Accessibilty Review: Play Ball Exhibit at Mesa Historical Museum

The Play Ball Exhibit is located inside the Mesa Historical Museum. The first accessible thing we noted was the lack of any handicap parking. There might be another parking lot for the museum, but in front the sort of street parking does not have any handicap spots. It worked out fine, though, since it was not crowded and there was easy to park so that there was space to get the wheelchair on the side of the car for Dad to get Mik into it.

The Museum's main entrance is several stairs, but they clearly have a sign that points to the ramp on the right side of the building that leads to the side entrance. Once inside you are in a hallway that the museum's exhibits are in rooms off of. About halfway down the hall is the info desk, where you pay admission ($5 for adults, $4 over 65, $3 ages 3-12, and free under 3).

The whole museum is located on one level, so very accessible. The Play Ball exhibit and the other exhibits we went into (did not do it all, though) all had plenty of room for the wheelchair to navigate through. The Play Ball exhibit even had some Knotholes at an eye level that Mik could easily look through. The other main part of the exhibit Mik cared about was the interactive exhibit playing the Backyard Baseball on the Wii. The controllers were located in an easy to reach spot for him and since it was not actually a sensor bar important game it worked out fine for him. To start the game after turning the system on, however, you did have to aim it higher and from farther back then was easy for him to do.

Kj's Baseball Collection: '09 World Baseball Classic

In the '09 World Baseball Classic section of merchandise at the Dbacks Team Shop I found two baseballs that were only $1. I could not decide which to get and since they were only $1 each I just got both. One just has the '09 World Baseball Classic logo on a plain white baseball. This one comes with a little stand, but it is actually just a pathetic very thin plastic packaging type stand. The other is an image baseball with an image of the logo, a trophy, and the flags of participating countries.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: '09 World Baseball Classic

Mik did not really even expect to get one bat at the Dbacks game, as he already has a lot of Dbacks mini bats, but he did find a new Dbacks one. We also found a section of on sale leftover '09 World Baseball Classic merchandise. In the section they had a mini bat for only $1, which we could not pass up. The bat has the World Baseball Classic logo, flags of participating teams, and a R Rawlings logo (note: I think this is his first Rawlings mini bat, as most if not all of the others are Louisville Slugger brand).

Kj's Baseball Collection: Home of Your Dbacks

My baseball from visiting the Arizona Diamondbacks's Chase Field is an image one with a street map of the downtown Phoenix area. It has a big star where Chase Field is located with the label Chase Field. It also oddly has the nearby U.S. Airways Center (I think this is the basketball arena) identified in big letters. There are other landmarks noted with small dots and lettering, but the U.S. Airways is identified in the same big lettering as Chase Field despite having a small dot. The ball says Home of Your Dbacks in the middle of the Map. One side has a black D logo and the other has a red A Diamondbacks logo.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Black Dbacks

There were no mini bats at the Play Ball exhibit, so Mik's first bat from the All the Ballparks trip was from the Dbacks game. He already has a lot of Dbacks mini bats, but he found one with a different Dbacks logo than any he has and it is black, which is a color he did not have in his Dbacks collection yet. The mini bat has a silver Louisville Slugger logo and a red A Dbacks logo with Diamondbacks written below it.

Kj's Baseball Collection: Play Ball

The first baseball I got for my collection on the All the Ballparks trip was from the Mesa Historical Museum. The ball has the logo of the Play Ball: The Cactus League Experience Logo on it. It says the name of the exhibit and Mesa Historical Museum. Other than that on one side it is just a plain white baseball.

Baseball Museum 1: Play Ball Exhibit at Mesa Historical Museum

I briefly already posted about visiting the Play Ball Exhibit at Mesa Historical Museum in a post from my phone here. I mentioned our favorites, but it does not do the exhibit justice, so now that I have some more time as we drive back to Tucson I am posting a little more thorough of a review. Of course, more photos to come in the album that you can get to by clicking any of the photos above.

The Play Ball exhibit is an one room exhibit inside the Mesa Historical Museum. The exhibit focuses on the history of the Cactus League, but also has a tad more general history of baseball in Mesa. It technically does focus on the Cactus League as a whole, but really it mostly focuses on the Cactus League in Mesa with a lot of the space devoted to the Cubs and the history of them Spring Training in Mesa. Not that that is a bad thing, as I still consider myself a Cubs fan despite more recently being a Nats fan. However, it seems a tad misleading to come into the exhibit thinking it was going to be more about the whole Cactus League.

The exhibit starts out well rounded with a wall that is made to look like a wood fence with knotholes in it. When you peek inside each knothole you can see a photo of one of the current or past Cactus League ballparks. This is pretty much the only part of the exhibit that truly portrays the whole league.

The exhibit goes on to tell about the leagues history, but this is mostly done through just words and not much artifacts to go with it. Then it gets into the Cubs and their connection to Mesa and there is a decent amount of artifacts to go with that part including a clubhouse door from the Old Hohokam Park that is signed by Mark Grace. It makes sense the exhibit shifts to mostly focusing on Mesa since it is afterall Mesa's Historical Museum. Plus it is not like it entirely ignores the rest of the league. It just sort of over represents the Cubs and sort of downplays that the league once was a much more spread out thing, but I guess it kind of pulls it into the location that is now among the very central hub of the league in Phoenix.

Overall this exhibit was fun for all and I do think it does what it sets out to do, which is begin to display the history of the Cactus League. It certainly is not anywhere near all inclusive of the league, but there is hope as this really is supposed to be just the start with hopes for it being built into its own museum within 5 years. Plus having a Wii with a baseball only game (Backyard Baseball) definitely swayed Mik from being bored and playing his PSP to actually doing something at the museum.

Update 5/10/09: All photos I took at the museum can be viewed here or by clicking the photos in this post and viewing rest of album.