We've made two visits to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. William was quite young when we made the first visit but he was already a ballplayer and, what we didn't know then, he would later qualify as an umpire. We had barely got inside the door – I think we were at the second exhibit – when he told me he wasn't feeling well. I felt his forehead and, oh oh, at least 101.
We went back to our motel with a stop on the way for children's Tylenol and we put William to bed. After awhile, we decided that there was no point in both Mum and Dad sitting in the darkened motel room with a sick kid so Dan went off to the Hall of Fame, with my blessing. He had a great time!
When we went back to Cooperstown a few years later, we were all in good health and we did the Hall of Fame properly.
(Don't forget to click on the photos.)
We were taken by surprise to discover that we were in Cooperstown on Induction Weekend and it turned out that some legendary people were also in town. We were walking along the street and saw some of them being transported toward the Hall – a banquet, I think – and I couldn't have been more excited to watch them pass. Of course, if we'd known they were coming we'd have crossed the street and got better photos but I was beyond thrilled anyway.
There was Frank Robinson:
There was Whitey Ford:
And, oh my goodness, there was Hank Aaron:
There were several others but these were the highlights for me.
We went to Mass in Cooperstown and had quite quite a funny priest who let us know that he always ended his homily as soon the bells of the Baptist Church next door began to ring. He was as good as his word.
The highlight though was at the end when he announced, "Our closing hymn, as it always is on Induction weekend – and I encourage all of you to sing along! – is 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game'." I can't express how it felt to be in that lovely church, with the whole congregation belting it out. So exciting! (Here's a great version.)
The two books I bought at the Hall of Fame were a biography of Joe DiMaggio, The Hero's Life, by Pulitzer Prize winner Richard Ben Cramer:
And Voices from the Great Black Baseball Leagues, oral history compiled by John Holway:
The exhibit from Women's Professional Baseball was opened in Cooperstown in 1988 and the movie about women's baseball, A League of Their Own, was released in 1992. I saw it then and I saw it again a couple of months ago, on a plane coming home from England. There's an exchange in it between Coach Jimmy Dugan (Tom Hanks) and star pitcher Dottie Hinson (Geena Davis) when Dottie is explaining to him why she has to stop playing. She tells him it's just too hard for her to keep playing.
(Jimmy, pleading, with passion:) It’s supposed to be hard. If it wasn’t hard, everyone would do it. It’s the hard that makes it great.
I always loved those lines – and the sentiment.
The World Series resumes tomorrow. The Blue Jays came back for a bit after losing two in Kansas City. Can the Mets? Or is it all over?
