Monday, June 28, 2010. All aboard at 9:00AM for a 3 hour bus ride from Westpoint NY to Cooperstown, located
Upstate New York Countryside
in upstate New York. Our tour group includes 4 Canadians, and 8 from the Pacific Northwest and California, and we all agreed if we didn’t know better, we hadn’t even left the West Coast! Same beautiful countryside and landscapes of fir trees, alders, blue spruce and foliage. If you’ve ever been to the midwest or southern part of the U. S. you’d know how different it can be, but not so on the Western and Eastern part of the U. S. Only when you step outside the bus does that difference end! Lucky for us it was overcast, and we were even blessed with a few sprinkles of rain! So the weather was great after a few grueling days of heat and humidity.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown is a real treat for anyone who loves baseball. When we arrived in town, Dan informed us we had 7 hours free time and I was concerned about what I was possibly going to do for 7 hours in a town that’s about 5 blocks long! But not to worry. The first time I looked at my watch, 4 hours had passed and I realized I’d better get in gear if I was going to be able to see all the things I wanted.
National Baseball Hall of Fame
First item was a 20 minute movie presentation in the Hall of Fame Theater. I loved it but it ended much too soon. I was disappointed when it was over. It had a lot of the same shots in my earlier blog of Fogerty’s “Centerfield” plus some I’d never seen before. Fogerty’s “Centerfield” is one of my alltime favorite baseball pieces and I was thrilled to find out he’s going to be honored for this and also performing it at this year’s HOF Induction Ceremonies in July. Well deserved honor in my humble opinion. These baseball movies about days past and the history of baseball are always really emotional for me. I don’t know why, can’t explain it. But it set the tone for the rest of the tour. Also throughout the day there were Little League Baseball Teams from throughout the country competing at the Doubleday Baseball Field next to the Museum. It’s the same field that was used for filming most of the movie “A League of Their Own.” Each team must post a $2,000 entrance fee to be able to compete. These games continue throughout the summer and it was great to see all the kids in uniform and organized groups throughout the day, having their team pictures taken on the steps of the HOF Museum.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum collections feature more than 38,000 three-dimensional items, 
three million books and documents and 500,000 photographs. The Museum tells visitors the story of baseball through its three-story timeline, with the majestic Plaque Gallery serving as a centerpiece. The time flew by and before I knew it it was time to head back to the bus. Unreal. How can time go by so fast? Also wanted to share this “day in history” ditty with you about Joe DiMaggio. I’ll write again tomorrow from Yankee Stadium!
This Day in Baseball History
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