Jeff Idelson’s career is coming full circle, and he couldn’t be more excited.
Long before he spent 25 years working at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. — he’s been president of the hallowed museum since 2008 — Idelson started his baseball journey as a teenage vendor at Fenway Park, selling popcorn and ice cream and hot dogs, those things that help make kids love being at a baseball game.
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Idelson, 54, is retiring from the Hall of Fame after this July’s induction ceremony, but he’s far from done with the sport. Instead, he’s diving back into a world where popcorn and ice cream and hot dogs are of paramount importance to young baseball players.
More accurately, he’s driving back into that world. Idelson and acclaimed baseball photographer Jean Fruth launched their Grassroots Baseball: Route 66 tour on May 1 in Chicago. The goal is to travel the famous Route 66 through the heart of the country — from Chicago to Santa Monica — in a bright, shiny (and sponsored) RV, to turn the spotlight on the players who are just starting their baseball journeys.
“Jean has been shooting grassroots baseball, amateur baseball, for nearly two decades, and it's been a passion of hers,” Idelson told Sporting News. “During her time with the Hall of Fame, when she shot for us as our traveling photographer, I started to see that in different ways. The combination for me was this book Jean has out and the realization that moving forward, I liked her idea of celebrating the amateur game and giving back. So it really began with her and we decided to join forces and begin this venture of grassroots baseball.”
Fruth’s book, “Grassroots Baseball: Where Legends Begin,” includes more than 250 images of baseball players, baseball parents and baseball fans — of all ages — from around the baseball-playing globe. It’s a labor of love, and includes written contributions from Hall of Famers Cal Ripken Jr., Whitey Ford, Vladimir Guerrero and Ichiro Suzuki, to name just a few.
“I've always tried to take time to shoot what I call grassroots baseball, kids playing on the street, sandlot baseball, little league, whether it's organized or pickup games. And it's just been a passion that I've had forever. It really started with me coaching my own son in little league many, many years ago,” Fruth said. “When it's just the pure love, it's just so much fun for me. And also just the connecting generations, with the grassroots game there's a lot of fathers and sons, a lot of families that come together. And as a photographer I liked documenting that kind of cultural part of baseball; that’s where my passion lies.”
The Route 66 tour will span six months, though Idelson and Fruth are not driving that entire time. Idelson still has his duties leading up to July’s induction ceremony in Cooperstown and Fruth shoots for La Vida Baseball, so they’ll take time each month to drive the RV — a Coachman Galleria — to different sites along Route 66, meeting with kids and Hall of Famers along the way. In Chicago, Goose Gossage met with kids from a local Boys & Girls Club, and Jim Thome did the same with kids from his hometown of Peoria, Ill.
“The thrust of it is really promoting the amateur game, the grassroots game, but also helping to grow it,” Idelson said. “Her book is the first part of it. The give-back program is going into underprivileged and underserved communities across America, and eventually outside of America, to be able to hopefully grow the game with those that don't have that opportunity. … In reaching those 50 kids (in Peoria), if we can bring some joy to them and hopefully get some of them to play baseball then we've done a nice service to the game by helping to grow it and also provided an outlet for someone that may not have that opportunity necessarily.”
Idelson is doing most, if not all, of the driving on the trip. It’s a bit different from his everyday vehicle — a Honda CRV — but the initial drive from Columbus, Ohio, where he picked it up, to Chicago helped with the learning process. They’re both excited about hitting the road for this tour.
“As I travel around the world and I show up to these new places or see a new stadium and see a new field, I love seeing something for the first time, going to a new ballpark,” Fruth said. “In Chicago, there's a Jackie Robinson Field, and seeing that for the first time … what does it look like? What's the field like? Is it a dirt infield, does it have any grass? What are the parents like? Are they cheering for their kids? Is there a big crowd? I love the first-time experience of a new town and a new field.”
The tour picks up again later this month, with planned stops in St. Louis on May 30 — with Ozzie Smith, of course — and with Gossage in Springfield, Mo., on June 11, along with others that will be announced soon. Johnny Bench and George Brett will be at stops down the road, too.
“We're small. There’s only two of us and we're just starting out,” Fruth said. “We know we're not a big company, but you have to start somewhere, so we’re doing it in a grassroots way.”
