Bloomfield Township Public Library to have baseball lecture

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP — History buffs and baseball fans alike might find the upcoming presentation at the Bloomfield Township Public Library on Tuesday, March 24, particularly interesting as Jose Guzman Jr. will talk about his lifelong love for baseball and dig into its history of inclusion and diversity. The presentation will take place at 7 p.m. 

Guzman is the grants and engagement coordinator for Bloomfield Township. When he started working for the township, he was given a tour of the library, and when he saw some of the displays, he brought up his baseball card collection and expressed that he would be happy to share it with the community. In May 2024, the library took him up on this offer and he had a display of his cards up at the library for a month. 

“It was really cool to set that up and share that with the community and get some nice feedback,” Guzman said. 

In January 2025 at the Bloomfield Township Senior Center, he held a similar talk to what he will be doing at the library. Guzman said the talk at the library will be “a little bit different” from what he presented last year to the Bloomfield Township Senior Center. 

“In my mind, baseball is like the true American pastime, because it really is a melting pot of all, every single group getting a chance to play this game and make the game their own,” Guzman said. 

He talks about his Puerto Rican heritage, being born in America, and thinking about what it means to be an American. He said that at a young age, he felt that since baseball is such a big part of American culture, he was contributing to American society by playing the game. 

“And then over the years, I ended up finding out that that's kind of what a lot of minorities thought of baseball and why they kind of got into it,” Guzman said. 

Guzman said the speech is broken up into different sections, with the hope that everyone can find interest in at least one of the topics he covers. In addition to his love for baseball and its history of diversity, he also touches on other topics such as classic baseball movies. 

“We try to highlight as many different groups as possible. History is really, really popular here. Quite frankly, the history of almost anything is something our patrons are interested in. Sports is something that I myself really enjoy, and I think is maybe a little bit underserved in library programming,” adult and teen services department head Laura Kraly said.

She added that this is a particularly relevant time of year to have baseball programming at the library because many fans are following the World Baseball Classic and MLB Spring Training. The Major League Baseball season will begin March 25 with a night game between the San Francisco Giants and the New York Yankees.

More information on the program can be found at btpl.org or by calling the library at  (248) 642-5800. Registration is required.