Baseball Hall of Fame
On Sunday, August 15, 2021 we started off on a three hour drive from Scranton, PA to Cooperstown, NY. I usually do not mention rest-stops along the highway - but the Southern Tier Welcome Center on Interstate 81 in Kirkwood, NY is the exception. This had to be the cleanest and most modern Welcome Center I have ever visited. The amenities, attractions, and Instagram worthy photo spots made this place stand out and was a great welcome to the State of New York.
You always hear location, location, location when talking about real estate. This can be said about the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The approach to the Hall is a winding forest filled road that leads to the small town. There are some commercial establishments along the way - however it is not over the top like many pathways to tourist attractions.
I had previously visited the Hall of Fame twenty years earlier so I had a plan for this stop. After we parked we walked directly to the Hall of Fame for our initial tour. We took about four hours and toured all the galleries. The Hall was buzzing with little league teams visiting the place so many of them aspire to be at their young ages. Baseball is my favorite sport and I knew I wanted to take it all in especially anything about my favorite team that plays in a hundred year old ballpark I call the Cathedral on the North side of Chicago. We saved the Plaque Gallery for our final stop and looked for all our favorites. There we saw plaques for Ernie, Billy, Fergie, Ronny and Ryno from our Cubs, as well as, other legends like Babe, Willie and the Hammer.
It was lunchtime so we left the HOF and went to Doubleday Field and ate our prepacked picnic lunch and watched some baseball. After lunch we toured the shops, statue gallery outside the Hall and visited Ostgo Lake.
After our lunch and Copperstown tour it was back to the Hall to more in depth baseball history. We learned and laughed at exhibits ranging from the pioneers of baseball to the Philly Phanatic. The highlight was again visiting the Plaque Gallery, where there were very few people this time, to learn more about the legends.
We left Cooperstown as it was fast approaching dusk for our two hour ride to our hotel in Warners, NY to position us a couple hours out of our next stop of Niagara Falls.
