On The Road – Captain C – Road Trip, April 2024 Part 13: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Part 5

The ’70s were a portentous time for baseball, with the players’ union, now led by Marvin Miller, pushing for free agency and a greater share of the revenue.  While Curt Flood lost his case, eventually Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally won theirs, and a new era of baseball had arrived.

The now*-Oakland A’s were dominant in the early ’70s, winning five division titles in a row and becoming the only non-Yankee team to win three straight World Series titles (’72-’74).  Led by stars Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Vida Blue, and Rollie Fingers, and headed by flamboyant owner Charlie Finley, and with some of the most colorful uniforms and facial hair in baseball, they were a very exciting team with almost as much internal drama as the Bronx Zoo Yankees that dominated the league in the second half of the decade.

*Does not apply after 2024.  F*ck you Ken Fisher.

A display of uniforms and paraphernalia from the later ’70s, when the Reds, Yanks, and Pirates were among the dominant teams, and when baseball got wilder and more colorful than ever before.

A close-up of the previous display, including a poster for the original Bad News Bears movie (which could surely not get made to day as is), one of those great Pirates caps, an electronic baseball game designed in part to drive parents nuts on road trips, and a Sports Illustrated cover featuring the all-time world home run king Sadaharu Oh of Japan, who spent 22 seasons with the Yomiuri Giants (roughly the Japanese equivalent of the Yankees) and hit 868 home runs, never dipping below 30 for the last 19 years of his career.

A Reggie Bar.  These came out when Reggie Jackson had gone to the Yankees and become one of the biggest stars of the Bronx Zoo teams of the late ’70s, who returned the Yankees to excellence after a decade of mediocrity.  When it came out, Yankee pitcher Catfish Hunter quipped that “When you unwrap a Reggie bar, it tells you how good it is.”  Ego aside, Reggie was one of the greats of his era, winning 5 rings with the A’s and Yankees, and hitting cleanup on some of the great teams of his era.  And he gave one of the great, righteous off-the-cuff speeches on racism in baseball and society on ESPN this year.

Closer-up close up of the Pirates cap, Reggie Bar, and other paraphernalia.

Near the ’70s part of the history exhibit, there was an exhibit on Latin Americans in baseball, and baseball in Latin America.  All around the Gulf Coast and Caribbean, baseball is a huge sport, either the most popular or only second to soccer as far as team sports go.  Many of the best players in the world come from the Dominican Republic, Cuba, and Puerto Rico, and more than a few from Mexico, Central America, Venezuela, and the smaller islands of the Caribbean; and the Winter Leagues and other pro leagues have seen many future (and current, and past) major league stars come through.

Uniforms, trophies, and other paraphernalia from Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico.

As America’s National Pastime for a long time, baseball seeped into other parts of culture, especially once Babe Ruth became one of the modern era’s first full-on media stars (there’s a very good book about this that came out recently).  Here we see a ’70s era Spiderman comic book cover with him and the Green Goblin carrying on over a baseball game.