|-iNTERTAINMENT
WeefcBhn
Preview
The following is a brief
guide to weekend events. Please
call venues for more informa
tion.
CONCERTS:
Duffy’s, 1412 OSt
Sunday: The Holy Ghost,
The Black Dahlias
Duggan’s Pub,
440 S. 11th St
Friday: Owen Mutch
and the Debtors
Saturday: Blue Tango
Knickerbockers, 901 O St
Friday: Day Old Brutus,
Complete 180°
Saturday: Almost None,
Episode, Creatures of Habit
The Royal Grove, 340 W.
Cornhusker Hwy.
Friday: Rockin’ Fossils
Saturday: Salt ‘n’ Pepa,
Geswerk
Zoo Bar, 136 N. 14th St
Friday: Mark Sailings and
the Famous Unknowns
Sunday: Eddie King
and the Swamp Bees
THEATER:
Blue Barn Theatre, 614 S.
11th St, Omaha
All weekend: “Simpatico”
Kimball Recital Hall, 12th
and R streets
Friday and Saturday:
Scarlet and Cream Singers
Mary Riepma Ross Film
Theater, 12th and R streets
All weekend:
Student Academy Awards
GALLERIES:
Burkholder Project,
719 P St
Friday and Saturday:
“Collaborations,” featuring
textile art and photographs
by Robert HilWstad $md
John Nolleftdorfs *
■ '•*" -
Gallery 9,124 S. Ninth St
All weekend: Works by
Nebraska Art Council 1998
Artist Fellowship winners
Haydon Gallery,
335 N. Eighth St, Suite A
Friday and Saturday:
Abstract paintings by Lana
Miller
Joslyn Art Museum,
2200 Dodge St
All weekend: “Searching
for Ancient Egypt”
Noyes Art Gallery,
119 S. Ninth St
Friday and Saturday: Horse
pins and paintings by Janna
Harsch, metal sculpture by
Michael Fluent, oil land
scapes by Keith Lowry and
blown glass by Ray Schultz
Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery, 12th and R streets
All weekend:
“Fletcher Benton:
New Constructivism,”
“New York School
Installation”
_i Matt Miller/DN
AFTER FIGHTING IN WWII, Hobe Hays returned to Nebraska and played semi-pro baseball while he went to college. Hays has recently written a book about
the experiences of his baseball-playing days.
B : 11 Diaries
J...,h=cs JA, Story by Christopher Heine / Photo by Matt Miller
Semi-pro player
takes a swing at
the history of town
Hobe Hays played baseball when sharp, spiked
shoes did more than help runners gain the needed trac
tion to quickly advance from base to base.
They were also weapons for retaliation.
Hays said baseball in the late 1940s and early 30s
was a chess match in which players retied on intimida
tion as much as knowledge of pitching locations and
steal signs. ;'
' “Backlhen there was a code of toughness,” he
said. “If a pitcher knocked you down a couple of times,
^ . . . v
you could bunt the ball down to first base and spike his
foot as he covered the bag. Those days were a lot of
fun, but rough too.”
In his new book, “Take Two and Hit To Right,”
Hays chronicles his eight-year participation in die grit
ty and colorful era of 1950s semi-pro baseball.
He played in Nebraska leagues during a time when
small-town, World War II veterans played for the love
of the game, large crowds and money from the gate.
Winning teams would split 60 percent of ticket
sales and losers would get 40 percent, Hays said. His
average nightly take home, he said, was usually about
$50 for playing the infield, while pitchers and catchers
often made more than twice as much.
After his World War duty ended in 1946 at age 20,
Hays was a second baseman for Lincoln and McCook
semi-professional teams; squads that were part of a
Midwestern baseball tradition called “town teams.”
During his playing days, Hays said semi-pro ball
was mainly made up of the kind of players one might
guess - off-season college players and weathered, for
mer minor leaguers. Both types were recruited to fur
bish the small-town pride and betting habits of what he
calls “ol’ boys.”
The 73-year-old said baseball during one of the
most affluent times in U.S. history was popular with
everyone and some fans were rabid.
“There was rivalries between towns and a lot of
gambling behind the bleachers - ol’ boys who were
usually rich farmers making bets,” Hays said. “That
was before television and air conditioning, so it was
the only show in town and a cheap way for an entire
family to cool off.”
“Take Two and Hit to Right” is a baseball book
Please see BASEBALL on 8
Courtesy Art
ABOVE: “DOLORES” appears in Lana Miller’s new show at the Haydon
Gallery. Today’s reception lasts from 7 to 9 p.m. ABOVE RIGHT:
“CONFIGURATION BV3 - 89,” acrylic paint with collage on Birch panel.
Abstract art lets
viewers find story
ByLizaHoltmeier
Senior staff writer
Amid the naked white spaces and
neutral toned squares, Lana Miller
scrawled the word “wisdom.”
For her, it represented the name of a
town in Montana.
For others, it can represent whatever
they want it to, Miller said.
“I want people to connect and make
up their own narrative,” Miller said of
her work.
The artist’s open-ended attitude
characterizes the exhibit of her works at
the Haydon Gallery this month.
“(Her pieces) suggest that there is a
story, but they don’t tell you what the
story is,” said Anne Pagel, director of
the Haydon. “They let you trace her
thoughts as well as your own.”
The exhibit of Miller’s work fea
tures three main groups: a series of
paintings on canvas, a series of multi
media works on canvas and a series of
collages.
But despite the different media,
each series retains Miller’s distinctive
style.
“My work has always been very
Please see MILLER on 8
