BOSTON -- As baseball season heats up, the Museum of Fine Arts is paying tribute to a pair of New England icons: Norman Rockwell and the Boston Red Sox.
"Rockwell and the Red Sox," an exhibit that features the painter's 1957 piece "The Rookie" and other memorabilia, will be on display through June 19.
After the Red Sox won the 2004 World Series, the museum wanted to honor the team's achievement and appeal to a broad range of visitors, says Karen Quinn, the show's curator.
"We're hoping that they get a sense of Red Sox history and Boston history and a little bit of ... American painting history all rolled into one," Quinn says.
The focus of the exhibit is "The Rookie," which shows Red Sox players Ted Williams, Sammy White, Frank Sullivan, Jackie Jensen and Bill Goodman in the locker room during spring training, with an awkward-looking new prospect in street clothes carrying a glove, bat and suitcase.
The work appeared on the cover of the March 2, 1957, edition of The Saturday Evening Post, which is also on view in the installation.
Williams' locker from Fenway Park is featured in the show, as well as one of his home jerseys from 1960. Also included are cleats that pitcher Curt Schilling wore in the 2004 World Series, marked with "K ALS," which Quinn notes was a message to "strike out Lou Gehrig's disease."
There is a program from the 1912 World Series won by the Red Sox, and the 1919 promissory note from the New York Yankees that was part of the payment for Babe Ruth, the deal that fans blamed for the eight-decade curse on the Red Sox.
The show includes the 2004 American League Championship trophy, which the Red Sox won after overcoming a three-game deficit to beat New York in the best-of-seven series. The Red Sox went on to sweep St. Louis in four games to win the World Series, the franchise's first since 1918.
