THE BASEBALL RELIQUARY PRESENTS TWO EXHIBITIONS,
“LOVE TO HATE: THE DODGERS-GIANTS RIVALRY” AND
“THE DAY THE WORLD SERIES STOPPED,”
AT THE BURBANK CENTRAL LIBRARY

 Exhibition Dates: August 10-October 2, 2009
Special Programs: September 14 & 21, 2009

 

            The Baseball Reliquary presents exhibitions highlighting the storied rivalry between the Dodgers and Giants and the 20^th anniversary of the 1989 World Series Earthquake Game from August 10-October 2, 2009 at the Burbank Central Library, 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, California.
            “Love to Hate: The Dodgers-Giants Rivalry” explores the longstanding and deep-seated rivalry between the players and fans of the Dodgers and Giants, which dates back to the late 19^th century when both clubs were based in New York and which continued unabated after the teams moved to the West Coast following the 1957 season. “The emotions generated by the Dodger-Giant rivalry were very much like those surrounding a Holy War,” remarked baseball author Peter Golenbock. “If you loved the Dodgers, you despised the Giants. You couldn’t be neutral.” Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, a lifelong New York Giants fan, commented, “I hated the Dodgers with that love that only hatred can understand.” The display utilizes photographs, artifacts, memorabilia, and artworks by Michael Guccione, Greg Jezewski, and Stephen Seemayer to depict the intensity of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry and to examine the nature of that animosity.
            “The Day the World Series Stopped” revisits the 1989 World Series Earthquake Game between the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics, which marks its 20^th anniversary on October 17, 2009. On that fateful day in 1989, at 5:04 p.m., a 7.1 magnitude earthquake hit the San Francisco Bay Area, causing widespread damage and loss of life and forcing the cancellation of the third game of the World Series. With darkness descending on Candlestick Park, the people of the Bay Area began a journey into chaos, tragedy, and resurrection. The display utilizes objects and artifacts collected before and after the game by Giants fan Jon Leonoudakis, as well as original photographs taken shortly after the quake struck.
            Library hours for the exhibitions are Monday-Thursday, 9:30 am-9:00 pm; Friday, 9:30 am-6:00 pm; Saturday, 10:00 am-6:00 pm; closed Sunday. For further information, phone the Baseball Reliquary at (626) 791-7647; for directions, phone the Burbank Central Library at (818) 238-5600.

Giants fan and filmmaker Jon Leonoudakis in front of his display of objects and artifacts collected before and after the 1989 World Series Earthquake Game.	"Quake Ball Brand" (2008), painting from Ben Sakoguchi's Orange Crate Label Series: The Unauthorized History of Baseball.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 2009, 7:00 PM
WORLD PREMIERE SCREENING OF
5:04 P.M.: A FIRST PERSON ACCOUNT OF THE 1989 WORLD SERIES
EARTHQUAKE GAME

            The Baseball Reliquary presents the world premiere screening of Jon Leonoudakis’ 30-minute documentary, 5:04 p.m.: A First Person Account of the 1989 World Series Earthquake Game, on Monday, September 14, 2009, at 7:00 pm, in the Burbank Central Library Auditorium, 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, California. A discussion with the filmmaker will follow the screening. Admission is free.
            What if . . . you were a baseball fan whose dream was to see his team play in a World Series game? And after 30 years of waiting, you finally got to attend that game, only to have it interrupted by a 7.1 earthquake? This is the story of the 1989 World Series Earthquake Game, a first-hand account from Jon Leonoudakis, a die-hard fan of the San Francisco Giants. A native of The City and a filmmaker by trade, Leonoudakis set out to document his once-in-a-lifetime experience at the World Series with a VHS camcorder and a still camera.
            The tale starts out as a provincial experience involving two local baseball teams in the sport’s penultimate contest, as Leonoudakis interviews fans in the parking lot before the game. Then, in fifteen seconds, the story takes a radical left turn into chaos and tragedy, and explodes into an historical and international event. And standing in the middle of it all is a baseball fan with a camera.
            Twenty years later, Leonoudakis revisits the story with his own no-frills perspective as one who participated in the entire experience, from the pre-game excitement of October 17, 1989, the earthquake at the stadium, the intervening ten days before the game was resumed, and a return to Game Three on October 27. Leonoudakis tells the story using his original video and stills along with local and national television news reports and photographs, taking viewers on a visceral journey back in time to the fateful day.

"Bleeding Dodger Blue," assemblage by Greg Jezewski.

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2009, 7:00 PM
“LOVE TO HATE: THE DODGERS-GIANTS RIVALRY,”
PANEL DISCUSSION WITH ARNOLD HANO AND ROSS PORTER,
MODERATED BY JEAN HASTINGS ARDELL

             Author Arnold Hano and broadcaster Ross Porter, who combined have produced over a century of distinguished work in their respective professions, will share their recollections of the Dodgers-Giants rivalry, from New York to the West Coast, in a very special evening presented by the Baseball Reliquary on Monday, September 21, 2009, at 7:00 pm, in the Burbank Central Library Auditorium, 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd., Burbank, California. The discussion, which will be moderated by Jean Hastings Ardell, is free of charge and open to the public.
            The author of 26 books and hundreds of articles, Arnold Hano is considered one of the preeminent sportswriters of our times. He grew up in New York and graduated from Long Island University in 1941 with a degree in English and Journalism. He worked for the New York Daily News until his enlistment in the Army. After World War II, Hano’s prolific writing career moved into high gear, highlighted by biographies of Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax, and Roberto Clemente and many marvelous baseball stories and portraits published in Sport magazine. Hano’s A Day in the Bleachers, his classic book about the first game of the 1954 World Series between the New York Giants and Cleveland Indians, is considered one of the masterpieces of baseball literature and has been in print almost continuously for six decades.
            Born in Shawnee, Oklahoma, Ross Porter decided he wanted to be a sportscaster at the age of eight. He never changed his mind, and his dream came true when he was 14 when he did his first sports show on KGFF in Shawnee. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, where he earned a degree in Radio Journalism, Porter has been ranked as one of baseball’s 60 all-time best announcers and is a member of the Southern California Sports Broadcasters Hall of Fame after 38 uninterrupted years on the air in Los Angeles. Porter announced Los Angeles Dodgers games for 28 seasons between 1977 and 2004. He holds the major league record for the longest consecutive play-by-play by one broadcaster when he announced all 22 innings of a Dodgers-Expos game on August 23, 1989. It was a six-hour, 14-minute game, won by the Dodgers, 1-0.
            Moderator Jean Hastings Ardell grew up in New York and has been a freelance writer for over 20 years, covering a wide range of subjects from features on domestic violence, politics, and the environment to award-winning profiles of author Dean Koontz and the president of the University of California. Her first book, Breaking into Baseball: Women and the National Pastime, appeared on the Los Angeles Times list of bestsellers and is in the collection of more than 600 libraries. An enthusiastic member of the Society for American Baseball Research, Ardell has presented research papers at a variety of regional and national baseball conferences, and in June 2009 she served as moderator for a panel discussion, “Skirting the Game: The Growing Role of Women in Baseball Scholarship,” at the Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture.

Paintings by Stephen Seemayer.

             The exhibitions and special programs at the Burbank Central Library are made possible, in part, by a grant to the Baseball Reliquary from the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Los Angeles County Arts Commission.