This was a special stop Gary had been looking forward to for a long time. We had visited the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio a number of years ago and had wanted to get to Cooperstown ever since. And it did not disappoint. Cooperstown long ago became synonymous with the Baseball Hall of Fame. You are far more likely to hear “he’ll be in Cooperstown one day” than you ever would “he’ll be in the Hall of Fame”. The building itself is not particularly imposing inside or out, but the contents are awesome.
Whereas the Football Hall has bronze busts, the Baseball Hall has plaques. The first floor houses the Plaque Gallery. Each plaque captures in just a few short words the very essence of each hall of fame player. The first floor also houses Induction Row which contains items related to the most recent inductees We visited the Hall just after this year’s induction ceremony weekend. Ron Santo of the Chicago Cubs and Barry Larkin were this year’s inductees. Gary took pictures of many of the plaques and the ones that were the most memorable to him including this one of “Sparky” Anderson, the last manager to lead our Detroit Tigers to the World Championship..
The second floor has a gallery dedicated to probably the most famous of the original five inductees -- Babe Ruth. There a great portrait in the art gallery of “The Babe” in the batter’s box pointing to where he is going to hit a home run in the outfield bleachers. There was also a second floor section for sportswriters and radio announcers, two of whom were famous to fans of the Tigers – Joe Falls and Ernie Harwell.
The third floor had a section dedicated to Hank Aaron, a TV monitor continuously playing Abbot and Costello’s “Whose on First”, a display case of all the World Series championship rings, and a section dedicated to the many batting and pitching records of baseball. But maybe best of all, I got a photo of a future hall of famer. Isn’t he a handsome one?
Our pictures for Cooperstown are at: https://picasaweb.google.com/116107386675555024952/CooperstownBaseballHallOfFame
We have been backlogged uploading our picture albums but have recently uploaded several since our last album of Lancaster, PA. And we are working on the rest of them as well.
Great post! We were not too far from Cooperstown but weren't able to stop and spend some time. Looks like we will have to put this on the list and do it!
ReplyDeletewe went to the Ommengang Brewery in that area and really enjoyed it. We don't do baseball much so we skipped the hall of fame.
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