A Trip to the National Baseball Hall of Fame

     Going to Cooperstown in the past, we always picked the greatest weather to go in. Either it's clear skies and 90 degrees or 42 degrees and raining. It caused me to just view the items at the hall of fame blankly and just walk away to the next exhibit.
     For some reason going this time it was different. I really looked past the artifacts. How much of a deep meaning playing the game had on them as well as these are the stars that shaped what baseball is today. It isn't a replica or model. These are the real things that have survived for decades. Gloves that made history with record breaking amounts of double plays. Trophies that commemorated what a certain player did beyond what seems to just be a sliver cup. The little things were incredible too. Yearbooks. Balls. Pins. Rings.
    Now I was never was fond of the yankees, but in the moment looking at the Babe Ruth jerseys and things that belonged to him as well as things that belonged to Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio. These are the people that immediately come to mind whether your a fan of them or not. They sort of set a standard and were the first to achieve such high records that are long past by players now. Lou Gehrig, I have a tremendous amount of respect for. What happened to him and his career was tragic. But as he did in his farewell speech I at least took from it was he was one of the luckiest just to be able to put on the uniform and play everyday. His career and life may have shut down early, but everything life has given him so far is a blessing.
    Now, there was also Orioles artifacts there, in fact a display dedicated to them which I could actually get to see since not too many Orioles fans come up here to Cooperstown. People look at it, but mostly glaze over to the next display case. But one must look with a careful eye to find Orioles things. I always have to do a double check to make sure it's not a Giants jersey. I found the jerseys of most of the hall of famers- Brooks and Frank Robinson, Eddie Murray (in a different location), Jim Palmer, Earl Weaver and of course the iron man, Cal Ripken Jr. There was also Rick Dempsey, 1983 MVP's hat from the world series as well as the pins and rings of that series.
     Overall, I recommend for people whether your six hours or an hour away from Cooperstown to give it a look whether you're a baseball fan or not the artifacts will interest you and make you wonder how they even lasted that long. I mean really. They have a ball that claims to be used in the first game of baseball. A lot of other weird things you wouldn't expect to see. Anyways, give it a look!