Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Baseball great's museum closes

When Ted Williams died in 2002, the museum's attendance began to drop off.

By DAWN REISS
Published April 2, 2006

HERNANDO - Dave Staples' day started like any other Sunday at the Ted Williams Museum.

As he has for years, he turned off the alarm, switched on the lights and went through all the routine chores to get the place ready for visitors.

But this day was different. It was the end for the Ted Williams Museum and Hitters Hall of Fame.

It closed Sunday after steadily dwindling attendance.

Eighty-five people came through the museum Saturday, taking photos and buying discounted souvenirs. About 120 came Sunday.

"I had one lady who has lived here for 12 years and never came in before," said the museum's executive secretary, Sue Colabelli. "It's not snowbirds that are coming in, it's everyone else. It's like, Where have you been all these years?"

The moment was heart wrenching for the roughly 60 volunteers, including Staples, 77, who has been working as a volunteer there since 1994.

He said he'd like to see the museum kept open even if it's somewhere else.

Part of the exhibits will remain on display. The main collection, including the Hitter's Hall of Fame, will be moved to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg.

Staples said he hopes a place can be found for the other exhibits, which chronicle Williams' exploits as a fighter pilot and accomplished fisherman.

The museum foundation will remain intact and the collections will only be loaned to other locations, Staples said.

"It's not going to be given away or sold in any way," Staples said. "It's going to be broadened and more and more people will be exposed to these things."

Poor attendance was partly attributed to the museum's out-of-the-way location in western Citrus County, Staples said.

When Williams was living in the area, other sports figures came to visit and share time with Williams, the last hitter to bat .400. Fans would visit in hopes of running into the famed Boston Red Sox leftfielder.

But after Williams' death in July 2002, they stopped coming and the museum's traffic faded, culminating in Sunday's closure.

"It feels like a funeral," Colabelli said.

"Or a nursing home," joked former volunteer Georgette Pare, 70, of Citrus Hills who came back for one last visit.

"It's hard," Staples said. "It's like the death of a family member."

[Last modified April 2, 2006, 23:24:02]