Wow.
I’ve waited 18 years to see the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown,
and it was worth the wait. I had goose bumps all over my body as I walked up to
the Mecca of baseball. When I saw that Barry Larkin was one of the 2012
inductees, a flood of memories came over me.
It
may seem silly, but my little brother, Sam, and I used to play a game on the
computer called Backyard Baseball, where you chose a team of Major Leaguers,
but they were in animated kid form. One of the things I remember from the game
is that when you hit a homerun with Barry Larkin, the game would say “Larkin
parkin’ the ball in the bleachers!”
Once
inside the Hall of Fame, I encountered more nostalgia. Memorabilia from before
Ty Cobb to Josh Hamilton covered the walls. Being a sports history buff, I
enjoyed reading the facts and stories attached to the artifacts. The actual
Hall of Fame itself was amazing, too. Seeing the plaques of the 297 greatest
players/managers/figures in the history of the sport was incredible. I wish I
had time and space to talk about all of the stuff I saw, but there was simply
too much. You’ll have to go yourself!
The
Hall did have a special section about Fenway Park and I saw stuff like Curt
Schilling’s bloody sock (so cool). They had a box and cards there where you
could write your personal memory of Fenway and it would be stored in the
archives at the Hall of Fame, so I sat down and wrote my experience from about
a month and a half ago, when I watched the Red Sox take on the Yankees on April
20th, the 100th birthday of the legendary park.
My
mom provided the funniest moment of the day when she was looking at all the
teams and their retired jersey numbers. After about 20 teams, she asked my dad,
“How many teams did Jackie Robinson play for?!” Since I wasn’t there, my dad
had to explain to her that Jackie’s #42 is retired across the entire MLB, and
that he only played for the Brooklyn Dodgers (although he was traded to the New
York Giants before retiring, he never played a game with them).
While
the Hall of Fame was the main attraction, a ton of other cool stuff was in
Cooperstown. The entire street was full of sports memorabilia shops. It is
probably the only place in the world that I actually wanted to go into every
store on the street. I would also say it’s a safe bet that it’s the only place
in the world that it’s acceptable for a man to go “shopping,” as most women
would interpret the word (aka- go into every store and spend HOURS looking at
and buying stuff).
We
also saw Doubleday Field, which wasn’t too far from the Hall of Fame. It is
home to the Cooperstown Hawkeyes, a collegiate summer league baseball team, as
well as various events like the Hall of Fame Game (now the Hall of Fame
Classic) and other amateur baseball games. About four miles south of
Cooperstown, we went to Dreams Park, an enormous little league competitive
baseball facility. There were a TON of people there, as the little kids were
competing in a skills challenge before the actually tournament starts tomorrow.
To
say the least, it was an awesome day for sports, which means it was an awesome
day for me! We’re going back into Cooperstown tomorrow to finish shopping and
to maybe catch a game at Doubleday Field, depending on the weather (there’s a
40% chance of rain). Regardless, this trip has been great so far!
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