After Niagra Falls, we took off for Cooperstown, New York,
baseball mecca and home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Without realizing it, we
had scheduled our time at Cooperstown for the same weekend they were having the
2012 Induction ceremony for the Hall’s two newest members. It was a lucky break
for us since it meant that lots of Hall of Famers were in town. Luckiest of
all, it meant that Russ would have a chance to meet Yogi Berra, one of the
people he had always admired.
When we got to Cooperstown the streets were already crowded
with fans visiting the BHOF and getting autographs from some of their favorite
players. After being disappointed in the College Football Hall of Fame and the
Professional Football Players Hall of Fame, we wondered how the Baseball Hall
of Fame would stack up. We should have known that history-heavy and stat-crazy
baseball would create a hall of fame that has all the history and artifacts
that we were hoping for.
Early baseball equipment |
I’m sure it says something about our age that we found
the pre-70s displays more interesting than the ones about more recent times.
Russ was shocked to hear some kids near us complain about having to spend time
at a display about Babe Ruth instead of moving on to the new guys.
Russ next to Babe Ruth's plaque |
Of course the HOF had plaques of all the members but there were all kinds of displays about stats and records. There were even displays about baseball and the movies and sportscasters and baseball-related media. I was
pleasantly surprised to see that the Hall of Fame included a special section
devoted to the role of African Americans in the history of baseball that gave a
clear-eyed view of racism in the sport.
And then there was Yogi. After all our years together I’m
still discovering new things about Russ, like how the Studebaker Starliner I
wrote about in one of our earlier posts sparked his passion for cars. At
Cooperstown I discovered that Yogi Berra was someone that Russ had respected
for years because Yogi had proved
himself with such dignity and integrity in spite of the naysayers who thought
we was too small, too slow, and not talented enough to make it as a major
league player.
So Russ was thrilled to have the chance to get the autograph of
his long-time hero. When we went to check on the signing time we were told that
due to Yogi’s age they couldn’t guarantee that he would be there as planned so
we wouldn’t know until the last minute if he was feeling up to it. We showed up early to get a good spot close to the front of
the line of fans that snaked down the sidewalk and a few minutes before the
signing was to begin a red SUV pulled up to the restaurant where the autograph session
was scheduled and Yogi got out before
disappearing inside. A few minutes later, there he was in front of us where he
autographed a baseball for Russ. I was shooting photos as fast as I could but I
missed the shot of Yogi smiling up at Russ as they shook hands.
One thing we’ve really enjoyed during our travels is the
unexpected discoveries we’ve made at most of the small towns where we’ve
been. To visit Cooperstown we actually
stayed at an RV park in Richfield Springs, New York which turned out to have a
fascinating history. The first thing was noticed about the town was the streets
filled with large, old ornate Victorian frame houses, festooned with
gingerbread trim and gables. A few were in good shape but most had clearly seen
more prosperous times. It turned out that Richfield Spring had been a thriving
resort town in the late 1880s where people came to “take the waters” from the
springs there. Even Theodore Roosevelt had visited at one time.
The town is unusual in that even today most
of the houses survive though they clearly need some TLC. The huge wooden barns
falling in where they stand in the surrounding area also reflect better times in the past. Richfield Springs had such a unique look I couldn’t help but
think that it would make a great place for an author to use as a
setting for a mystery.
As a final sweet ending to our stay near Cooperstown we
enjoyed yet more Amish food at our campgrounds. On Friday night a young Amish
couple came and made just-as-good-as-in-my-memory homemade ice cream and on
Saturday morning an Amish woman and her young son brought a wagon full of baked
goods to sell. Since I make from-scratch homemade pies and cookies I can be a
pretty hard to please customer but the baked goods we bought really passed the
taste test.
"Johnny Poppit" motor with ice cream bucket |
Russ had a good time talking about farm equipment and livestock with the Amish farmer who had a dandy set up to make the ice cream--a one cylinder motor from the 1920s that Russ had always heard called a Johnny Poppit because of the popping noise it made while it worked. His set up sure beat the hand cranking from the old days.
We shot lots of photos at Cooperstown so we've included more of them below.
Some people never grow up |
The legendary Doubleday Ball Park in Cooperstown |
"Sweet Lou" Pinella signing autographs |
Rollie Fingers at an autograph signing |
Negro League players Pedro Sierra and Bob Smith |
Section of WPA mural in the Richfield Springs, NY Post Office |
This is too good. Loved the WPA mural. Yogi is a sweetheart.
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