My Trip to Cooperstown
May 10, 2004
Written by Trav the Ump

(Read archived articles here)

The world of fantasy baseball and real baseball are continually argued as people struggle to define which is a better representation of the ideal player. Carlos Beltran and his awesome across the board numbers or Barry Bonds and his undeniable talent, which has altered the way the game is played. A pitcher who throws every five days or a closer who can shut down an opponent fifty plus times in a row? It is bantered about on message boards, website articles, and in local pubs throughout the country. I'm not here to agree or disagree either way, I'm writing this week on something else. To acknowledge that when a player is great it should not matter whether or not it happens to lead your fantasy squad to championship after championship. It's a nice bonus but not why they play the game.

The reason I'm starting my column so vague this week is that I had the unbelievable chance to make my first ever pilgrimage to Cooperstown and the baseball hall of fame. An absolute holy land of all that is baseball. I have been a baseball fan my whole life, played, umpire and dedicate a lot of my free time to fantasy baseball. In the brief two hours I was at Cooperstown I learned more about the game than I have in my last five years of constant interaction with the game. Whether it is in the Hall of Legends, the hallways of records and countless items of memorabilia and history that grace that gorgeous building. There is so much to see and understand that it was mind-boggling. Don't get me wrong this is not a paid advertisement for the hall, heck I don't even get paid for this article, it's merely a personal endorsement of someone who is now proud to say he's been there. It's a rather long trip from Alberta to Ontario and than driving through New York to Cooperstown. But it was well worth it. I guess the easiest way to put it is that the Hall of Fame as well as the town exceeded my expectations. We arrived around eight in the morning, nothing yet open we casually drove through the quiet streets following the signs to the Hall. Knowing that it didn't open until nine we figured we would grab some breakfast. Upon turning the corner onto Main Street the eyes are assaulted with the longest line of memorabilia stores that one has ever seen. If you like collectibles whether it be; cards, jerseys, hats, pins, balls, bats, gloves, tickets, you name it. It can be found in Cooperstown. The odd thing was that there are no McDonald's or Denny's; there are very few chains in this small town. So we parked the jeep and began strolling the sidewalks. We came upon the "Cooperstown Diner"; to call it small would be praise. To call it a let down would be gravely wrong. There is enough history in this tiny little diner to let your mind wander from the wonderful food to thinking that you may be sitting in a chair a great baseball player has graced. The pictures are on the walls and it's not hard to figure out where your sitting may have been the same spot Yogi Berra did. Finally it was nine and we paid our admission and entered the hall. My friends very quickly abandoned me, the fact that I was reading almost every plaque and studying every piece of info they quickly outpaced me. That was okay with me, I wanted this to be a personal experience anyways. I won't go into all the displays or my take on them. There are just too many to recount. A couple that I did really enjoy; the Babe Ruth section is amazing to see, someone who brought the game to life outside of the game. The Ted Williams batting chart, where he predicted what his batting average would be if you were to throw the ball in a particular section of the strike zone. (Have to see it to believe it.) And my personal favorite the locker that went from Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle. It's all there for you to see.

After we left we started browsing through all the stores, although I didn't pick anything up I really did want too. The memorabilia is a collector's heaven. The one other thing I may advocate going to see is Double Day field. In and of itself is no great spectacle, then again when you sit in the bleachers and think of the history that has occurred and how you can be sitting in a place where the game was created you get a much better appreciation for the game.

So remember the next time your sitting in front of "Baseball Tonight" and grumbling how your pitcher gave up six runs in four innings and your spouse or friends chide you for your "silly fantasy baseball" that it is only a game. But it's a great game and for those of us who can't make the hall we may as well have the next best thing. Be able to manage those players on the way to the hall in your own league, with your own rules, with your friends. Cause heck I'll still be paying admission to get into Cooperstown in thirty years, may as well be able to tell some kid. "I had Griffey the year everyone said he'd get hurt again. I believed. He carried me to the championship that year. Yup, me and [Insert Fantasy Team Name here] were unstoppable that year."

Trav The Ump
Trav_9@hotmail.com