It’s a hit that will go soaring out of the ballpark and into the history books, as a labor of love finally comes to life. The Tampa Baseball Museum at the Al Lopez House is almost ready to welcome fans from across the world. Soon, the wait will finally be over. More than 125 years of history and a lineup of local legends are coming together, like a perfect season, to celebrate the sport of baseball and those who played it.
The Tampa Baseball Museum at the Al Lopez House will be a home for celebration, preservation, and education of local baseball culture – from Little League to Major League, and everything in between, including: Factory, Inter-Social, Municipal, Cigar City, and Negro leagues. In this house, there’s a carefully preserved legacy. It’s a story of hope and triumph marked by original artifacts, proudly displayed for all to see. It is the actual childhood home of Al Lopez, Tampa’s first baseball player to make it to the major leagues and inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame.
This delicate structure has been carefully preserved, the entire house, moved within Ybor City from its originally location to its current location on 19th Street. The home is being lovingly restored and will be put on display for all to enjoy because of the extraordinary efforts of some of the area’s finest leaders and volunteers, city and county grants, and the generous donations of too many to name. It’s teamwork like this that would have made Al Lopez smile.
In this house, there’s a carefully preserved legacy.
