“Bleibol!” Exhibit Features New Britain’s Springer Family At Museum for Culture and History

¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues Opens Aug. 12 and Runs Though November 5

By John McNamara

The Connecticut Museum for History and Culture’s exhibition “¡Pleibol! In the Barrios and the Big Leagues / En los barrios y las grandes ligas“ that opens on Saturday, August 12 celebrates baseball through the experiences of Latinos and Latinas across the Americas.

The exhibit, organized by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service in collaboration with the National Museum of American History, includes the baseball story of three generations of New Britain’s Springer family, noting athletic accomplishments that began on the baseball and softball diamonds of New Britain.

George Springer III, an outfielder for the MLB Toronto Blue Jays and 2017 World Series Most Valuable Player for the Houston Astros, and his sisters, Lena and Nicole, grew up in New Britain playing in the A.W. Stanley-Walicki Little League where their father, Attorney George Springer, Jr., coached them and led the city’s Little League organization that became the citywide New Britain Little League.

George Springer III played his college ball at the University of Connecticut before being drafted by the Houston Astros. George and Laura Springer’s daughters excelled at college softball with Nicole playing for the Puerto Rico Women’s National Team and Lena playing for the Puerto Rico Women’s Junior National Team. Springer III’s mother Laura is a native of Utuado, Puerto Rico and competed in gymnastics.

“Baseball runs in the Springer family,” a Museum for History and Culture post previewing the Bleibol exhibit says, noting that Attorney Springer’s father, George Springer, Sr., a prominent civil rights and labor leader who led the Connecticut American Federation of Teachers (AFT), played college baseball in New Britain. The late George Springer, Sr. taught in New Britain schools for 20 years before assuming leadership positions in the teachers’ union at the state and national levels. His wife, Gerri Brown-Springer, is the former Principal of Slade Middle School.

“George Springer Sr. emigrated from Panama to Connecticut when he was just 17, the post states. “He pitched for Teacher’s College of Connecticut (now Central Connecticut State University) for four years. His son, George Springer Jr., was born in Bristol but later settled in New Britain. He also grew up playing baseball and competed in the 1976 Little League World Series.” Attorney Springer was a member of Bristol’s Forestville Little League team that won the East and played in Williamsport, PA, the home of Little League baseball.

Attorney Springer, in a Hartford Courant interview after the 2017 World Series reflected proudly on his son’s MVP performance and what it meant to his family at that moment: “It wasn’t even about me,” Springer Jr. said. “I was carrying the hopes and dreams of my dad [who died in 2006], a lot of people, my grandparents, they were all with me and it was like ‘if I’m seeing this, they’re seeing it’. I wanted to be in my seat. I want to see it.”

George Springer III, now in his 10th year in Major League Baseball, has overcome stuttering since childhood and is a prominent spokesperson for The Stuttering Association for the Young. His George Springer Kids Fund provides support for families of children who stutter including scholarships to Camp SAY, “a place of friendship and acceptance where (kids and teens) can build confidence and be themselves.”

Announcing the Bleibol exhibition that starts on August 12 and runs through November 5 the Museum of History and Culture said: “Throughout the last century, Latinas and Latinos have used baseball to chase their dreams, challenge prejudice, and build communities. Whether in the barrios or the big leagues, in rural backyards or barn-storming travel teams, they left a mark on how we see, hear, and play the game.”

The exhibit will be held at the Museum (formerly the Connecticut Historical Society), One Elizabeth Street in Hartford.

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