Pilgrimage

America is baseball.  Small town America, at the little league fields on a Saturday morning, moms doing duty in the concession stand, dads coaching (or pretending to coach from the sideline), sisters eating their weight in candy and dodging foul balls (maybe that was just the Tigress).  So it's fitting that the "Mecca" of baseball (the Hall of Fame) in America is located in the quintessential small town of Cooperstown, New York.

There it is.  It's beautiful.

What I love about Cooperstown is that they really try and keep the small town feel.  There are very few hotels within the city limits, with bed and breakfasts ruling the lodging market.  Granted, more have sprouted up even since my first visit some 15+ years ago.  Now there is a little league complex, where teams from across the nation come to play.  I did notice that the complex was on the outside of the city.  Coincidence?  I think not.

Plaques of the inducted players with the original five in the middle: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Honus Wagner, and Walter Johnson.

If you've never been to Cooperstown, then as Neil Diamond would say, "Pack up the babies, and grab the old ladies" and head to New York.  OK, he didn't say that last part.  I've been there three times now and every time is a new experience.  This time, I moved through the museum faster than I would have liked, but I especially enjoyed the third floor, which contained some of the more obscure and random records.  For example, Josh Hamilton hit four home runs in a game this year.  I'm sure during the broadcast of that game, they pulled up the factoid of who else hit four homers in a game.  That was there.  All of the questions were answered that are usually asked by your annoying friend at the bar.  You know him.  He is always speculating and tossing out trivia questions with no clue what the answer will be (i.e. what's the most perfect games one pitcher has thrown in his career?  However, with the advent of the smart phone, it's pretty easy to shut this guy down.  Why are you friends with this guy again?  Is he the guy that has a pool?).

Doubleday Field, that's where the old Madonna and old Rosie O'Donnell see the old Geena Davis

The best (and by best, I mean the most meaningful) time to go to Cooperstown is induction weekend.  I went in 2001 and saw Kirby Puckett, Dave Winfield, and Bill Mazeroski get inducted.  Basically, you are put in a large field, surrounded by other super fans, and get to watch the greatest moment in the lives of the greatest players.  In this case, the fans were mostly from Minnesota, New York, and Pittsburgh.  If/when Alan Trammell finally gets his time, I'd like to go back, decked out in my Tigers gear, and enjoy the show with the other Tigers and Tigresses of the world.  If you are interested in how emotional it can be, read this article on Maz's speech.  I still get teary just thinking about it.

Comic genius

As if the Baseball Hall of Fame couldn't get any sweeter, they had a constant loop of the famous Abbott and Costello skit "Who's on First?"  Now, if you've never seen this, you are missing out.  I'll let you go find it on YouTube, you won't be disappointed.