Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

[Patrick Thistle]

Need some advice

Planning a road trip in the USA. Wife has suggested going to the MLB Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. (We both like baseball. I am well up for this,)

Do I need a whole day there or is it a thing you can do in 2 hours?

Also is it OK to wear a baseball shirt there? I mean, is that considered the done thing or totally trashy? I have my retro Padres brown and cream shirt that I will take especially but I don't want to look like an ignorant Brit.

[ursus arctos]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

You can't really do it in two hours if you care about baseball.

Many people will be wearing jerseys, t-shirts, etc. I would be shocked if you don't get complemented on your Padres jersey.

Cooperstown is really quite pretty, with the lake, the Farmers Museum and all of the Fennimore Cooper stuff.

[Cal Alamein]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

You're going all the way to Cooperstown, take your time and spend the day there.

I went yrs ago as a baseball-loving kid and was in heaven. I proudly wore my "Property of Chicago Cubs" baseball shirt - can't remember ever seeing replica jerseys back in the seventies.

Went back in the mid-90s, still classy. Lots of baseball cards stores then and I was able to finally (and not too expensively) complete my 1970 Topps set.

The Padres debut season.

[ursus arctos]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

The first thing that I ever bought with my own money that cost more than a dollar was a satin Cubs warmup jacket that I bought in Cooperstown when I was nine or ten.

I still have it.

[Patrick Thistle]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

Thanks guys. A full day it is them and I will be packing the shirt.

[Flynnie]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

Good man on taking the whole day.

Besides the HOF and Museum, Ommegang Brewery (one of America's best craft brewers, more Belgian than the Belgians) is nearby.

There's a lot of souvenir and card shops on Main Street, and most of them are pretty meh. But Mickey's Place is phenomenal, lots of cards and an incredible selection of New Era baseball caps, including ones from the 60s and 70s you didn't think were made anymore. Their website features most of them. I considered buying a NL umpires' cap out of protest when Rob Manfred considered introducing the DH to the National League.

[ursus arctos]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

Perhaps Cooperstown will ask Jenrry Mejia for a specimen bottle or syringe, as he has just become the first MLB player in history to be banned for life due to a THIRD positive test for PEDs (in this case an old school anabolic steroid).



Mejia's second and third positive tests both came while he was suspended for a prior violation.

The guy makes dirt look like Einstein.

[Flynnie]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

His first positive test came last April. I don't know how quick the turnaround is on testing, but you have to assume that sample was taken only a few days before it was announced.

He tested positive again in July, and then this February.

So he's basically fucked his career in 10 months. That is astonishing to me.

edit: btw, no player has been suspended for life, successfully*, since 1924 (Jimmy O'Connor of the New York Giants, in a betting ring that very likely had several stars involved as well, but was covered up). Pete Rose was a manager, of course, and Marge Schott was an owner. Wow.

* Steve Howe and Fergie Jenkins got bans for cocaine, but recreational drug use is not (and I believe has never been) covered by collective bargaining, so the Commissioner was overstepping his bounds and therefore the bans were overturned by an arbitrator.

[danielmak]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

What an idiot. Especially when you consider that he's been out with an injury (Tommy John?). Luckily for the Mets they have built a bullpen with the expectation that he was going to be out for awhile anyway. But that pen would have been better with him.

BTW, PT what else is on your agenda for this US road trip? Or did you post that in the World thread?

[Patrick Thistle]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

No, haven't posted the agenda. Its USA and Canada. Hoping to make it to a Red Sox game and possibly a Blue Jays game. Niagara Falls. Kingston, Ontario. The Eric Carle picture book museum. And some obscure stuff!

Also trips to Target and K-Mart.

[ursus arctos]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

That's rather eclectic.

You would likely enjoy a minor league game, and there are a number of possibilities along your route (more in June, when the New York Penn League starts)

[danielmak]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

When I was in grad school in Tampa, my friends and I would regularly attend Tampa Yankees (Single A) games. We'd also mix in some St Pete Devil Rays games (that was a great ballpark that overlooked the Bay if I remember correctly) and did a couple Clearwater Philies games. I always had a great time. Tickers were super cheap ($1-3) and the environment was chill. There are minor league teams in the Chicagoland area but tickets aren't nearly as cheap as those Single A games. I still hold out hopes of driving around the US at various points to time those trips with minor league baseball but when it's time to make those choices we always end up flying somewhere and it's usually a place without minor league teams.

[Patrick Thistle]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

I don't know much about minor league but will keep an eye out. If we make two major league games and Cooperstown then that might be enough baseball for this trip.

[Patrick Thistle]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

So, flights booked. Also tickets for the Red Sox on Star Wars night and for the Blue Jays.

Hotels and travel insurance? We'll get to that.

Full day scheduled for Cooperstown.

[jason voorhees]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

Between Cooperstown and Toronto there's quite a bit of Minor League teams, with 3 AAA teams.

Syracuse Chiefs (Washington Nationals)

Rochester Red Wings (Minnesota Twins)

Buffalo Bisons (Toronto Blue Jays)

There's also some NY-Penn, the Auburn Doubledays and Batavia Muckdogs.

Close to Boston is the Pawtucket Red Sox (PawSox) http://www.milb.com/tickets/tickets.jsp?sid=t533

McCoy Stadium is famous/infamous for the longest game in professional baseball history....33 INNINGS.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

Nice passage in one of the Bill Bryson books about the baseball Hall of Fame.

[Patrick Thistle]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

It was great. I loved every minute of it.

Mrs Thistle loved it too. We will go back at some point hopefully.

[Reed John]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

I just saw this. Glad you had a great trip.

I was there once as a kid with my family, and then I went with my brother and baseball-mad nephew a few years ago. Fantastic place. Even though he's only 12 - only ten when we went - he knows a ton about the history of baseball and is into collecting baseball memorabilia. He couldn't buy much, of course, but he wanted to look at every single signed baseball in all of the shops in Cooperstown.

I should make a point of going there every summer. It's a bit too far for a day trip, but I could do it in a fat weekend. I wanted to go the weekend Barry Larkin was inducted but I had to go to a shitty conference in Baltimore, as I recall.

It's the sort of place that restores one's faith in America. Almost.

Have you managed to make a Red Sox and Jays game? I can give you some minor league ideas if you're still around and want those.

[danielmak]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

I'm also glad to hear the Hall was enjoyable. I have not been but hope to get there sooner rather than later.

What else are you doing while you are in the US?

[Patrick Thistle]

Cooperstown - MLB Hall of Fame - advice please

I'm back now.

I saw the Red Sox v the Athletics (14-7) and the Blue Jays lose to the Rays by a large margin the night after the Blue Jays brawl down in Texas.

We also did the tour of Fenway Park, which I really enjoyed. Didn't do the tour of Rogers Stadium because it was a choice between doing that or the CN Tower.