Spencer puts on a show at Hall of Fame

"When something happens with baseball, I take it personally. Same thing with the Catholic Church," declares Ted Spencer.

Gesturing as expansively as an umpire, the chief curator at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown took in his whole, cluttered office with a sweep of his hand.

Buried somewhere in those heaps of papers, he said, were letters from Bishop Howard J. Hubbard, congratulating him on an article in The New York Times about his work that appeared a couple of years ago, and from Bishop Thomas Daily of the Brooklyn Diocese, urging that former Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges be inducted into the Hall of Fame.

Faith and fan

Mr. Spencer can't vote for Hall of Fame candidates, but he still treats such requests with respect, since they hail from those in the dugout of his faith.

"I'm a 1950s Catholic," he joked. "I know if I do something bad, something bad's going to happen to me!"

Besides, he added, Bishop Daily was his parish priest in Quincy, Mass., back in the '50s. Each summer, then-Father Daily would take him and his fellow altar boys to Fenway Park in Boston for games.

Named for Williams

Mr. Spencer's entire life has been struck by baseball. He grew up in Quincy, the child of such die-hard Red Sox fans that he was nicknamed "Ted" in honor of Ted Williams (his real name is William).

"Ted Williams, if you didn't know, is the best Red Sox player ever," he explained helpfully.

His father, Bill, managed an amateur baseball team for his hometown. On the team were college students, the local mailman -- and Ted, who served as the bat boy on the weekends.

Art of the game

On Monday mornings, Ted would trade his glove for a pencil, drawing pictures of the games in art class. When teachers told him he should be an artist, he decided that would be his career.

When he was in high school in Braintree, a wisecracking Irish nun named Sister Gertrude encouraged him to pursue his dreams, and pushed him to draw posters for class plays and to apply to the New England School of Art because his grades weren't high enough to get him into the prestigious Massachusetts College of Art.

Although he graduated from college in three years and found work at an advertising agency, Mr. Spencer didn't feel he had become a good enough artist yet. One morning in 1963, a month after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated, he woke up and decided suddenly, "I'm going to Mass. Art."

Second at-bat

Starting from scratch as a 22-year-old college freshman was made easier when Mr. Spencer looked across a classroom one day and was taken with a girl named Pat, who was busily drawing. Later, she would become his wife.

The conflict in Vietnam interrupted Mr. Spencer's college years. He recalled with some humor his abrupt change from being a long-haired art student in Boston to a crew-cut soldier in Tennessee, learning to fix jets.

He was not sent overseas and returned to finish school with a degree in industrial design. Next came work for a scientific research company.

Teamwork

"It's an amazing story. I never had a plan, but I did go to work every day," Mr. Spencer recalled. "I tell kids, 'You've got to show up for life every day.' None of this is my doing; I am the beneficiary of somebody's plan."

Two of the "somebodies" he met along the way were scientists who mentored him as he created models and mock-ups of radar installations. When they moved to Philadelphia to work for an insurance company, it wasn't long before the pair called him with a job offer. He brought his family to Philly, where he enrolled his three children in Catholic school and found a parish he loved.

But, Mr. Spencer felt discouraged about his work -- until he was asked to create a slide show on claims processing. He managed to make an often-dull subject so interesting that it landed him a job doing media relations, graphic design and video production. He also curated an exhibit of "artifacts" from the company's history.

Baseball's core

Throughout his life, Mr. Spencer remained passionate about baseball. He has "no idea" what keeps Americans more devoted to the national pastime than any other sport, but he remarked that "people care. Football players can kill someone, and no one bats an eye. But [then-Baltimore Oriole] Robbie Alomar spits in the face of an ump [in 1996], and he's booed until the day he retires!"

In the early '80s, Mr. Spencer spotted an ad in a design magazine for a position as a curator at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"I saw the word 'baseball' and said, 'This is me!'" he remembered. "I was in a no-lose situation: I had a job I loved, and the job I was looking at sounded like a lot of fun."

Assist from God

Since his Philadelphia office was 200 yards from the Basilica of Ss. Peter and Paul, Mr. Spencer started going to daily Mass after he sent off his resume.

"I'd say, 'Lord, I don't care what you do with me -- just do it,'" he said. "That was a high-water mark for me spiritually."

After some patient waiting, Mr. Spencer got his answer: He was selected for the Cooperstown job. That was 23 years ago.

"I've come full circle," he mused. From doodling pictures of baseball games in the second grade, "I've ended up devoting my professional life to baseball."

