Saturday, July 28, 2012

Russ and Yogi


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























1 comment:

  1. This is too good. Loved the WPA mural. Yogi is a sweetheart.

    ReplyDelete