ALUMNI NEWS
Talk About A Gentleman Whose Career Has Been
A Home Run. For the last 20 years, Jim Gates ’79 has been Library Director at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Crossroads recently lobbed a few questions his way, and as you’ll see, he hit our interview out of the park. Crossroads: How did you first get hooked on baseball? Gates: I have been a baseball fan all my life. My parents were both good baseball fans and all five children followed with a great love for the game. My father taught me how to play, with an emphasis on the fundamentals of the game, and my mother taught me out to keep score—a skill I now use professionally. Crossroads: What are some of your own most prized baseball souvenirs? Gates: I still have the program from my first major league game, a twi-night double header between the Minnesota Twins and the Washington Senators at DC Stadium in 1966. There are moments from that day that I still remember vividly. My parents are from the DC area and were Senators fans and although we traveled quite a bit, as my father was in the U.S. Navy, we came back through DC quite often. I also have a nice collection of baseball books, all signed by the authors as a “thank you” for the assistance we provided at the Hall’s library. Crossroads: What’s the best part of your job at the Baseball Hall of Fame Library? Gates: Having the chance to meet baseball writers and scholars from around the world on a regular basis rates among the work that I enjoy most. We also have the chance to meet baseball players, executives, and other celebrities who visit Cooperstown. I also enjoy having the chance to take care of the many treasures from baseball history, to ensure that they are available for many future generations of fans.
60 CROSSROADS
The Magazine of Belmont Abbey College
Crossroads: The Library contains some three million items. If one of our readers—perhaps an old Abbey classmate—paid you a visit there, what would be at the top of your list for them to make sure they see? Gates: Wow, that all depends on what they are looking for. We simply have so much stuff. I am often asked which book is my favorite, and my answer is that my favorite book is the one I need to answer the next question. Crossroads: What artifact or document there still fills you with excitement or a sense of awe when you see it? Gates: The promissory note for the sale of Babe Ruth from Boston to New York, the minutes of the first owners meeting in 1876, the handwritten manuscript for Take Me Out To The Ball Game, are just a few of the items that I never get tired of seeing. Crossroads: What’s the quirkiest or most unexpected thing you’ve learned about baseball from working there in the Library? Gates: Basically, that baseball comes from a variety of stick and ball games which were played in Colonial America, and that these have evolved into...a variety of stick and ball games which are played today (Major League ball, College ball, Little League, Fast and Slow Pitch softball, Wiffle ball, etc.). Baseball is a continual evolutionary process, which is still in play today. The game we see on the field this year is not the same game that was played 40 years ago, and in another 40 years, it will have evolved further. The process never ends.
Winter 2012