NOTE: I’m posting this on Tuesday, June 13, but the events described herein took place on Saturday, June 10, 2006
Saturday began as gloomy and cold outside as Friday night ended. The ambient temperature when we finally woke up (around 9:30) was 39 degrees! It was also misting slightly. Doug and I headed over to the local Rite Aid and got some Advil, which we both needed. We then headed over to TJ’s for breakfast. Doug had a big breakfast, but I could only manage some toast and orange juice. Once the Advil kicked in, however, I felt much better.
Right around noon, we headed over to the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which was literally right around the corner from our hotel (of course, in Cooperstown, anything is right around the corner).
It took us a couple of hours to go through the entire museum, but it was pretty cool. Doug hadn’t been to the Hall of Fame since he was 12 years old, so it was a lot newer to him than it was to me. I also think he appreciated it more this time than back when he was 12 years old. Since pictures are worth thousands of words, here are some pictures from the Hall of Fame. Captions are below each picture.
Outside the Hall of Fame
Ace photographer, Doug, takes an ace photo
This is what Ted Williams thought he would hit, if he was pitched to the various parts of the strike zone.
Mickey Mantle’s jersey.
Proof that Pete Rose is in the Hall of Fame.
Game ball from every no hitter thrown since 1948. Including perfect games (see below)
David Cone’s perfect game.
David Wells’ perfect game.
Doug by the Mets locker
Doug by the Mariner’s locker
Big surprise! Me by the Yankees locker
Doug takes a seat after all of the walking
I found this display particularly amusing.
Schilling’s bloody sock. I’m not kidding. Now all they need is Monica’s dress.
Doug takes a close-up of Schilling’s Bloody Sock.
The Six original Hall of Famers
After the Hall of Fame, we spent quite a bit of time roaming around the town. We went to numerous gift shops (particularly ones with bats because we were both interested in how bats are made, but none of them actually made the bats). We stopped in TJ’s so that I could grab something to eat. I ordered a burger and a side of Chedder fries. The fries alone were huge and I tried to get Doug to help, but he refused. (I think he was thinking about his experience with the cheeze whiz yesterday).
After the snack, we headed over to Doubleday field to take some pictures. It was still gloomy and cool out and there were no games going on. In fact, the field was covered, but we could get into the stadium to take pictures.
Right next door was a batting cage, and we couldn’t resist. We got 7 tokens and split them across the two cages that they had working: a 40 MPH curveball cage, and a 50 MPH knuckle ball cage. We videotaped some of it. Doug did much better than I did, but I didn’t do too badly. A couple of Doug’s shots would have been homeruns, were it not for the net.
Next, we decided to see how fast we could throw. We got five balls each and my top speed was a whopping 56 MPH. Doug managed to thrown 67 MPH with a cold arm, and afterward, he was not able to lift his arm for the rest of the day.
After that, we wandered over to wax museum and watched some guys take turn in a “virtual” batting cage. It was funny, mainly because it seemed that one of them actually someone managed to hurt themselves swinging the bat in the virtual cage.
In the early evening, we headed over to the local pizza joint and got ourselves some pizza and beer. The pizza was really good. After pizza, it was around 7:30 or so and we decided to head back to the “fun” bar from the previous night. When we got to the bar, it was almost empty, and we ended up closing the place down! In addition, I set a new personal record!
I think we ended up spending about 6 hours in the bar. While there, we watched something like 2-1/2 baseball games. And we had a few drinks. In fact, I set a new record. All told, I had 1 beer, 6 margaritas, and 1 shot of tequila and 4 “snake bites”.
People were buying us drinks! Nichole, the bartender from the night before was there to hang out and she bought us a couple of drinks. So did this guys who hung out with us for a while to talk baseball. (He bought us the first snake bite.)
I don’t know about Doug, but by the time we left at about 2 AM, I was stratospheric. We managed to get back to the hotel and Doug took a hilarious video once we were back. Once again, we got ready for bed, but this time, we both took Advil before going to sleep, just in case.
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