I made mention to a friend recently that if I lived about three hours closer, I’d probably visit the National Baseball Hall of Fame monthly.
A bit hyperbolic?
Perhaps, but I can assure you if it wasn’t an 8-hour drive from where I reside, I’d be there at least quarterly. And if I lived within a couple hours I’d seriously consider volunteering.
And it’s not just the Hall of Fame – my own personal version of Shangri-La – it’s the entire village of Cooperstown, NY, that I adore.
It’s the single stoplight town, the flag pole in the center Main Street that passes for a roundabout, the (mainly) baseball-themed shops up and down that same Main Street, the quirky – and delicious! – diners and restaurants throughout, the scenery around Otsego Lake.
It’s all of it!
When plotting my Around the World in 80 Sporting Events project there was never a doubt a visit to the Baseball Hall would make the list. Never mind that I’d already been there four times previously.
And that’s my message to anyone reading this today: Go!
If you’ve never been … go!
If you have been before … go, again!
The exhibits are constantly being refreshed, the movie in the Grandstand Theater changes fairly regularly, and each July new inductees are enshrined.
There, I’ll step off my soapbox and share a bit of my recent visit as Event No. 26 of this long and winding road of sports fandom I’ve chosen to undertake. And, because I could write a fairly lengthy post about this place, I’ve decided to post a few of the many images I captured that sparked something in me and reflect on those. Don’t worry, I’ll post the rest of my photos and a couple videos soon on the full page of Event No. 26.
HoFer Stemware
During each successive visit to Cooperstown I try to do something new.
This year, because we had a bit of time Friday following our drive from New York City, my dad and I decided to save the Hall of Fame visit for Saturday and do the other things we hoped to accomplish that afternoon.
Among our stops were many of the shops along Main Street, a visit to the Leatherstocking Golf Course, and an early dinner in The Otesaga Resort Hotel‘s Hawkeye Bar & Grill. It was our first time inside the venerable old inn that houses all the living Hall of Famers each July during Induction Weekend.
Both my father and I enjoyed the showcase (two, actually) featuring personalized stemware with the name of each living Hall of Famer and their number inscribed on the glass. There were three glasses with a white rose in the bowl. Each member of the Hall who died between Induction Ceremonies is honored with a white rose in their glass before it’s retired and, presumably, given to the family. There were roses in the glasses of Rickey Henderson, Dave Parker, and Ryne Sandberg. In Sandberg’s case, he died the day following the 2025 Induction Ceremony.
As we enjoyed our sandwiches and some Ryder Cup action in the Hawkeye, it wasn’t too difficult for dad and I to wonder what stories those walls would share if only they could talk.
“The Captain’s” High School Hat
I walked by this artifact thinking it was some Kansas City hat from long ago before doing a u-turn to more closely examine something else in the showcase. That’s when I discovered this hat was actually that of lifetime New York Yankees’ shortstop Derek Jeter‘s from his high school, Kalamazoo (MI) Central.
This is the sort of quirky stuff that I notice during visits that keeps me coming back. If it had been displayed previously I missed it and if it hadn’t, it made me wonder what prompted the curators to put it out now.
And then I thought of the legendary Yankee Stadium public address announcer Bob Sheppard introducing Jeter and how, for the final five years of his playing career following Sheppard’s death in 2010, he still used his recorded introduction during home games.
Duty Calls
The final 14 years of my professional life in K-12 education were spent as my local union’s elected president. When I saw Curt Flood‘s letter to then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn challenging his ability to be free to play where he wanted following the expiration of his contract it sort of stopped me in my tracks.
I don’t claim to be familiar with all the intricacies of the Flood case, but I do know what it means to take a principled stand for what you believe is right. These 128 words likely cost Flood the remainder of his Major League Baseball career (he sat our the entire 1970 season during the litigation and only played 13 more games in Washington the following the season).
The sad reality is that he lost his case before the U.S. Supreme Court (5-3), but the Court noted that MLB’s “antitrust exemption was tenuous” and, in so doing, helped set in motion widespread free agency in MLB during the next decade.
When I first visited the Hall as a teenager I would have carelessly walked by this letter. Now, however, to be this close to a piece of labor rights history was awe-inspiring.
Perfect No More
June 2, 2010 was a Wednesday night and, as a fourth grade teacher, I was working through finishing up grading work and getting things situated for the final couple weeks of the school year. As always during that era the Detroit Tigers’ game was on the television in the background.
As the game moved forward, I noticed the line score after – I believe – the sixth inning and saw Tigers’ journeyman starter, Armando Galarraga, hadn’t allowed a hit. Suddenly, my work rate slowed in direct relation to my game attention rate increasing.
And then, it happened, in the top of the ninth inning, Cleveland’s Luke Donald hit a slow roller wide of first base, Miguel Cabrera nabbed it and tossed it to Galarraga who was covering the bag.
Out! A perfect game! The 21st in MLB history and the second within a week (Phillies’ pitcher Roy Halladay tossed one May 29 against the Marlins).
Wait, umpire Jim Joyce called him safe???
Yes, inexplicably as replays showed over – and over! – Joyce called Donald safe in the days before instant replay challenges existed and Galarraga’s perfecto was kaput. He then retired Trevor Crowe on a groundout to finish the 3-0 victory.
And there, in front of me behind glass at the Hall, was the base from that game. Sure, there are other artifacts from perfect games, but none is as unique as this one from a uniquely imperfect perfect game.
The Voice of My Adolescence
The Hall is comprised not just of on-field artifacts, there’s a small wing devoted to the journalists who cover it, both print and broadcast.
Longtime Detroit Tigers’ broadcaster Ernie Harwell was the 1981 Ford C. Frick Award recipient for his broadcasting work – and he still had 21 more years to go!
He was, in many ways, the voice of my adolescence as I’d listen to he and longtime partner Paul Carey tell stories and describe the action from whereever the Tigers’ happened to be playing send off to slumber more times than I can recall.
Having the opportunity to caddie in a foursome that included Harwell and Tigers’ manager – and Hall of Famer – Sparky Anderson continues to be a memory I hold dear from the magical summer of 1984 and wrote about here two years ago.
Sho-Time
This lenticular-style display shows Shohei Ohtani from all angles and on all teams.
I’ll leave you with this one from the newest exhibit to open, Yakyu-Baseball.
Yakyu, which is Japanese for baseball, is a big salute to baseball on both sides of the Pacific Ocean and how those two worlds have merged during the past half century.
One of the centerpieces in this area is an oversized lenticular-style card (e.g. motion) of current Los Angeles Dodgers’ superstar, Shohei Ohtani. In the middle is his No. 17 Dodgers’ jersey and Angels’ hat, but as you look at it from the left, center, and right, you see three different images: the first is of him for Team Japan during the 2023 World Baseball Classic, the middle is of him as a Dodger mid-swing, and the final is of him as an Angel pitching.
The display fascinated me for multiple reasons. First, it was a throwback to my days of youth when I’d encourage mom to buy Kellogg’s brand cereals in order to nab one of their lenticular-style cards. Second, it allowed me to marvel for a moment at what Ohtani is accomplishing in real time before my eyes. Finally, because it was a topic of conversation when I visited Tokyo in May and watched a Nippon Professional Baseball game, how much better was Ohtani compared to his leaguemates in Japan when he was playing there?
A Final Look
