Gloomy looking clouds covered the sky for as far as we could see. The foreshadowed the rain that greeted us when we arrived in Cooperstown. We rushed into the restaurant Alex and Ika which had a rating of four and a half stars on Yelp. We went in expecting a great experience but we left Alex and Ika with anything but a great experience. The service was extremely slow; it took 30-40 minutes for our drinks to come (one was forgotten) and we didn't receive our food until a well over an hour after we ordered. In addition, the waitress forgot to put in. When the waitress realized her mistake, she put the order in and the chef rushed Rachael's burger so that it came in looking raw in the middle.
Our trip improved by leaps and bounds when we entered the America's pastime's hall of fame. It was amazing to get to see in person all of the authentic gear and see exhibits featuring players that I spent hours reading about. I got to see a real Honus Wagner limited edition baseball card that was worth $2,800,000 in 2009. The story behind why the card cost so much is great. Back in the days, baseball cards were given away as part of tobacco packs. Wagner was extremely popular and many kids idolized him. When Wagner found out that a tobacco was planning in printing his baseball card, he forced the tobacco company to stop printing his card so that kids wouldn't purchase tobacco just to get his card. Instead of basking in the glory, Wagner made the decision to try and prevent children from being introduced to tobacco. Wagner stopped many cards from ever being printed, but he couldn't stop 50 cards from being circulated. Today there are only few Honus Wagner cards that are know to still exist and his career, the few cards that still exist, and the story make the Honus Wagner card so valuable.
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| The Holy Grail: Honus Wagner Card |
Among the thousands of memorabilia, was pictures from when baseball leagues first began to pop up in New York City and expanded during the Industrial Revolution to Matt Cain's hat from the 2010 world Series where he pitched over 20 consecutive shut out innings.
It was amazing to get to visit Cooperstown and immerse myself in over a century's worth of history an culture. Baseball is a great sport and deserving of the title 'America's Pastime'!
It was amazing to get to visit Cooperstown and immerse myself in over a century's worth of history an culture. Baseball is a great sport and deserving of the title 'America's Pastime'!
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| Oakland A's locker featuring Barry Zito and Tim Hudson's jerseys |
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| Ricky Henderson |
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| "Catfish" Hunter |
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