Arizona’s baseball history has a new home.
A Scottsdale restaurant is showcasing a new memorabilia exhibit featuring some of the state’s most treasured baseball artifacts.
On the site of what was once Scottsdale High School is Frasher’s Tavern. Walk inside and you’ll see a hardball time capsule.
Charlie Vascellaro is a baseball historian who has long sought a permanent home for what he calls “The Old Town Baseball Experience."
“It is largely a spring training museum exhibit, but it also covers a lot of Arizona baseball history," Vascellaro said.
Mike Phillips is board president of Arizona Baseball Legacy and Experience.
“Scottsdale literally grew up around baseball. The original Scottsdale Stadium was built around farm fields in 1956. The city’s population was under 20,000,” Phillips said.
Now it’s around 250,000. And Vascellaro points out that the exhibit not only highlights the Valley’s baseball lineage, it also traces back to pre-statehood Bisbee.
“I don’t know if people know, but the Warren Ballpark was built in 1910, it’s the longest continuous operational ballpark in the country,” Vascellaro said. “If somebody comes in here and looks at that and looks at that display and says they want to go down to Warren Ballpark in Bisbee, then we’re doing our job.”
In addition to the memorabilia, Frasher’s also pays homage to the area’s now-defunct baseball haunts like Don and Charley’s and the Pink Pony.
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