the children’s section, a host of very rare items are on display in sealed glass cases through May 24.

One is an old wooden peg leg, and another is a midget’s jock strap.

The exhibit, created by an L.A.-based, baseball art, culture and history society called the Baseball Reliquary, celebrates the life and achievements of Bill Veeck, the most misunderstood but influential baseball owner in history. Last Saturday, members filled the library’s auditorium for “VeeckFest,” a film screening, panel discussion, and book signing for Paul Dickson’s new biography, Bill Veeck: Baseball’s Greatest Maverick. Veeck died in 1986, but this year also happens to be the 50-year anniversary of Veeck’s controversial autobiography Veeck — As in Wreck, so the timing of the event couldn’t have been better.

Author Dickson shared the stage with Chicago journalists Ron Rapoport, John Schulian, and Chicago native and documentary filmmaker Ken Solarz, and as they shared their endless warm stories and feelings about Veeck, it was clear right off the bat how larger-than-life the man was, and how instrumental he was in bringing baseball kicking and screaming into its modern era. Moderator Terry Cannon of the Reliquary expressed how Veeck was one of the major inspirations for forming the organization in the first place, and it was no surprise that Veeck, along with Curt Flood and Dock Ellis, became the first three members of the Shrine of the Eternals, the group’s homegrown hall of fame.

Read the full article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeff-polman/bill-veeck_b_1530962.html

Related link: To learn more about the Southern California-based Baseball Reliquary, visit baseballreliquary.org.



Originally published: May 22, 2012. Last Updated: May 22, 2012.