Arizona finally gets its own baseball museum
Arizona's First Baseball Museum Opens in Mesa Just in Time for Spring Training
If you have ever wondered where all the incredible baseball history hiding in this state finally gets its own home, the answer is Mesa. The Arizona Baseball Museum opens to the public on February 21 inside the historic Lehi Auditorium on the Mesa Historical Museum campus at 2345 N. Horne Road, and the timing could not be more perfect. Cactus League spring training games start just two days earlier.
This is not some small display crammed into a hallway. The museum occupies a fully renovated 4,000-square-foot auditorium that had been sitting unused since the early 2000s after being deemed unsuitable for public use. The Mesa Historical Society launched a capital campaign in early 2024, fueled by a $100,000 State Heritage Fund grant, to bring the Depression-era Works Progress Administration building back to life. The renovation required asbestos abatement, a new roof, and a complete electrical overhaul at a cost of roughly $600,000.
The building itself is on the National Register of Historic Places, originally built in 1939 as part of the old Lehi School campus. Now it will tell the story of baseball in Arizona from territorial days through the formation of the Cactus League. The first exhibit focuses on Baseball in the Arizona Territory, when soldiers stationed at frontier forts introduced the game to the region long before statehood. The collection includes signed bats, jerseys, Hall of Fame plaques, and stories spanning from barnstorming tours featuring Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig to the Negro Leagues to baseball at Japanese internment camps during World War II.
The grand opening festival on February 21 features free admission, over 40 local vendors, live music, food trucks, guest speakers, and giveaways. A Mesa Chamber of Commerce ribbon cutting follows on February 24. Regular hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For a Valley that lives and breathes baseball every spring, it is about time we got a museum to match.
Sources: AZ Family | Mesa Tribune | Stadium Journey | Visit Mesa | Mesa Legend | East Valley Tribune | Mesa Chamber | Arizona Highways