The Basilica of Baseball, Cooperstown, NY

Are you a baseball fan? Do you ever find yourself feeling a bit 'old'? Well have you been to the Baseball Hall of Fame?

I rolled back 20 years of my life as we pulled into Cooperstown, NY. Giddy as a 10-year-old on the opening day of Little League, my heart was racing as we slowly poked around the quaint streets, looking for the Hall. I had to wait a bit longer while we had a really quick lunch at the Doubleday Cafe, but we ordered, ate, and paid in a hurry, ready to move on over to the red brick halls of baseball glory a block away.

Goose bumps covered my skin and there was probably a twinkle in my eye as we walked in, bought our tickets, and made our way to the first exhibit of the history of the Hall of Fame itself, and the introductory video. Looking back, it would have been smart to have skipped the video. The 10-minute long highlight reel perhaps gets some people into a "baseball mood", but hey, I was already there! And unfortunately, as we exited the theatre, we found ourselves in the middle of 196 other people simultaneously examining the first memorabilia from 19th century baseball.

The first few rooms were about baseball's beginnings, stretching back as far as the 1830s -- yeah, pre-Civil war! Most major cities and many schools had real "leagues" by the 1870s. Modern major league baseball would be established with the founding of the National League in 1887, binding a small handful of teams (most of which still exist today) by a common schedule and a ratified set of rules.

Another room was dedicated to early baseball's most beloved bomber, Babe Ruth. Other cases featured gloves, bats, cleats, and random trinkets from the likes of Lou Gehrig, Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and dozens of others. I found a baseball jersey and cap worn by the Chicago Cub pitcher Bill Lee in the 1930s. I interviewed his wife when I was in 5th grade for my Social Studies Fair project on the salaries of professional athletes (which I started finding exhorbitant in 1990!). And no, his salary wasn't that great in the 1930s, but it was the depression, so they were thrilled he had a job :-)

The next exhibit was about Women in Baseball (the dedication of which was featured at the end of the Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna movie, A Leauge of Their Own). The museum as a whole has really thorough coverage of American wars, clearly noting players that were war veterans, as well as the importance of baseball in the lives of Americans back home.

A few rooms followed, about the "expansion" era of baseball, with cases featuring memorabilia from each of the teams added during the middle of the 20th century. It was entertaining and educational to see the mini-dynasties that waxed and waned with the arrival and departure of franchise players and coaches. I learned a lot about some teams that I never followed very closely as a kid.

The last room on the 2nd floor was pretty cool -- there was one locker for each of the 30 current teams in Major League Baseball, each with relics of significance from the last ~10 years. It was a lot of fun to slowly absorb each locker and recollect the events I could remember and learn about the ones I didn't recall. In the Cubs locker, there were Greg Maddux' cleats from pitching his 300th win against San Francisco in August of 2007.

I was actually at that game, arriving 2 hours early to watch batting practice and see Maddux warming up in the bullpen before the game!

The home team honored Maddux, the visitor, on the score board after the game.

In the Giants locker was Barry Bonds' 71st homerun ball, tattooed with an asterisk. After the ball was bought at auction, the new owner conducted a poll on the internet to determine the ball's fate. 47% of responders voted to brand the ball with an asterisk before donating it to the Baseball Hall of Fame, over donating the ball untouched and launching it into space. The asterisk in effigy notes the widely held view that Bonds used performance enhancing drugs in his assault on the time honored records held by Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron.

There was also a case of memorabilia from the current season's most notable events. The most interesting were Galaraga's cleats and 1st base from what should have been baseball's 20th perfect game in history, which is now missing from the record books due to a clearly blown call by the 1st base umpire. People will talk about this particular play for decades, and certainly any time pundits discuss instant replay in baseball.

The last exhibit shows some of baseball's most valuable treasures -- the rarest baseball cards on the planet. The $3 million 1906 Honus Wagner (now owned by Wayne Gretzky), a Mikey Mantle rookie card, a Willie Mays rookie card, and a bubble gum Nap Lajoie treasure. This exhibit continued onto the 2nd floor with a brief history of baseball cards. Back to elementary school again, I conducted my 6th grade Social Studies fair project on the economics of baseball card collecting. It was really cool to see some of these cards in person, as I had read so much about them as a kid.

