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| We all have to point to our favorite team in the standings on the scoreboard just outside of the Hall of Fame museum before entering on Saturday morning. Here in 2012, I was pointing to last place, and will do so again this time around. |
It’s always a weekend in late July. The weather in my hometown of Cherry Hill,
New Jersey is insanely humid and temperatures are in the 90s. The baseball regular season enters its final
third, but unfortunately around here everyone begins to gear up for the Eagles
as the Phillies are in the midst of another disappointing season. However for someone like me it’s usually a
disappointing time in Philadelphia sports. While I’m as excited as the next guy about the
Eagles, baseball was always my first love, and to know the Phillies season is
down the drain with roughly 60 games to go disappoints me. That’s how things have been the last couple
years and will be so again this year during this late July weekend. But regardless
of where the Phils are in the standings, this weekend is always a special one
for me.
Three days at National Baseball Hall of Fame Induction
Weekend in Cooperstown, New York. For
someone who fell in love with baseball at such a young age, there’s nothing
better. Rickey Henderson and Jim Rice in
2009 was the first class I saw get inducted and it didn’t take me long to ask
myself the question “What took so long?” as I was loving every minute of the
weekend. There’s baseball merchandise in every shop,
hall of famers outside almost all of the shops signing autographs, and walking
right by legends of the game has become so normal to me now entering my sixth
straight induction weekend trip.
While seeing the many hall of famers and browsing in the
shops on Main Street is a lot of fun, what makes the trip special more so than
anything else is who I’ve been going with. My dad is a lawyer. When I was little he would frequently bring me
into the office to talk to Pete, another lawyer at his law firm and a gigantic
baseball fan. While it was hard to
accept sometimes that he was a Mets fan, we both had no problems talking baseball
whenever my dad brought me in. Pete’s
been a member at the Hall of Fame for quite a while as induction weekend goes
back a lot further than just 2009 for him.
But when my dad got the call from Pete in the winter of 2009 asking us
to join, we never looked back.
Pete’s friend Tom, another huge baseball fan, flies in from
California. With Pete having left my
dad’s law firm and Tom living on the other side of the country it’s really the
three days of the year we get to see both of them. As the induction weekends have gone by, tons
of traditions have unfolded. In 2009,
Pete found a 25-question quiz in Newsweek
magazine by George Will. We all
attempted the questions on the ride up and enjoyed it. By 2010, both Pete and I were making our own
quizzes and by 2011 there were prizes awarded to those who did the best on each
quiz. Tom, formerly a high school
English teacher, made a literature quiz one year. Even now my saxophone-playing brother Peter,
who started coming in 2011, has decided to make his own quiz about pop culture
and jazz. To Pete’s credit he now goes
above and beyond just a quiz. Everyone
in the group that is going to Cooperstown with Pete receives their own binder
which is known as the official guide and quiz.
In addition to Pete’s quiz, the binder includes plenty of induction
weekend information, and a history of our trips together and notable
moments. George Will, just in case you
happen to be reading this, this is your fault.
There are also specific eating locations which have
developed over time. Our Saturday night
dinner location is a place called Sal’s Pizza on Main Street. On Saturday night around six o’clock all the hall
of famers that are in Cooperstown for the weekend ride down Main Street in
pickup trucks in a parade for the
fans. Then they gather for a dinner together. In 2012, Mike Schimdt, Robin Yount, Paul
Molitor, and George Brett decided to have their own dinner in a loft above Sal’s. We happened to be eating outside that night
and were the first to spot the four hall of famers coming up the stairs and
shortly thereafter others that were eating at Sal’s began to realize. This is known as the Sal’s Pizza Encounter of
2012.
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| Taken in 2013, this is outside our lunch spot on the way up on Friday afternoon at Subway. From left to right. Pete, Tom, myself, Peter, and my dad. |
Due to anticipation of the trip, the day before Cooperstown is
known as Cooperstown Eve. It’s
traditions like eating at the same places, e-mailing on Cooperstown Eve about
our excitement for another trip that make this weekend so special to me. Oh and not to mention this year happens to be
the best class I’ve ever seen in my time going up. Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Frank Thomas, Joe
Torre, Bobby Cox, and Tony La Russa all will be inducted. It’s no longer Cooperstown Eve. So I guess I’ll try and get some sleep before
the three-day annual tradition starts all over again.
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