It was a nice drive down Rt 80 to Cooperstown and we bordered Lake Otsego most of the way. There were a number of beautiful homes, golf courses and huge old hotels along the way to keep up our interest. This tower was built circa 1876 for Edward S. Clark, who made his fortune on the Singer Sewing Machine Company and vacationed in Cooperstown. It was built"to beautify the lake" and "to provide construction jobs during an economic downturn"
The KOA manager told us about the trolley that had stops all over the town and was at a reasonable price. Since we had some geocaches to check out in the area, I elected to drive downtown and take a chance on finding a place to park. We lucked out and parked in a space right in front of the BHOF. Great!
I took a picture of two guys with their camera and then had them snap a picture of us at the entrance to the BHOF.
Grant wanted to see pictures, statues, etc of Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente and Babe Ruth. Right in the entrance to the museum were three statues and Robinson & Clemente were two of the three honored players.
Grant's favorite baseball team is the Pittsburgh Pirates and he was fortunate enough to find two Pirates jerseys to wear for a picture. I remember one of the jerseys, but the other was before my time. He looks goods as a Pirate.
We toured the hall where all the inductees had their plaques and checked them all. It was an impressive group of players and the display of the plaques looked great. They go back to the first group to be inducted in 1936 and are through 2012. The first group of inductees were super stars long before super stars became diluted by illegal drugs and the dilution of the baseball leagues. They played 10 fewer games a year and posted numbers that are hard to believe.
The 5 original members were:
Christy Matheson
Honus Wagner
Walter Johnson - won 414 games as a pitcher
Ty Cobb = hard nosed player and fantastic player
Babe Ruth = best baseball player of all time
The lifesize statues of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams are very close to the plaques of the 1936 group. Ted Williams was the greatest player I have seen play at a ballpark and I always marveled at how great of a hitter he was. He once said batting isn't difficult, all you have to do is watch which way the ball is spinning to see what it is going to do. I could hardly see the ball coming in, let alone see which way it was spinning. Babe Ruth is on the left and Ted Williams in on the right.
There were hundreds more exhibits, photos, old uniforms, bats, stories and too much to even mention in a blog. We took over 140 photos and decided that might be overkill for a blog. The BHOF is a fantastic sight to see and this is our third visit and we've enjoyed it each time. As Henry says, place it on your Bucket List if you are a baseball fan. One exhibit Grant checked out was this old view finder with baseball player photos. Sort of like the old time peep shows I heard about when I was younger. Maybe some of you guys remember them.
The Doubleday Stadium is behind the museum about two blocks away and it a neat field. Abner Doubleday has appeared in four different places on this trip, Antietam Battlefield, Williamsport fortifications, West Point and now here at the BHOF. He sure got around a lot.
By this time, even Grant was tired out and hungry. We stopped for dinner in Cooperstown and then headed back to the campground. We all agreed it was a great day and well worth the visit.
The sun was setting by the time we got back to the motorhome and Gerry captured this picture to end the day.
Grant was invited over to the neighbors campsite for s'mores and joined them for 30 minutes or so. They had 12 yr & 16 yr old daughters and seemed very nice. By this time he was worn out and came back to the motorhome and was ready for a glass of milk and bed. We are heading that way soon. too.
That was our day, how was yours?
I actually recognized a couple of those names. I grew up with a Dad who really didn't have much to do with sports. So baseball was not anything we ever watched or listened to. We didn't get a TV until I was almost a teenager and if it wasn't music on the radio, I wasn't interested. What a great way to wear out a young man though. And smores with the girls. Yep!!
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