Diamond work

Among the curator's most fascinating accomplishments was a traveling exhibition on baseball, done in conjunction with the Smithsonian Institution, that went to Japan in 1994. It was so well-received that, five years later, Mr. Spencer helped to bring a similar exhibit to ten U.S. cities.

"It was the work of a lifetime," he boasted.

In his two decades as a curator, Mr. Spencer said the Hall of Fame has turned more toward addressing baseball as a "cultural entity" than simply a game.

The old ballpark

Mr. Spencer is about to open a brand-new, virtual-reality exhibit on three baseball parks in the U.S. that no longer exist: Comiskey Park in Chicago, Ebbetts Field in Brooklyn, and the Grand Pavilion in Boston, where the Braves played.

Built in 1888 and demolished in 1894, the Grand Pavilion "was the most magnificent park you ever saw," he said.

The exhibit, he said, will allow visitors to actually feel that they're inside each of the ballparks. It took "months and months of work" to create the effect, he added.

Wins and losses

Mr. Spencer believes that being a "baseball professional" has as many ups and downs as being a lifelong Catholic in an age of abuse scandals. As the Church struggles to recover its reputation, baseball is struggling with the specter of steroid use that could potentially taint many records held by Hall-of-Famers.

In both cases, Mr. Spencer said, "it's not good, and we shouldn't condone it. But, we'll get through it. We are witnesses, but not judges. Sometime down the line, people will be able to look back and see what the impact was. It's a little early to make some judgments."

Regarding baseball's steroid controversy, Mr. Spencer noted that the game has weathered more serious problems. "The worst was in '94, when they didn't play the World Series," he stated. "You want to talk about a mortal sin! Baseball has such strength and resilience; it will get through this."

Two faiths

Mr. Spencer, who is a parishioner of St. Mary's Church in Cooperstown, said his faith is "part of me. I could not go to another church for spiritual fulfillment."

Although, at 62, Mr. Spencer is easing toward retirement, he said he'll always claim Catholicism and baseball fandom as two fundamentals in his life.

If he misses Mass, it's like not knowing the outcome of an important game, he said: "It wears on me."

Spencer's lineup

Ted Spencer's favorite baseball movie: "Field of Dreams"...favorite baseball book: "I don't read baseball books as a rule," but he enjoyed a three-book series by Dr. Harold Seymour: "Baseball: The Early Years," "Baseball: The Golden Age" and "Baseball: The People's Game."

***

Ted Spencer boasts that he can make any idea into a baseball story. When the International Association of Homicide Detectives asked for a tour of the Hall of Fame, for example, he created a special presentation on "baseball players as murder victims," focusing on players who met untimely ends. When they returned the following year, he spoke to them on "baseball players as murderers."

***

Working in baseball isn't the only way Ted Spencer's life has come full circle. His school, Mass. Art, was sold to Beth Israel Hospital, where his son worked as a doctor more than three decades later.

***

A new book, "And God Said, 'Play Ball!'" is another example of faith and baseball coming together. The book, by Catholic author Gary Graf, explores "amusing and thought-provoking parallels between the Bible and baseball." It's available for $19.95 from Liguori Publications. Call 636-464-2500, or visit www.liguori.org. (KB)

ALL-STAR TEAM

Picking Catholic best

The Evangelist invited Ted Spencer from the Baseball Hall of Fame to select his "All-Catholic All-Star Team." After researching his picks to make sure they're Catholics, he made the following choices:

* Commissioner: Bowie Kuhn, commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1967-'84;

* League president: Joe Cronin, a former player who was president of the American League from 1959-'73;

* Manager: Joe Torre, current manager of the New York Yankees;

* Left-handed pitcher: Juan Marichal, pitcher for the New York Giants in the 1960s;

* Right-handed pitcher: Jim Bunning, who hurled a perfect game for the Phillies in 1964;

* Catcher: Yogi Berra, storied catcher for the New York Yankees;

* First base: Gil Hodges, steady first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s;

* Second base: Red Schoendienst, scrappy middle-infielder for the St. Louis Cardinals from 1945-'63;

* Third base: Brooks Robinson, slick-fielding All-Star for the Baltimore Orioles from 1955-'77;

* Shortstop: Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto, infielder for the New York Yankees in the 1940s and '50s;

* Outfielder: Babe Ruth, legendary slugger for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and considered by many to be the greatest player ever;

* Outfielder: Roberto Clemente, rifle-armed right fielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1955-'72;

* Outfielder: Stan Musial, 20-year outstanding player for the St. Louis Cardinals; and

* Designated hitter: Carl Yastrzemski, Triple Crown winner for the Boston Red Sox in 1967.

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