The National Baseball Hall of Fame is debuting a YouTube series called Hall of Fame Connections, produced by MLB Network and made possible by a grant from I LOVE NY/New York State’s Division of Tourism.

The series, driven by Camping World, looks at the Hall of Fame’s collection from a new and exciting angle, with each episode telling a different story of how two seemingly unrelated artifacts in the museum’s vast collection connect to each other, crossing through generations of baseball history.

Each two-part episode features both a narrative storytelling element that weaves through the history of some of the museum’s most iconic artifacts, and the Hall of Fame’s curators conversing about those artifacts and stories with MLB Network personality Carlos Peña, a former MLB All-Star, and sports journalist Lindsay Berra, the granddaughter of Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra.

The series consists of 13 episodes, all available to stream for free through the Hall of Fame’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/baseballhall. New episodes will be released each Wednesday through September and will also be featured across MLB Network’s studio programming.

The first episode, titled “From the Catch to the Steal,” is available now. It starts with Willie Mays’ famous catch in the 1954 World Series and ends with Dave Roberts’ stolen base in the 2004 ALCS against the New York Yankees.

Whenever a great play is made in baseball, the Baseball Hall of Fame makes sure it gets a piece of history. Here are the artifacts the Hall collected for the first episode.

The catch

Don’t dare hit a ball over Willie Mays’ head. The Indians knew this firsthand in the 1954 World Series when they played the Giants. They couldn’t score on a deep fly ball hit by Vic Wertz in Game 1 and Mays’ over-the-shoulder catch in deep center field -- and subsequent throw -- is now baseball lore. Mays held onto the glove he was wearing for the play until the middle of the 1955 season before giving it away to the son of Don Liddle, the pitcher who gave up Wertz’ deep fly to center. The glove has been part of the Liddle family ever since and is on loan at the Hall of Fame.

The move to California

Four years after Mays’ famous catch, the Giants relocated to San Francisco from New York, while the Dodgers made their way from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. The rivalry remains strong to this day. On display at the Hall of Fame is the ticket of the first West Coast game between the Giants and Dodgers on April 15, 1958. The Giants won the game, 8-0, at Seals Stadium.

The Battle of the Bay; Michaels shines

The 1989 World Series featured Bay Area rivals San Francisco and Oakland, with the A’s sweeping the four-game series. But baseball was not on everybody’s mind during that series. Minutes before the start of Game 3, the Loma Prieta earthquake in San Francisco registered 6.9 on the Richter scale, causing catastrophic damage around the Bay Area. The game was postponed, but ABC broadcaster Al Michaels showed he was more than just a play-by-play announcer. On that day, he was a newsman first, telling the TV audience the damage he saw at Candlestick Park. For his coverage of the event, Michaels would be nominated for a news Emmy. Thirty-two years later, Michaels will be honored this September with the 2021 Ford C. Frick Award for excellence in baseball broadcasting, the highest honor a baseball broadcaster can receive.

Stewart’s uniform and the origin of the elephant

After winning the 1989 World Series MVP, Athletics right-hander Dave Stewart gave his jersey to the Baseball Hall of Fame. The jersey features an elephant on the sleeve. The Hall also has a similar jersey belonging to Ty Cobb that features the same elephant. Known for his years with the Tigers, Cobb played his last years in the big leagues with the Philadelphia Athletics in 1927 and ’28.

According to MLB.com’s Martín Gallegos, the origin of the elephant dates back to 1902, when Giants manager John McGraw dissed A’s manager/owner Connie Mack for acquiring National League players such as Hall of Fame pitcher Rube Waddell and outfielder Topsy Hartsel. Said McGraw, “The Philadelphia club will make no money. They have a big white elephant on their hands.”

That diss by McGraw got back to Mack, who was so amused by the comment that he made a white elephant the team’s unofficial mascot as a sort of rallying cry.

The greatest of all time

Rickey Henderson is the greatest leadoff hitter of all time. He is the all-time leader in runs scored (2,295) and stolen bases (1,406). Who can forget the day he broke Lou Brock’s career stolen base record on May 1, 1991, against the Yankees? After stealing third base, Henderson picked up the bag and proclaimed himself as the greatest of all time. Henderson later would donate his batting gloves from stealing the record-setting base to the Hall of Fame.

The shoes

Dave Roberts is currently known as manager of the 2020 World Series Champion Dodgers. But earlier in the century, Roberts was one of the best stealers in the game. In need of speed, the Red Sox needed his services during the second half of 2004. Roberts would come through in a big way in Game 4 of the 2004 American League Championship Series against the Yankees.  

With Boston trailing, 4-3, and on the verge of being swept in the ALCS, Roberts entered the game as a pinch runner in the ninth inning. He stole second base off closer Mariano Rivera and then scored the tying run on a single by Bill Mueller.

The Red Sox won the game in extra innings, breaking the Curse of the Bambino by winning the next three games in the series and their first pennant since 1986. The Red Sox would go on to win their first World Series in 86 years by sweeping the Cardinals in four games.