The Bainbridge Island Historical Museum is putting out a call for Bainbridge baseball fans to rummage through their attics and garages for memorabilia and old uniforms used by the island’s home-grown school and club teams.

The museum hopes to put the best of the island’s baseball artifacts on display during a May 19 event they’re calling “Baseballarama.”

They’ll also show archival photos of the island’s earliest teams, which were fielded by company towns like Creosote, Port Madison and Port Blakely and neighborhoods like Pleasant Beach (see above photo).

Organizers are also promising hot dogs and beer, and plenty of opportunity to reminisce about the good old days of Bainbridge baseball. Prizes will be awarded for those who “field” the most members of their team.

To get your memorabilia in the mix, or to get more information, call Chuck Callahan at (206) 842-4479.

Head over HERE to see my photo gallery of Sunday’s circumnavigation of Bainbridge Island aboard the Virginia V, the only steam-powered ferry still chugging around Puget Sound.

The Virginia V makes an annual trip around Bainbridge as part of a fundraiser for the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum. They had a sell-out crowd this year and plan to carry on the tradition into 2011 (in case you missed it this time around).

Rick Chandler’s dream of exploring the remnants of Yama village is coming true.

Thanks to a surprise gift of $50,000, the Bainbridge Island Historical Museum curator now has the funding to begin an archeological investigation into one of Puget Sound’s earliest Japanese immigrant communities.

The donor, a Bainbridge woman who lives not too far from the Yama site, read about Chandler’s desire to preserve and protect Yama’s many artifacts in THIS Kitsap Sun story.

Her donation will be used to hire archeologists to survey of the 7-acre site and eventually oversee a dig. Chandler wants to involve young people in the process, possibly helping to excavate artifacts that would be displayed or stored at the museum.

Read more about the donation HERE.

The above photo is of a shoe I found partially embedded in the soil at Yama. For more images of Yama artifacts, see THIS photo gallery.

The Sun produced a short video of Mosquito Fleet survivor Virginia V’s visit to South Kitsap last week. You can find a related story and photo gallery here.

The Virginia V makes a regular stop on the island for an annual summertime Bainbridge Island Historical Museum fundraiser.

I went on last year’s four-hour excursion. The boat was loaded with island history buffs and a few BI newbies who wanted to get to know their island better. Historian Andy Price and former Washington secretary of state (and island son) Ralph Munro MC’d the tour.

Click here for my story about last year’s trip.

And click here for a blog post of extras I couldn’t fit into the story.

The next trip is July 26. It sold out last year, so make sure to call the museum at (206) 842-2773 to make a reservation.