Cooperstown

The Baseball Hall of Fame. Doubleday field. They built it. And we went. It was really great. So much history. It was a mass infusion of all things baseball. Cooperstown is a quaint little town. The set up reminds me a lot of Newport, Portland, etc, with all the little cafes and shops lined up on Main Street, USA. Of course they were all baseball themed in Cooperstown. Baseball card shops intermingled with a baseball cafe, or t-shirt store.

It took some doing to find appropriate parking (we finally ended up at Doubleday field). But once we did, we were on our way. The Hall was just around the corner. It was really something. The statues of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. The movie - The Baseball Experience - was a great starter. It included all kinds of classic highlights that got you excited about baseball. From that point on, it a great trip through trivia, displays, statistics, and memorabilia. It was a lot to take in, but I think the boys got a lot out of it. I took great pleasure in watching Coco search the display of baseball from all the no hitters over the years, looking to see how many belonged to Red Sox pitchers. He was very dismayed not to find Jon Lester's, but I assured him it was around somewhere. Sure enough we found a big display in the team section, (each team has its own locker in a clubhouse locker room set up) complete with Varitek's gear. Caz loved seeing all the stats, and using all the interactive displays. He spent a lot of time at a computer looking up baseball cards on all the HoF members.

The Jackie Robinson display was very inspirational. We watched all the footage, complete with pictures of Ebbet's Field. The boys and I had a very good talk about discrimination and all the hardships that Jackie faced and overcame. The All American Girls Baseball section was equally inspiring. I don't know why it's not as obvious as the Jackie Robinson display, as to the historical importance and struggle against adversity. But I made it a point with the boys to draw the correct parallels.

This was a great family trip. I highly recommend it.