Cooperstown

The day after our adventures in art at the Norman Rockwell Museum and the Clark, we decided to make the hour-and-a-half drive west of Albany to the beautiful town of Cooperstown, NY, home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. The HOF was founded, by the way, by Stephen Carlton Clark (of Clark Art Institute fame), who also paid for construction of its building.

Outside the Baseball Hall of Fame

Nineteenth-century ball gloves. At first they were fingerless and warn on both hands, but developed as seen from high to low. (And a 19th-century catcher’s mitt on the right)

The Babe’s glove from the 20s.

There is a nice “women in baseball” exhibit in the HOF. Here are uniforms from the Rockford Peaches, etc. (as made famous in “A League of Their Own.”)

Norman Rockwell even made it to the HOF.

Cindy and I had visited the HOF in the late 80s with our two older kids and my sister’s (Gail’s) family from Georgia. We are all big Atlanta Braves Fans, so it was a treat for us both then and now. Since our last visit, a few more Braves have been inducted into the hallowed halls of Cooperstown.

There was an in-depth Hammerin’ Hank exhibit.

Sitting in Hank Aaron’s locker from Atlanta Fulton County Stadium

Cindy on the wall of the initial class. What a class! Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, George Herman Ruth, Walter Johnson, and Honus Wagner!

Maddux and Glavine fittingly side-by-side in the Hall.

Joining Glavine and Maddux (to the left) is John Smoltz and Bobby Cox on this wall of recent inductees. Joe Torre (who was once a Brave is also on this wall).

As we were leaving Cooperstown, we stopped by a Belgian brewery, Ommegang Brewery, just outside of Cooperstown. We brought a few beers home for us and for Jeremiah.