Sports

Visiting pro baseball’s holy grail: Cooperstown

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Are you a baseball fan? And by baseball fan, I don’t mean someone who catches some highlights on the MLB Network or glances at the occasional boxscore in the newspaper — but rather someone who looks at America’s Pastime as something akin to religion, and baseball stadiums as cathedrals where the frenzied masses come to worship. 

If you’re the guy, or gal, who has the uniform numbers of your entire team past and present committed to memory. If you’ve been to bat day, ball day and cap day so many times you’ve lost count. If the mood you are in on any particular day is a direct result of how your baseball team fared the night before. 

If you are so steeped in the history of the game that you know who belongs to such cool nicknames as “Big Poison,” “Little Poison,” “Knucksie,” “Big Train,” and “The Georgia Peach.” If you know who the Gashouse Gang was, the Go-Go Sox and the first names of all three Alou brothers and what team each played for to form the first all-sibling outfield. 

If you’re that guy, then a trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in upstate Cooperstown should be sitting right atop your bucket list.

I got to check off that box last week when my wife Marie and I, along with 38 other family members (Yankees and Mets fans living in relative harmony), descended on the quaint little hamlet of Cooperstown to immerse ourselves in all things baseball. If you have never made the trip, it’s difficult to explain what it’s like to walk down Main Street (really, the hall is actually on Main Street) and take in the sights of what can best be described as the closest thing to baseball heaven.

On our trip, skillfully organized by my Riverdale in-laws Linda Luca and Jerry Tarpey, you saw fans of virtually every team represented as you strolled around town. Yankees, Mets and Red Sox fans appeared to have the greatest numbers, but there also were fans of the San Diego Padres, Oakland A’s, Seattle Mariners, Los Angeles Angels and Dodgers, the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants well represented along with countless others.

The fact that many of those fans travelled 3,000 miles to visit a town with a population of 1,792 should tell you something about what you’re missing. 

The museum itself contains three floors, each with its own distinct personality. Among the highlights on the first floor is the Hall of Fame Gallery, which contains the plaques of all the inducted players. On the second floor, you can digest all you could ever want to know about Yankees’ great Babe Ruth as well as a section called “Diamond Dreams,” which looks at women in baseball (think of the movie “A League of Their Own”). 

Up top on the third floor you can stroll through a section dedicated solely to Hank Aaron, check out the World Series rings collection, and view memorable highlights of past Fall Classics. And don’t forget to take the time to watch Abbott and Costello perform their “Who’s on First?’ skit. That never gets old.

As part of our stay, and because we became Hall of Fame members prior to our trip, we had access to what as dubbed “A Night at the Museum” where we could chat and take photos with more than 20 former players, including Hall of Famers Goose Gossage, Rollie Fingers, Wade Boggs, Juan Marichal, Ozzie Smith and Phil Niekro — or Knucksie, as he was called. Speaking with them was like stepping back in time and getting a chance to live a little of your childhood all over again, at least for a couple of hours.

The thing about the museum is that anywhere you look there is something of interest for a true baseball fan. Whether you want to learn about old ballparks like Brooklyn’s Ebbets Field or the Polo Grounds, delve into baseball’s beginnings, or peruse the walls dedicated to the great baseball broadcasters and writers who have been inducted, there is something for every fan to enjoy.

We spent most of Saturday and Sunday absorbing all we could, not only of the more celebrated inductees like Mickey Mantle, Jackie Robinson, Cal Ripken Jr., and Willie Mays, but also about players we knew a bit less about before our trip.

Did you know brothers Paul and Lloyd Waner — that would be “Big Poison” and “Little Poison” — each played 15 seasons for the Pittsburgh Pirates? That Walter “Big Train” Johnson finished his career with 417 wins, second all-time to Cy Young’s 511 victories? Or that Ty Cobb, the “Georgia Peach,” hit over .300 in 23 straight seasons? 

By the way, the 1934 Cardinals were the Gashouse Gang, the 1959 White Sox had the nickname “Go-Go Sox,” and Matty, Felipe and Jesus Alou started in the same outfield for the 1963 San Francisco Giants. You’re welcome.

The point is, however, as much as you think you know about baseball, you will learn even more after visiting Cooperstown. It’s a trip that not only stays with you long after you leave, but it also refreshes your baseball soul and deepens your love of the game. 

It’s the only road trip you’ll ever take where you’ll feel completely at home.

Cooperstown, baseball, MLB, sports, Sean Brennan

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