But there I was, misting up in the lobby of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. Not even past the ticket taker, and I could feel my eyes moisten.
Before me, a trio of statues: Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente and a sign explaining the importance of "character and courage" to the national pastime.
Gehrig's words echoed in my ears, just as they had reverberated across Yankee Stadium on July 4, 1939.
“For the past two weeks you have been reading about a bad break," Gehrig said, referring to his ALS diagnosis. "Yet today ... I consider myself ... the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”
"This might be more complicated than I anticipated," I said to my wife, as we went in.
"Why is the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown?" she had asked, the day before. We had come to central New York State for Thanksgiving at our younger son's new in-laws' woodsy retreat. The Baseball Hall of Fame just happened to be here. I'd visited it, oh, just 50 years ago, on some family trip in the mid-1970s. My only memory: brass plaques. I had no burning desire to return. But my wife seemed to assume that, being here, and my being a man, we simply had to go. What else could we do?
"Because Abner Doubleday invented baseball here in 1839," I replied, with the supreme confidence of the misinformed.
Only he didn't. The Doubleday story is entirely fictional, as admitted early in a display at the Hall of Fame. A convenient lie marches on no matter how many barbs of truth are planted in it. The museum does its best to set the record straight.
"In fact, baseball was played decades earlier, evolving from similar bat and ball games," a display notes. "Doubleday didn't invent baseball ... baseball 'invented' Doubleday, a thriving legend that reflects Americans' desire to make the game our own."
I couldn't help but reflect on the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, clinging to their spurious Lincoln stovepipe hat. Where is their display explaining that the whole thing is fanciful, if not fraudulent?
Chicago's role in America's pastime
There was a lot of reflection back to Chicago. The commission that gave Doubleday his undeserved honor was established by an early star of the game, Albert Spalding, a former White Stockings pitcher and manager (that team actually became the Cubs). Spalding left his mark on the game by starting one of the nation's first sporting goods stores, at 108 Madison Street. It was Spalding who pressed first basemen to wear gloves and catchers to wear masks — measures then considered babyish — so he could sell them the equipment.
The Baseball Hall of Fame offers a first-rate museum, not flinching from delving into complexities of race and economics, with plenty of fun stuff too. There is a hallway devoted to baseball cards, including the coveted Honus Wagner rarity.
Steve Dahl's army helmet from Disco Demolition is on display. I never had reason to envy the man before, but he's in the Baseball Hall of Fame and I'm not. So kudos, Steve.
I tend to read museum displays carefully, and noticed a chart titled "BASEBALL'S BILLIONS" on the exploding value of teams from 1990 to 2020. There was something I already know intuitively, but never saw laid out in hard figures before.
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Very well written!
ReplyDeleteThe reasons the Cubs are worth so much more than the White Sox is easy to figure out.
ReplyDelete1. Phil Wrigley putting every game on TV for decades created millions of Cubs fans over the decades. The Sox had stupid owners that put them on pay TV for years. Few were stupid enough to pay for games on TV then.
2. Wrigley Field is surrounded by a real city neighborhood, determined to serve the fans with food & beer. Old Comiskey just had a couple of bars & that fool Reinsdorf had them destroyed when he built his mallpark, that had a terrible upper deck that was built too high & at a severe angle. He later cut that down, but too late.
3. Sox Park is considered to be an out of control outdoor beer garden by many people, where there are fights in the park & on the outside. Over a year ago, some enormously fat woman managed to sneak a small handgun into the park & somehow it went off & injured her & someone else. The police have not been able to solve this one due to that woman flat out lying about the gun!
4. While the Cubs won the World Series was back in 2016, that has kept the fans going back to the Friendly Confines, first during to 106 years without a win there & now after, with some bad teams. As for the Sox, they won in 2005, but Reinsdorf has continued to inflict bad teams, with bad managers on his fans at his not very good mallpark. Now he is apparently sending a message he might sell the team to Nashville investors & they would move the team there. They won't be missed by many, if they do go!
5. But besides that Nashville thing, Reinsdorf now wants to screw the taxpayers a second time for a new ball park at 15th & Clark, after getting that free mallpark 33 years ago. No way the taxpayers will put up a penny for this appalling ego trip of his! He seems to have taken advice from the even worse scumbag family, the rotten to the core McCaskeys, who want the taxpayers to give them a new stadium, despite the fact of screwing over the Chicago taxpayers just 20+ years ago for the $600 million desecration of Soldier Field! The rotten to the core McCaskeys get a check from the NFL, every fall for $400 million from the NFL's master tv contract & then probably take in at least $200 million more from tickets, merchandise & local radio broadcast rights.
So I have a simple reply to both of them: Go fuck your selves!
Clark. I green up on Montana where the Cubs games were broadcasted on radio and tv. My brothers and dad all became avid Cubs fans
Delete1) You are only a couple years younger than I am. Do you not recall how WGN-TV carried both the Cubs AND the White Sox until 1968? Then they went to UHF, which was still in its infancy. But all new TVs could pick up Ch. 32 or Ch. 44. Pay TV for the White Sox did not happen until the Eighties. The weeknight home games at Comiskey were all blacked out in the 50s and 60s, which increased the crowds. But Ch. 9 carried the weekend day games, and the Sox road games. The White Sox always killed the Cubs in attendance...every year. Mainly because they were contenders, while the Cubs were horrible. All my older cousins became die-hard Sox fans, despite living fairly close to Wrigley. But not me! Hell, no! Stuck by the Cubs, through thin and thinner.