I should probably break here to explain one other quick detail about Cooperstown... Parking is free on the street, however, there is a 2 hour time limit. And everyone we asked (our waitress at the cafe, a random guy on the street, and the ticket salesman at the HoF) gave us very serious eyes when we asked if the 2 hour limit was strictly enforced. So in the 6+ hours we spent at the museum, we did leave to move the car twice!

It was also about this point that Connor had to hit the road again for his 4 hour drive back to Harrisburg. Once again, thanks a million for hosting us for a week, and thanks for sharing the Cooperstown experience with us!

But I wasn't done yet... Once back in, I walked through the actual "Hall", where each of the 100+ inductees have a bronze relief sculpture and a brief biography.

I spent a solid hour reading about my favorite players and learning about some others. Each player who had served in any war, from the Civil War to Vietnam, had a special emblem next to their plaque. What an honorable way of designating such service!

One of the great ironies of this pilgrammage for me was that the 2010 Induction ceremony was held the previous weekend, and the only player inducted was positively my favorite player as a kid -- Andre "The Hawk" Dawson!

Again reminding me of my youth, I took great pride that baseball would honor the career of such a complete and gentlemanly player as Andre Dawson. While his career numbers are outstanding by most measures, they're considerably shy of many of today's steriods-era meat head records.

I joined Kim on a walk through a room dedicated to movies about baseball. Of course there are the obvious ones (A League of their Own, Field of Dreams, The Natural, Bull Durham), but this room noted many dozens more. A video monitor played clips from several of them. Kim was particularly entertained by the premise of a movie called "Burgundy", about a cat (yes, a "meow meow" cat) that owns a baseball team. I probably won't be watching that one :-) Ask Kim for more details about the script.

Finally, we made it up to the 3rd floor, which opens with perhaps my favorite exhibit of the whole museum, on the history of baseball stadiums. A meticulous timeline spells out the construction of each of baseball's most famous stadiums

A small exhibit described a long roadtrip someone took to attend baseball games in all 30 stadiums in 37 days. Kimmie: up for another roadtrip? That sounds like a lot of fun!

An outstanding exhibit on the consummate baseball player, Hank Aaron, followed. This multiple-room exhibit details his whole life, amid racial adversity in baseball in the 1950s, through his chasing of Babe Ruth and numerous other records that he would retire while holding. It continued on through his life to the present, where he continues to support numerous social causes and promote racial equality. He also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom (America's highest civilian honor) from President George W. Bush in 2003.

There was a wall noting every single no-hitter ever pitched in baseball, most of which include a game ball. And the next few rooms focused on all-time records in baseball. Posters along the wall detail the top 10 all time leaders in each category (runs, hits, stolen bases, wins, saves, ERA, etc.), as well as the top 10 leaders among active players. It's an interesting view of records that are "untouchable", as well as the next few which are likely to be rewritten within our lives. Among the records that I think will never be broken: Cy Young's 511 wins, Rickey Henderson's 1406 stolen bases, and Cal Ripken Jr.'s 2632 games played in a row. What records do you think are unbreakable?

There was another room about World Series history, including World Series Championship rings (or medals from the early years). It's safe to say that today's World Series Rings have a bit more bling than of days yore. The last room is dedicated entirely to the New York Yankees, who have won about 25% of all World Series championships. It's always fun to see pictures of New York in the 1920s, but, meh ... Yankees. Not a fan. :-)

The very last room had a video showing the original Abbott and Costello "Who's on First" routine (which I actually translated into Latin in high school as an extra credit assignment -- Kim says, "Nerd alert!"). It was a perfect way to finish the day.

With a strong feeling of accomplishment, I bid farewell to the museum and Kim and I left Cooperstown in search of the Cooperstown Family Campground, where we stayed that night.

:-Dustin