The latest exhibit from the Greece Historical Society explores the history of baseball

Greece, New York – The Greece Historical Society and Museum is now hosting an exhibit called “Play Ball,” which baseball enthusiasts won’t want to miss.

The president of the Greece Historical Society, Bill Sauers, collaborated with co-founder and former president of the Rochester Baseball Historical Society Joe Territo, who is also the official team photographer for the Rochester Red Wings. The concept for the exhibit came about since the two have a mutual passion of baseball and have collaborated on various projects.

The exhibit features not just the history of baseball in the town of Greece but also the history of the Red Wings, the development of the game in Rochester, and artifacts from the 1800s. Territo claimed that he became interested in learning more about the many tools that were accessible in the 1800s after becoming part in the 19th century baseball program at the Genesee Country Village and Museum.

“I love collecting Dead Ball Era items, which is anything before 1920. I find that stuff to be very telling of the evolution of the game,” Territo said. “The exhibit features 19th-century items, an old baseball from the very, very early days of the game, and some Greece-related artifacts such as the Island Cottage team from the 1940s, which is a very interesting story.”

Originally a dance hall, Island Cottage was a popular destination in the 1930s, especially for city dwellers who would take the train or trolly to Charlotte, where they would change to a line that went west through the town of Greece to the Island Cottage area and onto Braddock Bay. “It was located where the current Schaller’s is. Across the street, they had the baseball field,” said Territo.

In the 1930s, there was a newspaper account that I read where they attracted like 3,000 people for an Island Cottage baseball game. It was a semi-pro team.”

Territo claimed that before the 1930s, the game’s origins can be traced to Rochester because of a local legislator who is recognized for having documented those early baseball players.

“It started in 1825, when a man named Thurlow Weed, who was a politician from Rochester, wrote about a team that played on a place called Mumford’s Meadow, which is currently where Andrews Street and State Street are. And in the meadow, 50 players, 50 people would come and play baseball.”
The equipment that the players would have utilized in those early days is featured in the exhibit.

“One of my favorite items is a small, very small ball from the very, very early days of baseball in the 1830s and ‘40s. It wasn’t even baseball back then. They called it townball,” he said. “It was very similar to baseball except you would soak the runner, which means basically, to get them out, you would throw the ball at the runner. The balls were a lot smaller back in those days, all hand-stitched, of course. So, that baseball actually came out of the Massachusetts area.”
Apart from the ball itself, the exhibit also includes 1800s mitts, which are not like modern mitts.

“In the 1800s, they played baseball without mitts actually, and then, in the late 1800s, they started to provide equipment for the players once the game became professional because the owners of the teams didn’t want their investments to get injured, broken fingers and stuff like that,” he explained.
Players had to use two hands to catch the ball with the outdated equipment.

“The gloves of today are like baskets, so they can make one-handed catches. With some of these older baseball gloves that are exhibited here, it’s hard to imagine that they could catch the ball with one hand, and if you see old newsreels of Babe Ruth with these little primitive gloves, he’s always catching with two hands.”
Two intriguing catcher’s masks with a medieval appearance are on display.

“They were very small when they first started using catcher’s masks. The very first catcher’s masks were designed with fencing masks in mind,” Territo said. “As the game evolved and they started to lift restrictions from pitching deliveries and the pitchers became faster, the catchers needed more robust protective equipment, and so some of the ones that I have here, I’ve got one from the turn of the century, and then the one next to it is maybe 20 years or 15 years later, and you can see how big the catcher’s mask was becoming.”
Memorabilia from the Rochester Red Wings is also on exhibit. This includes a 1920s team portrait, a 1950s jersey that Red Wings Hall of Famer Lou Ortiz wore, and a 1960s picture of Joe Altobelli, dubbed “Rochester’s Mr. Baseball.”

“Joe Altobelli is our most treasured baseball guy, baseball person, really. He has done it all for the Red Wings. He played for the Red Wings. He managed the Red Wings. He was also the general manager, working in the front office for a while. He became a broadcaster. So, Joe Altobelli has done it all for Rochester baseball,” Territo said.

One of Territo’s most prized possessions is something that, in his opinion, brings visitors to the display via direct knowledge and brings back pleasant memories.

“In the town of Greece, especially near the Kodak Park area, there were thousands of kids who played KPAA (Kodak Park Activities Association) softball, so I wanted to have that represented here. I have this jersey from the 1970s on exhibit here. When we had the opening reception, some people came in, and they immediately were drawn to that KPAA jersey, and it brings back all sorts of memories for people, including me. I loved playing KPAA softball in the summertime. So, this has been a big hit with some of the people who come to the exhibit,” he said.

The exhibit’s unique feature is how many generations it covers. Territo honors the forerunners of the game while also recognizing the contributions of the younger generation of players in preserving history through new benchmarks and achievements.

“There were some baseball teams from the 1800s here,” he said. “Most of them, I think, played in more densely populated parts of Greece like the Dewey and Stone area and, as a matter of fact, Greece Little League, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, started out as Barnard Little League, and of course, they started in the Dewey and Stone area, which is an old part of Greece and then they just evolved and expanded and became bigger. They moved out of the Dewey and Stone area to a state-of-the-art facility, which is now on Latta Road, and they’ve been around for 70 years.”

Territo has expanded the exhibit’s duration to more than 200 years and honored a young baseball player from the Greece Post, American Legion club who is just starting out in the league with the addition of a recent item.

“It’s a very recent piece, but it’s still part of Greece baseball history. That jersey was worn by James Capellupo, who is a terrific pitcher, and he sort of led the team. He was the MVP of the team by the end of the year,” he said. “It’s not a hundred-year-old artifact like you might see here; it’s more recent, but it’s certainly part of baseball history in the Town of Greece.”

The display will remain up till year’s end. The Greece Historical Society and Museum is located at 595 Long Pond Road and is open on Sundays from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m.