Baseball artifacts on display at Lakewood museum

LAKEWOOD - With the arrival of the 2007 baseball season, the Lakewood Heritage Commission has arranged a display of past and present diamond artifacts, memorabilia and ephemera at its Heritage Museum in the former Lakewood High School building at 655 Princeton Ave.

The South Atlantic League 2006 champions, the Lakewood BlueClaws, and the New York Giants selecting Lakewood for their World War II spring training site are among the features at the exhibit.

On April 22 the museum will display baseballs signed by many baseball greats, including Roger Maris and Hall of Fame members Ted Williams, Mel Ott and Ernie Lombardi. These baseballs are on loan from Ken Williams and family.

Sheldon Wolpin, commission chairman, said, "Lakewood indeed has a rich, colorful baseball history and our showcase will recall many historic baseball events. We invite and encourage the public to view a capsule of the town's legendary diamond memories. A baseball autographed by Ryan Howard, the Philadelphia Phillies' slugging first baseman who played for the BlueClaws in 2002, will be the centerpiece of the BlueClaws display."

Howard, the National League Rookie of the Year in 2005, enjoyed a banner 2006 season in Philadelphia. The all-star was the National League's Most Valuable Player and led the major leagues in home runs with 58.

BlueClaws yearbooks dating from 2001, the team's first year in Lakewood, and a floor-to-ceiling-length quilt designed and created by Mildred DeFrancesco, a BlueClaws fan from Brick Township, will be shown. The quilt contains scores of individual, team and action photos.

Other display attractions include the Lakewood Little League's 1975 national championship, an assortment of baseball gloves such as a Phil Rizzuto model, a Bill Dickey model, a Pee Wee Reese model and a Joe DiMaggio model, in addition to others that show the evolution of the baseball glove, an autographed Johnny Bench bat, a 1980 Phillies World Series ball autographed by the team, including Larry Bowa and Pete Rose, an assortment of Majestic Amuse-ments baseball cards that were purchased through penny machines on the boardwalk from the years 1947 to 1967, Perez postcards with autographs, a Tom Seaver action baseball game, a Gil Hodges serving tray, and nonprofessional team photos circa 1920. Many of these items are also on loan from Ken Wiliams and family.

The Giants, led by player manager and Hall of Fame member Mel Ott, trained at Ocean County Park, Lake-wood, in 1943, 1944 and 1945, after the baseball commissioner ordered the 16 member teams to train in the north to conserve on oil, gas, tires and other materials important to the war effort.

The Giants left New York in 1958 and now are the San Francisco Giants.

Wolpin also said that scrapbooks with hundreds of stories about baseball and Lakewood are also on display.

The museum contains Lakewood High School baseball team memorabilia. The town was the site of the Philadelphia Athletics playing a Lakewood all-star team in 100 degree heat in 1934. The A's won 10-8 and were paced by American League stars Jimmy Foxx, Frankie Hayes of Freehold and Roger (Doc) Cramer of Manahawkin.