Thoughts from Huntington Place: The Baseball Hall of Fame

It’s Sunday, September 29 and I drove from Troy, New York to Cooperstown to visit the baseball Hall of Fame. The trip took over an hour and a half and much of it was on little country roads that were too small to have a center stripe! The foliage is getting more and more beautiful, but as I think I said yesterday, my little iPhone camera cannot possibly do justice to the beauty unfolding on these hill sides.

Cooperstown seems to be one big classy tourist trap! There are a couple of other attractions but the main one, of course, is baseball. There are a large number of gift shops ready to take your money, and they took some of mine! Parking is about the only thing that I could complain about as most of the parking is street parking, but there is a two-hour limit and you have to pay the meter quite a few sheckles. The guy in front of the Hall of Fame suggested I go down to Doubleday field and park there where it cost $15 for the whole day. It was only a couple blocks. One of the shops seems to be an outlet for a local distillery, who will sell you whiskey and vodka in bottles shaped like baseballs. I don’t really drink either of these, so I did not inquire as to the price.

The Hall of Fame is right downtown and covers three floors. The introductory film involved a number of baseball’s best players. each offering a few insights about baseball. It was fun to watch! For many years baseball writers and historians stated that baseball was invented by Abner Doubleday, a Civil War general. Doubleday existed and was apparently apparently from Cooperstown, But I read the line in the history that says "Doubleday did not invent baseball - Baseball invented Doubleday!"

There was a display about some of the colorful terms that were used in the early days, that are no longer used. For instance, a striker is now called the batter. I would love to watch a game where the announcer would try to include as many obscure terms as possible. Wait, they already do!

Lots of coverage of Babe Ruth and lots and lots of coverage of the Yankees! Well, why not? They are the most successful team in baseball. There were a number of displays about their various and many dynasties. My only comfort is that there will not be a display of a Yankees Dynasty after 2017! The Astros have taken care of that! I was disappointed that there was not that much information or displays devoted to my Houston Astros. There is an exhibit on women’s baseball and a good-size exhibit on the Negro league and the success of African-Americans in baseball.

There is a room made up like a locker room where each team gets a locker. This is where I found most of the Astros knickknacks.

I went down the street for one of the best hotdogs I’ve ever had. Since the Hall of Fame is on the main street of town and there are many places to eat, it really makes sense that the museum does not have its own diner. Most of the on-site snack bars that I have run across were just OK. Besides, this might be another way to keep the town happy, and sharing in the profits!

One of my favorite exhibits was this homage to the fans. Each papier-mâché statue represents a specific, named super-fan of the sport.

A great line from Casey Stengel that I think works outside the sport as well.

In the room, devoted to baseball art, this piece of woodwork is my favorite.

I was able to exercise self-restraint in the gift shop because I figured that anything I wanted about the Astros I could get at Minutemaid Park, but then I saw a gift shop on Main Street that offered German style nutcrackers, dressed up and baseball uniforms. I hope I can get my Astro home safely!

I bid farewell to the national baseball Hall of Fame and headed for the very small town Of Blenheim, about an hour south east of Cooperstown. Last month, I watched an interesting episode of Nova in which this little town lost their historic Wooden bridge in a flood, And decided that the bridge was part of their identity. The episode included lots of background on wooden bridges, both American and Chinese, And is fascinating both from the Engineering standpoint, and the aesthetic. GPS took me down a lot of winding roads, but the result was worth it.

The original bridge was built in 1855. It was touted as the longest single-span covered wooden bridge in the world. It has now been rebuilt using, for the most part, centuries – old building techniques. It may be a source of civic pride, but it really serves no useful purpose, as it lacks an approach from the town end.