August 16, 2010
Sports Museum exhibit honors Jimmy Fund's baseball connection
Larry Bird's locker. The baseball that nearly killed Tony Conigliaro. A skating outfit donned by Olympian Nancy Kerrigan. The cleats Adam Vinatieri was wearing when his last-second field goal won Super Bowl XXXVI for the Patriots.
These artifacts are all part of the rich sports history of New England, and now they are joined by items honoring a cause closely linked to the region and its athletic heroes.
The exhibit is laid out in chronological order, stretching from the 1940s up until the present.
"The Jimmy Fund: Baseball's Favorite Charity," a new exhibit at The Sports Museum in Boston, chronicles the long partnership between America's pastime and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute's Jimmy Fund. Set up in three-dimensional timeline fashion, the display traces the relationship from the Jimmy Fund's beginnings in 1948 as a favorite cause of the Boston Braves baseball club through its nearly 60 years with the Red Sox, who have helped raise awareness and millions of dollars for pediatric and adult cancer care and research at Dana-Farber.
Located on the sixth floor of the TD Garden, home of the Boston Bruins and Celtics, the museum display includes memorabilia and photos of Sox stars from Ted Williams to David Ortiz bonding with young Dana-Farber patients.
In one particularly powerful shot, veteran pitcher Tim Wakefield and a beaming group of kids surround the 2004 World Series trophy in the Jimmy Fund Clinic; in another, Ortiz poses in the Fenway Park bleachers with his arm around a beautiful, bald 6-year-old girl for a photo that appeared in many venues, including a billboard outside Fenway.
There is a Jimmy Fund collection box that fans at Fenway have filled with spare change and dollar bills for three generations, and a baseball card depicting former Jimmy Fund Chairman Mike Andrews in his "first" career as a Red Sox second baseman.
Nearby are baseballs autographed by current Boston pitchers Wakefield and Clay Buchholz, who as this year's Jimmy Fund "Co-Captains" are making visits to Dana-Farber, supporting Jimmy Fund events, thanking donors, and raising awareness throughout Red Sox Nation.
"The Jimmy Fund is the premier sports charity on the planet, and the fact that we have it based in the greatest sports city in the world is very appropriate," says Richard Johnson, curator of the museum. "It's a great human story, and one that we have all participated in — either having known a patient at Dana-Farber, or by taking part in fundraisers for the Jimmy Fund."
Life and legacy
Some people depicted in the display represent both ends of this care and support spectrum.
Joe Castiglione (left) and Uri Berenguer ready to put the final artifacts in the exhibit.
Starting at age three, Uri Berenguer was a Jimmy Fund Clinic patient for 16 years before beating a rare blood disease called histocytosis. During this period he was befriended by Red Sox radio broadcaster Joe Castiglione, who emceed at numerous Dana-Farber events and visited the clinic with players.
Castiglione mentored Berenguer, and the former patient eventually became the longtime radio play-by-play voice of the Red Sox on the Spanish Beisbol Network and a fellow Dana-Farber advocate.
"For me, the Jimmy Fund translates into life," says Berenguer, now co-host of NESN Daily, a nightly TV sports series on the New England Sports Network.
He and Castiglione were on hand in July to view the exhibit, which features a photo of the two colleagues smiling beneath the familiar Jimmy Fund logo that adorns Fenway's Green Monster left-field wall.
"This exhibit is not just about the Boston Red Sox," Berenguer continues. "It tells you a lot about the character of this city and what the Jimmy Fund means to it."
Although it is perhaps best known for its Red Sox connection, the Jimmy Fund has branched out to other sports and teams through the years.
Right near a "Strike Out Cancer" poster like those handed out at Fenway during each summer's WEEI-NESN Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon is a photo depicting owners from the Red Sox, Celtics, Bruins, and New England Patriots, who have held joint question-and-answer sessions with fans during the radio-telethon.
The Pan-Massachusetts Challenge bike-a-thon — the world's largest athletic fundraiser — is also highlighted, as are the Jimmy Fund's running, walk, golf, and Little League programs.
It is baseball, however, that gets the most play in the exhibit. And while some stories like Berenguer's have happy endings, there are also sobering reminders here that the work of the Jimmy Fund is not over.
Take the Lowell Spinners jersey worn by Greg Montalbano in his minor league pitching debut.
Kristen Montalbano with her brother Greg's jersey from his professional pitching debut on "Jimmy Buffet Night" in Lowell. The tie-dye was a nod to Jimmy Buffet's laid-back style.
A Westborough, Mass. native who developed testicular cancer at Northeastern University, Montalbano was treated at Dana-Farber before and after he was signed by the Red Sox in 2000. The left-hander was the organization's Minor League Pitcher of the Year just one season later, and was on the fast track to the majors before arm injuries and a relapse of his cancer.
Although he amazed and inspired many by continuing to pitch in the minors during much of his ensuing treatment, he passed away last August at age 31.
"The Jimmy Fund was something very near and dear to Greg's heart," said Kristen Montalbano, Greg's sister, as she looked at the jersey during the exhibit's July 27 opening. "He loved speaking during the Jimmy Fund Radio-Telethon and for the Jimmy Fund Golf Program, and getting the chance to tell people what advances were being made. It was research done 20 years ago that gave him the last 13 years of his life.
"Several of the teams he played for have honored Greg's memory, and I'm sure he'd be proud of all the things done for him," she continued. "But he'd especially be proud of this."
— Saul Wisnia
saul_wisnia@dfci.harvard.edu
To find out more about The Sports Museum, located on floors 5 and 6 of the TD Garden, and when you can visit the Jimmy Fund exhibit, go to www.sportsmuseum.org.
