By: Allison Xu
Recently, the Los Angeles Central Library displayed a new exhibit called “Something in Common.” In the exhibit, there is a San Diego Chicken costume, and a half smoked cigar from Babe Ruth. These artifacts were borrowed from the Baseball Reliquary.
The last few years have been difficult for the library. The pandemic hit, and Terry Cannon, founder of the Baseball Reliquary, died in August 2020 due to cancer. Then, there was a large addition to the Pasadena Central Library, which closed it down indefinitely.
This summer, great baseball players are being honored in Cooperstown. The recent silence has made everyone concerned that the Shrine of Eternals might be eternally silenced.
“Absolutely not,” said Mary Cannon, Terry’s co-conspirator, noting the beginnings of a stirring comeback. “It is very much in the works.”
Within the Reliquary is where history and historical fiction come together. It is where Moe Berg, the former catcher who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, bumped into Chicago’s 1979 Disco Demolition Night.
Ron Shelton, director and writer of Bull Durham, and Cannon became acquainted when each was involved in experimental film groups in the Los Angeles area in the 1970s.
“He was weirdly brilliant,” said Shelton, whose book about the making of Bull Durham, “The Church of Baseball,” was published this month.“I use weirdly in the most positive way. He not only had his own drummer, he had a kind of vision that went with it. The Reliquary really is a work of imagination. The archive lives in your mind and sometimes in your heart.”