cooperstown and the baseball Hall of Fame

wow... every little leaguers dream is to one day either be in, or visit the baseball hall of fame. since i barely missed being voted in this year giving gwynn and ripken the opportunity... the visit was nearly as good. the drive through PA. and up state NY is beautiful, i got to see more of it than i anticipated as i somehow punched in the navigation system that i didn't want to go on the interstate freeways... allowing me to take every back road to cooperstown. i kept thinking there had to be a major freeway somewhere but just kept driving enjoying the view. luckily i corrected that on the way back.

the drive was only outdone by the hall itself. the first thing you see is the tribute to its latest 2 members, gwynn and ripken. you turn the corner and the walls are full of each member's induction award. i found myself looking for the players i remembered growing up... mays, aaron, mantle, gibson and off course the babe. i then started looking for my favorite players... yaz, brett, sandberg, brooks, schmid, ryan ect... finally i gave up and looked at everyone's, surprized at how many memories i had of the players honored. i must of spent 2 hours reading each players accomplishments, sharing memories with the patrons as the stood by their favorite players plaque snaping pictures and sharing stories with anyone who would listen. i thoroughly enjoyed talking to other baseball fans and marveled at the passion and joy the grand ole game has for many of us. it may be a boring game to watch, as i struggle to watch more than an inning of any game on tv, unless it's a red sox/yankee matchup. however childhood memories of players already mentioned, teams such as the redsox, big red machine, the robinson's/palmer/powell/murray orioles, atlanta, cubbies, the damned yankees all have stories to tell and memories to recall. Quiz who were the first 5 players inducted and what was the year?

i loved the section called "sacred ground" which was a tribute to some of the grand old ball parks, ebbets field, the polo grounds and a great tribute to the wrigleys and the care they took in building wrigley field for the fans. i think owners are paying more attn to the experience of the ballpark, there's a tradition and history which comes with the old ballparks... fenway, wrigley, yankee stadium, etc. i will be lucky enough to visit 2 of the 3 this year... now i've got to schedule a trip to NY and go to yankee stadium one more time before they replace it in 2009. fans remember the teams, the players and the stadiums where they experience joy, triumph and defeat. they collect memorbillia, artifacts and stats... heck tapkas has 4 seats from old memorial stadium in his garage... next thurs when i visit wrigley field i'll now go an hour or two early to drink in the stadium the fans and the atmosphere and of course a wrigley dog that comes with it.....

it was a great walk down memory lane. i even enjoyed the tribute to the yankees. the tribute to the babe, was great... gehrigs locker, mickey's story and maris's home run chase. i may not like them but you have to respect all that they've accomplished with 26 world series championships. i marveled at the records room where they compare the all time record, who holds it with the current player and how they stack up. rose may not officially be a member but his hits record stands as one of the most impressive, as is bonds 758, biggio's 3000 hits joining 28 others, the 300 wins for glavine, 500 HR's for ARod, all very impressive. it was great to finally get there, hopefully it won't take me another 54 years to get back.

much more to this show and tell but i'll save it until i get home.

tomorrow the mormon history portion of the trip begins... stay tuned.