E36: Playing Ball Pt. 2 The Arizona Baseball Museum with Susan Ricci
This week on City Limitless®, we’re stepping up to the plate with a familiar face and a brand new homerun for Mesa. Susan Ricci is back on the podcast, and this time the dream of opening a baseball museum she once talked about is now a reality. The first and only Arizona Baseball Museum is officially open, and if you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when a big dream turns into a real-life destination, Susan is your answer.
“Mesa has incredible baseball history, and nine hundred square feet just wasn’t enough to tell the story. Baseball is nostalgia. It’s the memories, the fans and the stories that stay with you long after the game ends.” Susan Ricci
From the start, the energy is pure Spring Training magic. It’s the perfect season for this story with the crack of the bat in the distance, fans flooding into Mesa and a museum that’s finally ready to welcome them. Susan shares how the idea grew from a longtime baseball exhibit at the Mesa Historical Museum into something much bigger. The original exhibit space simply wasn’t enough to tell Arizona’s baseball story, so the vision expanded into a full museum inside a historic building that had seen better days, the kind that make you question whether it could even be saved. Instead of backing down, Susan rallied champions, solved problems in real time and kept pushing forward even when the roof leaked, beams misbehaved and engineer reports kept adding unexpected challenges with costly solutions.
Susan speaks candidly about what it took to bring the museum to life, describing it as “raising a baby while still building the nursery.” On opening day, her exhibit manager was still putting the finishing touches on displays. It was a race to the finish line, but one powered by passion, persistence and a community determined to see it through.
The history inside the museum is where it truly shines. The story begins on the frontier with military outposts and mining-town rivalries tracing how baseball became woven into Arizona’s identity. Community-sponsored teams, vintage photographs and even a jersey that reads “OASIS Lunch” highlight how deeply the sport was rooted in everyday life. Susan’s love for fan stories adds another layer, like the man who once held Ronald Reagan’s melting ice cream cone while the future president signed an autograph. These moments are what makes baseball more than a game.
For Yankees fans, the connection runs even deeper. Susan highlights 1951 as a pivotal year when the Yankees came to Mesa to play against the Cubs during Spring Training. It was Joe DiMaggio’s final season, giving local fans a rare opportunity to see a legend take the field one last time. That moment alone cements Mesa’s place in baseball history.
Beyond the exhibits, the museum was designed to be a living community space. Documentary screenings, baseball tour buses, one-man shows and special events are already filling the calendar. Outside, a once empty dirt lot has been transformed into a brick courtyard built for gathering, thanks to a Mesa Leadership project and generous community support. The vision was always bigger than the display cases. It was about creating a place where stories are shared and memories are made.
Susan Ricci’s return to City Limitless® is a full-circle moment, much like the Yankees returning to Mesa decades later this year. The Arizona Baseball Museum stands as proof that with persistence, partnership and passion, history can be preserved and reimagined all at once.
Be sure to watch the full interview on City Limitless® and experience Arizona baseball history right here in Mesa. You won’t want to miss it!
Related Content
2345 N. Horne Mesa, Arizona 85203 (480) 835-2286 Website
2345 N. Horne Mesa, Arizona 85203 (480) 835-2286 Website