Champaign doctor seeks lasting tribute to America's pastime

Local physician David Fletcher could easily qualify for another sort of academic degree: doctor of baseball.

How much does Fletcher love the game? Let us count the ways:

– In 1998, he was married at the spot where home plate was located at the old Comiskey Park in Chicago (the site is commemorated in one of the U.S. Cellular Field parking lots).

– He's the man behind the "Clear Buck" campaign (www.clearbuck.com), an effort to have George Daniel "Buck" Weaver reinstated to Major League Baseball. Weaver, who died in 1956, was one of eight Chicago White Sox players banned for life from baseball for their participation in the infamous "Black Sox" scandal in the 1919 World Series.

Weaver, although he knew of the other players' involvement and plans to throw the series, did not participate and accepted no money. John Sayles' 1988 film, "Eight Men Out," largely focuses on Weaver.

– He's involved with John Owens of the Chicago Tribune to make a documentary on the late Buck O'Neil, a Negro League great as a player and coach who also was a longtime MLB scout and coach (he served in various capacities, including scout and coach, with the Chicago Cubs from 1956 to 1988).

– But by far his most ambitious project is to create the Chicago Baseball Museum on the city's west side.

The project would include an 18,840-square-foot, glass-encased museum that looks out over an attached baseball stadium. And this is no Little League field. It would seat 8,300 with the center field alley 390 feet deep (bigger than the average Class AA stadium).

Fletcher wants the museum and field to be the Cooperstown of Chicago baseball – but even more fun and more accessible than the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in upstate New York.

"I just felt like Chicago needed its own Cooperstown," Fletcher says. "They draw 250,000 to 300,000 people a year at Cooperstown. It's a quaint old museum in the middle of nowhere. We're going to feature a museum that's in a metropolitan area of 10 million people.

"Chicago has never gotten credit for its contributions to baseball. With our business plan, we can be profitable with only 125,000 people a year. That's conservative. I think if it is promoted right that we can easily do 250,000 people a year."

Fletcher is a co-founder of Safeworks, which has offices in Champaign, Decatur and Chicago and provides occupational health services. His Champaign office on North Market Street is lined with baseball photos, many of them of O'Neil and Weaver. He grew up in suburban Chicago and can rattle off the city's baseball milestones faster than a Carlos Zambrano wind-up.

Comiskey Park was for years the home of the East-West all-star game between the Negro American League and the Negro National League; the All-American Girls Baseball League (as depicted in the film "A League of Their Own") got its start in Chicago; the city has strong ties to softball (the game was invented there in 1887); and then there are the long and storied histories of the Cubs and White Sox.

"We're going to honor the past, present and future with this museum. It's going to be all things baseball," Fletcher says.

The idea for the museum grew out of Fletcher's efforts to get Weaver reinstated by Major League Baseball (that effort is ongoing).

"I had been involved in the campaign to clear the name of Buck Weaver. That campaign got a lot of attention and press. That was really my inspiration. The 'clear Buck' campaign grew into the baseball museum. The initial idea was for a Black Sox museum and it grew from there. It's definitely a thing Chicago needs," Fletcher says.

But turning all that passion for baseball into a museum and playing field is going to cost plenty. Fletcher estimates that it will take $7 million to get the project off the ground. The final cost is likely to be much higher. For example, the Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield cost $145 million to build. It went millions over budget.

Already, though, the proposed baseball museum has a premier collection in its hands. Fletcher several years ago befriended well-known Chicago sportswriter and baseball historian Jerome Holtzman, who recently died. Before passing, Holtzman sold his 4,000-volume baseball library, along with various documents and papers, for $300,000 to the museum.

"That was a huge thing. It's one of the best private collections in the world," Fletcher says. "I felt that was a key thing for us. That really gave the museum credibility."

Also, Fletcher is in negotiations to have land donated for the baseball museum on the west side of Chicago. That would bring down the cost. He initially tried to get financial assistance from the state, but that unraveled with the budget deep in the red.

"Our efforts are now focused on the city of Chicago and the Chicago Park District. I've also had discussions with both teams. Basically, it's a situation where the White Sox and Cubs are taking a wait-and-see attitude," Fletcher says.

If all the funding comes together – and comes quickly – he estimates the soonest the Chicago Baseball Museum could open is 2010 or 2011.

Another challenge Fletcher faces with the museum is that few people are both Cubs and White Sox fans. And so "my baseball history" isn't necessarily "your baseball history." Trying to cater to both camps in an evenhanded fashion is not easy.

"Because of the rivalry, it's tough trying to mesh all these interests together. I think the west side location of the museum neutralizes some of that," Fletcher says. "I'm unusual. I love both teams. As a kid growing up, I'd watch the Cubs on TV during the day and the White Sox at night."

The documentary on O'Neil, which should be completed by September, is another example of what the museum can do, according to Fletcher, who hopes to sell the finished film to PBS or another broadcast entity.

In addition, he's pitching the museum as a way to introduce and attract inner-city youth to baseball.

"Only 8 percent of all Major League Baseball players today are black," Fletcher says. "Baseball is missing an opportunity to get inner-city youth involved in the sport. There is a whole lost generation."

That's part of the reason for attaching a baseball stadium to the museum. The field would be used for youth games, instruction with veteran players and exhibitions.

"I want this to be the premier amateur baseball field in the country," Fletcher says. "We want the museum to be high-tech, fun and educational. With the library, it will be a premier research facility for baseball. We have to raise the $7 million for the initial funding. We just need to get one or two players involved.

"For me, this is fun. It's history. It's something I believe in. I'm selling the game. Baseball is America's pastime."

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