A Hall of Fame Fourth

For all of the time my family spends at the ballpark, it is quite fitting that we spent America's Birthday at the birthplace of it's past time...Cooperstown, New York and the Baseball Hall of Fame. Greg's travel league had the opportunity to play at Doubleday Field which is adjacent to the Hall of Fame. Sherilee and her nephew had come to visit and although he skipped the Poison Concert, he was geared up for his first trip to Cooperstown. My mother and father also joined us for the chance to see Greg play at this historic field. We set out at 9am planning to stop along the way in the little town of Palatine Bridge. There is a population of Amish people on New Turnpike Road and we were hoping that it might be baking day. While the trip through that countryside is always impressive, we did not find a bake sale. We did see three Amish boys in their straw hats and obviously handmade clothes outside working at one farm and an Amish girl outside her home "mowing" the lawn...with a hand tool. Up until about last year, Greg was totally creeped out by the Amish men, so we promptly began teasing him that the girl who looked about his age was scoping him out. Clearly Greg could not marry into an Amish family as there is far too much work that would be expected of him. Anyway...we made our way to Cooperstown by Noon despite a detour around their fourth of july parade. The tour of the Hall of Fame can be as short or as long as you want it to be. Everyone in my family has been there at least 3 times. For two years I bought my Dad and Greg memberships to the Hall of Fame which entitled them to unlimited visits as well as other perks. During a few of their trips they were the only visitors in the whole place, so they were able to view the exhibits at their own pace; without be rushed by people trying to peek over your shoulder. We spent about 2 hours rounding out the visit with a trip to the gift shop. Dan was looking to replace some of his (continuously worn) fire department shirts with some baseball t's and Greg begged for a new Mets hat. We got out cheap with reagan who really just wanted a pink baseball bat shaped pen. Whewwww! Oh, she also wants to be inducted into the hall of fame at some point in her life as the baseball sister who has attended the most games. I think that has potential as a new attraction. We strolled through some of the gift shops where Greg talked us into buying a sterling silver #21 pendant/necklace (a must for all travel baseball players). Finally, it was time to eat. We settled on Cooley's Tavern which my father knew to be a favorite of Greg's Cooperstown Native High School coach. It was good food at a decent price with quick service. Reagan took a picture of her pizza rolls to show the owner of the pizza place we always go to. She thinks she can persuade him to add them to the menu! Greg had to get dressed for the game by 4pm and was indeed ready to go by the time the rest of his team gathered at the field. Some team pictures were taken at the entrance to the field and they awaited their turn to occupy the dugouts. The game was to a nine inning game and ironically we have 9 pitchers on the 11 man team. Each one of them got an inning. Greg got to start. The game did not count in our standings. We had already secured a spot in the tournament that should they win, qualifies them for nationals in Michigan. So, the fact that we came from behind, tied it up and held that tie until the bottom of the ninth was mostly entertainment value. The final score was 12-11. No doubt, had we been "playing to win" we would have beat the Niskayuna team who didn't seem to care that it should be more important that all of the pitchers would have liked a turn on that mound. We packed up the cars and headed for home at 9pm. Twice we were able to see fireworks going off in the distance. The only ones we would see this fourth....hey, I'd trade seeing fireworks for watching my son pitch in Cooperstown any day!!