The Baseball Hall of Fame

I know I'm a little (or a lot) weird that every time I go to a new baseball stadium, I get really excited and feel like a little girl on Christmas morning before I walk in - just seeing it makes me giddy. So why would the Baseball Hall of Fame be any different? It wasn't. From the moment I saw it, a huge smile spread across my face and I couldn't wait to get inside and check it all out. The guy at the ticket counter obviously didn't see it, because he asked what we were doing there. Um, hello, we are here to go to the Baseball Hall of Fame! Really? 4 girls came all the way here just to see the Hall of Fame? Of course! Why else would anyone go to Cooperstown?! Here we are, waiting in line to get inside ... We had our tickets, our hands were stamped, and we were each equipped with a map. Baseball Hall of Fame ... here we come!The first thing we did was sit in the Grandstand Theater, which had the makings of a baseball stadium all the way around it. The dark green stadium seats were just like the ones at Camden Yards in Baltimore, there were (fake, painted on murals) crowds in the stands, announcers calling out the plays, etc. My favorite part was when the soundtrack played welcomes to a number of ballparks, which reminded me of the trips I'd taken to each of them. Then it changed to a Baseball Tonight backdrop, a smattering of baseball's greatest moments were called out over the loudspeaker, and giant baseball cards of players appeared overhead. We watched and listened in awe to the little presentation, wondering what was in store for us in the next few hours as we explored the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. I usually don't have the greatest attention span in museums, but I had a feeling this one might be a little different ... and I was right. And with that, we were off ... off to start exploring through baseball's history, culture, diversity, controversies, and to see some of the greatest men to ever play the game. Who does it start with? None other than Babe Ruth, of course. I couldn't help but think of the Sandlot when I saw this sign ... "The Sultan of Swat."Did you know that Babe Ruth was a bowler? True fact. They had his bowling bag and ball in the Hall of Fame. What is his bag inscripted with? "The Babe" of course! One of my other favorites was a bat that he'd used that he later signed, along with his own written synopsis of his baseball career. Pretty cool. And you could actually read it, unlike many players' writing today!

In no particular order ... some other of my favorite highlights from the Hall of Fame ... they had a display that had a bunch of baseballs lined up and each one represented a no hitter. Some pitchers had more than one - and I believe the one with the most is Nolan Ryan. He really was an amazing baseball player. I'm a little annoyed though because on Sunday morning while we were eating breakfast, one of the other couples at our B&B asked us if we'd seen him at Doubleday Field. Excuse me? He was THERE, in person?? Yeah, apparently he was doing a private engagement that afternoon. So while we were eying his plaque in the Hall of Fame, we missed seeing him live. Crazy!

This next picture was something that I thought was really cool. I can't remember whose collection it was, but basically the baseballs are lined up and each have a batting average pinned to them - depending on where in the strike zone the balls were thrown, this guy assigned a batting average to each position. Of course we had to snap a few pictures by "our teams" and the home team, our Washington Nationals. I thought it was cool that they had the Virginia Tech hat in the Nationals locker. As a remembrance right after the shootings at Tech a couple years ago, the Nats all wore VT hats one night - and guess who was at that game? Yours truly.
There were quite a few random things in the Hall of Fame that I liked. For example, the wall of memos from the Baseball Commissioner to the clubs. I guess I didn't really ever think about the fact they that they really do have to spell out every little detail - including exactly how long pitching changes can take, and when music can be played between innings, etc. We did have to take a couple breaks to rest our weary feet from all that walking (boy we really are getting old!) - so here in the kid's corner. I decided Sharyn needed some story time ;)
During another break, we sat down and watched the classic Abbott and Costello's "Who's On First" - it cracks me up every time I hear/see it!



I couldn't leave without taking a picture of Ted Williams in his Red Sox uniform ... Carina, this one's for you, #9! :)
And finally, we arrived at the actual Hall of Fame. The rest is technically the "museum" part ... but the Hall itself was pretty incredible. I certainly don't proclaim to know everything about everyone in the Hall of Fame - there were definitely a good number of players that I didn't know, but that didn't take anything away from the awesomeness (is that a word?!) that was there. By far, one of the best places I've been!