Delete2. Reinsdorf knocked down the two bars outside Comiskey, which were just divey dumps that catered to Bridgeport thugs. But they were charming dumps--with long histories--older than the ballpark itself. Babe Ruth drank in them...sometimes between games of doubleheaders. Reinsdorf promised to rebuild them. He lied.
3. Sox games have always been more rowdy and more violent, all my life. Old Comiskey was also a zoo. Was once thrown up against the wall because a wanted gangbanger was on the loose, and the cops had been tipped off that he'd be at a game with the Yankees. Allegedly, I resembled him. But I was 30. And look more Italian than Latino. No apologies whatsoever. Also saw two handcuffed black kids being dragged down a ramp one night. Face down. Did not attend many Sox games. Long "L" ride. Too edgy.
4. Cub fans used to disguise themselves as empty seats, especially in the horrible years...the 50s, most of the 60s, and even into the 70s. Crowds of five thousand were the norm on weekdays. Ten thousand or more was a BIG crowd, even on many weekends. The Cubs stunk. The upper deck was always closed, and contained mostly huge spiderwebs. Before adulthood, I sat up there maybe twice. Great seats, and a great view, but simply unavailable. Became a Bleacher Creature by default...and early...by my teens. But that's another story for another time.
5. The Nashville thing is mostly a ploy to get a new park. But it isn't unique to Chicago. Many franchises have played similar games. Cleveland's pathetic joke of an NFL team wants to move out of their 25-year-old downtown dump and into a gaudy and ridiculous Disneyland near the airport. Which has created a big stink here. Who cares where they play if they're perennial losers and the product on the field is horrible? Screw 'em. I watch the Detroit Lions now. But I hope the White Sox don't leave. Chicago is one of the few cities that can rightfully call itself a two-team town. Felt sorry for the fans in Oakland. They were screwed. Hope it doesn't happen on the South Side. Even though I've mostly ignored the White Sox for most of a lifetime.
You are correct about every thing, but there was more to the tv experience. Interesting article from 12 years ago.
DeleteForgot the link https://www.southsidesox.com/2012/11/30/3707810/white-sox-history-the-story-of-sportsvision
DeleteThis is one of your best columns Neil! By the way, have you ever seen the movie The Adam Project? Not a great movie, though fun. And there’s a scene…maybe it’s best…. that was brought to mind by this column.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been to the hall twice, once a quick visit while working in the area but more notably in 2005 when I took my daughters to Ryne Sandberg’s induction. I cannot get enough of that place. I read every plaque. I became misty as well, remembering my dad (to Sox park) then my brothers (to Wrigley) taking me to games. For quite a few years I had seasons tickets to Wrigley and took our three girls to many games. They remain Cub fans though two are married to Sox fans. And that’s okay as I’m just happy that they all love baseball. If someone is a baseball fan, go to the Hall. It’s a magical place.
ReplyDeleteI have been the HOF twice as well. The first time was 1983. We went to the induction ceremony when Juan Marichal, Brooks Robinson and Jack Brickhouse were inducted.
DeleteVery well done. And you have to go back and get the picture of #703. It has to be the right one. It's Baseball, the sport of documentation. That why the steroid era is difficult, messes up the documentation. The one sport we like to compare players from different era's with stats. Nice to see you have your annual game of catch. Real smart. Very well written. Nice pictures in the paper.
ReplyDeleteHoping to make my second visit to the BBHOF in 2025. The first one was in 1993, and after more than three decades, I have to admit I don't remember much about what I saw. Nothing really sticks out in my memory. Maybe some old seats and old turnstiles, like the ones from Brooklyn's Ebbets Field. What I do remember most was the road trip itself. Upstate New York is magnificent in October. I had never been there before.
ReplyDeleteThe Hall itself looks like the lobby of an older Loop office building that was upgraded decades ago. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But other places...such as the shrines to pro football and rock and roll...are far more spiffy. The plaques themselves are really what it's all about. They could be set in cement walls in a brick alley and they would still be impressive and unforgettable. It's a SHRINE. You used to be able to buy postcards of your favorite inductees. I still have mine. Now, I suppose, people just use their phones, like they do for everything else.
Cooperstown itself is a lovely place. It includes Doubleday Field, a tiny old ballpark that is one of the most charming anywhere. Would love to watch a game there. Baseball like it oughta be. And here are many tchotchke and souvenir shops on the main drag. A lot of shlock, but some good merch, as well as pricey collectibles. Enjoyed the stores as much as the Hall itself. Still have a couple of T-shirts. The one that features Willie Mays making "The Catch" in 1954 always drove my wife nuts, because she's such a Cleveland die-hard. I wore it to death. It's part of a quilt now.
