by Andrew Kiser
America’s favorite pastime has found a new home at Tomlinson Library in the form of an estimated 1,400 baseball books donated by a retired University of Utah history professor.
Larry Gerlach, 75, who has a son and daughter-in-law that teach at CMU, donated the books in the hope of people being able to find new information about a variety of topics related to baseball.
“You can pick up a book and look at it and say I didn’t know that,” collection development coordinator Barbara Borst said.
The books’ subjects range from players like Yogi Berra, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Billy Martin and Jackie Robinson to other topics like the Negro and Texas Leagues, ballparks and more.
As Gerlach got older he decided he had to make a decision on what to do with his collection.
“When I entered the late innings of my life, and what to do with my treasured baseball collection […] I thought CMU would be the perfect place,” Gerlach told the Daily Sentinel. “Not only because my son and daughter-in-law teach here, and I’ve come to know the community and admire it; not only because you’ve had a distinguished baseball program for a long time, but also because this community has such a long-standing tradition with baseball.”
“He wants the community to use the books,” Borst said. “He didn’t want them to be on displayed at a museum.”
Gerlach also decided on Grand Junction to hold his collection because of the history and importance of the Junior College World Series is to the town.
“I know what baseball means to this community,” Gerlach said in the interview. “I hope it will be valuable and of interest to students, faculty and members of the community for some time to come.”
When Gerlach brought the idea of donating the books to the university library, Borst and Library Director Sylvia Rael liked the proposal for several reasons.
“It was two folded, it is on a topic that is very dear to the heart of the area,” Borst said. “We also have a successful baseball team and a Maverick Milestone course on the history of baseball.”
The library held a reception on Nov. 16 to commend the donation. Some of the people in attendance for the event was Gerlach, Borst, Rael, CMU baseball head coach Chris Hanks, CMU President Tim Foster and several members of the community.
According to Rael, she received positive reactions from the community about the depth of topics that are in the collection.
“I talked to a community member at the reception, and he said, ‘I opened the invitation, and I couldn’t believe it, I had to come,’” Rael said.
The collection also gives the library the distinction of holding rare, unique baseball books. Borst said a third of Gerlach’s collection gave Tomlinson Library the honor of being the only library in Colorado to hold those books.
Gerlach’s donation is currently located in the new books section which is on the first floor of the library. The books will be highlighted there for a year, and then they will be transferred to the third floor and integrated with other books.