Just my luck that the library was closed for remodeling during my visit. I wanted printouts of two specific box scores...my first MLB game ever (at Old Comiskey, on 5-21-55), and my first Cub game (on 8-20-60). Of course, unlike in the dinosaur era of the Nineties, you most likely can do that on any electronic device now.
Don't remember those Aaron baseballs at all. My question is this:
Why did they skip #701 and #702, and yet include #703 and #704?
Makes little sense. There must be a logical answer. Baseball is a logical game.
When I visited the BBHOF, I'd been a fanatic devotee for 30+ years. Did not cry.
Excellent article! Beautiful layout in the paper. You mentioned documentation. Keeping the stats was how I got into coaching Little League. Fun times.
ReplyDeleteHell, i teared up just reading the damn thing!
ReplyDeleteThank you
My mom took each of her grandchildren on a trip for their 10th birthday.
ReplyDeleteMy youngest wanted to go to Cooperstown. He's absolutely crazy for baseball and a really good player.
Pitched a couple innings at the Sox stadium in high school.
Played D1 ball til last June.
Covid and TJ derailed his career
He'll have to buy a ticket to get in from now on. 😢
The Hall is still on my bucket list. Thanks for the preview!
ReplyDeleteYou can see from the Hank Aaron home run balls that they're from an era in which the ball didn't get replaced every second pitch. They're good, gritty, well-used balls. The way they should be.
Every year on Opening Day, classical station WFMT 98.7 FM has a special morning program broadcast that would always get me sniffling on my inbound commuter train. They have a medley of baseball-related tunes, interspersed with famous quotes and essays about the game that get me as emotional as the ending of "Field of Dreams."
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which, I visited the farm in Dyersville back in the early 1990s sometime, before all the court fights of the two land owners, the Lansings and the Ameskamps, and before commercialization took over, when it was still mostly just an informal tourist stop selling shirts from a small souvenir stand. We tourists organized our own ball game (I have no idea where the baseball equipment came from) and I got my own turn at bat... not just anywhere, but at THE Field of Dreams. Don't think I wasn't aware at that very moment of how cool that was. Me and Moonlight Graham, both getting our chance to bat at last.
I hit a triple, my line drive nearly taking the 12-year-old pitcher's head off in the process, and made it home on the next play. Later that afternoon, someone from the Ameskamp's side came over with a basket of home-made souvenirs: ears of corn from beyond the outfield, and small plastic tubes of soil from the infield. The corn I brought home is long gone, but to this day over 30 years later I still have my little capped plastic tube of soil with its dot-matrix printed stick-on label of authenticity.
I'm not a rabid fan of baseball; I just like it a lot, perhaps because it doesn't have the ridiculously over-the-top image that football wants to maintain. The first "MLB at Field of Dreams" game back in 2021, played in a new field immediately adjacent to the original site, was just perfect: the weather, the setting, the players, Kevin Costner's opening, and the walkoff 2-run homer in the bottom of the ninth that sealed a White Sox win. "Is this heaven?" "It's Iowa." Indeed...
Yeah, i was also in Dyersville, in the summer of 1990, on the way to Nordic Fest in Decorah, IA (my first wife was of Norwegian descent). Before all the hype and the commercialization took it over and [messed] it up.
DeleteThe Iowa sky was overcast, and it looked like rain, but none fell. Very hot and sticky. Good corn weather The rustling of the stalks soothed me. I lived in DeKalb for almost six years, so the place felt very familiar and comforting. Part of the outfield was plowed under, because of the aforementioned land dispute., which sort of ruined the overall ambiance. But people kept disappearing into the cornfields, and then reappearing again. And they batted balls around and hit pop flies and played catch. It was all so laid back and so rustic that you wanted to cry. A few people did, probably fathers playing catch with sons.
But what the hell...it was still very, very cool. Even though it felt more like a movie set. People did come. Even as early as 1990. From all over the States, and even from abroad. There was a guest book. Still have the navy-blue Field of Dreams T-shirt I bought on that late-July day, almost 35 years ago. Have rarely worn it, so it's almost pristine. Like the ballfield. From what I gather, it's not so pristine anymore,
Neil, I have to admit, some things make me cry, but baseball is not one of them. I was raised in Bloomington, IL and had never been to a professional ballgame until 1959 at the age of 13 when the GoGo Sox were hosting the Yankees. My dad and a family friend brought their sons to see Nellie Fox, Luis Aparicio, Early Wynn, Jim Landis, and Billy Pierce. It was a dream for us, one that I'll never forget. They were playing the Yankees. To see Bill "Moose" Skowron, Yogi Berra, Zach Monroe, and Mickey Mantle was like nothing I could have ever imagined. When I moved to Chicago in 1964 I lived on the Northside and was a Cubs fan. Since 1974, I've lived on the Southside and became a Sox fan. In the 1990s I took my children to several games at old Comiskey Park where we were able to see meet Frank Thomas (a gem of a human being) and watch Sammy Sosa in awe from the right field bleachers. If I keep this up, I may need to break out some tissues. I'm not much of a sports fan these days, but those memories are precious. Love your reporting on this subject.
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