A Love Letter to Baseball
This summer, I had the distinct pleasure of going to Cooperstown, NY, where the Baseball Hall of Fame is located. Why, you may ask, is it located there? It’s actually a funny story that you can read about here. Yes, the birthplace of baseball is indeed not the birthplace of baseball. But come on, we all love a good origin story, even if it’s not true.
Anyways, the town itself is very quaint, and boasts a population of about 2,000 people. The Hall of Fame is located on Main Street, because every quintessential Americana town has a Main Street where all of its important landmarks are located. In Cooperstown, these landmarks include several baseball memorabilia stores, ice cream parlors, restaurants, museums and of course the Hall of Fame. While the town itself is only home to a couple thousand, the street was always full of people — mostly kids and their parents visiting for the countless baseball tournaments held at the baseball stadiums in the area. It made me nostalgic for a childhood I never had. This is very fitting, however, as baseball feeds on nostalgia. If you disagree, just watch Field of Dreams or The Rookie or The Sandlot. Watching groundskeepers paint the lines, smelling the freshly cut grass, hearing a bat crack, stuffing your face with a hot dog…As Billy Beane asks in Moneyball, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
A lot of the Hall of Fame is dedicated to the history of baseball, of course, and the greats who helped make the game so iconic, like Cy Young, Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig. Seeing the gloves, bats, hats, lockers, jerseys, etc. that belonged to them made me feel as if I had found el dorado. I could feel the history.
As I walked through the exhibit dedicated to Babe Ruth, his voice echoed in the background. He told me about his childhood and how baseball saved him. He gave the game everything he had, even if he got into some trouble from time to time. He owed his life to the sport, and he spent every game repaying that debt.
“If it wasn’t for baseball, I’d be in either the penitentiary or the cemetery.” –Babe Ruth
Dozens of quotes, including the following one, hang around the displays, reminding visitors just how much players are profoundly impacted by America’s pastime.
“You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.” –Jim Bouton
Baseball is not just a game for them, it is everything.
“It was all I lived for, to play baseball.” –Mickey Mantle
Reading what the game meant to these guys made me emotional. I have always loved baseball, but feeling what it meant to the players gave the game a whole new meaning to me. Some people like sports, some don’t. I’ve learned to accept that, but how can you minimize what this game has meant to so many? Players like Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente and Lou Gehrig made legacies for themselves that reach far beyond the scope of baseball, and the sport gave them the opportunity to do so.
In another room, there were pieces of old stadiums — seats, lights, bricks. It was like being in the most beautiful graveyard in the world, except these artifacts did not come here to die. This is where they found new life.
In every exhibit, I would look around and admire the other people there. It’s an indescribable feeling, knowing that you and a bunch of strangers share this profound love for the same thing. There were people there in their eighties, and others too young to even walk, but we were all there for the same reason.
One of my favorite parts of the Hall of Fame was the interactive exhibit for the modern era of baseball. It was exciting seeing clips from games I remember watching live, and looking at memorabilia from players still active today. Going through the rooms before this one, I felt a bit sad that I had missed so much since I am so young, but this room reassured me that baseball’s reign as America’s Pastime is far from over.
I left the Baseball Hall of Fame humbled, grateful and more educated. I felt closer to the game than I ever had before. If you love baseball, or any sport, then you understand the impact it has on us. If you don’t love baseball, or any sport, then God bless you for even reading this much of my article.
I spend almost every day watching baseball in some format or another, whether it be on MLB Network, ESPN, my local FOX affiliate or via Twitter videos. Going to the Hall of Fame has been on my bucket list for a while, and it should be on yours too. Yes, even as a Tampa Bay Rays fan, I was able to enjoy seeing some of the coolest pieces of baseball history from each team (even when the dang place spells our player’s name wrong on his equipment). I believe that even if you are a casual fan of baseball, you would be able to appreciate the Hall of Fame. After all, it’s just as much American history as it is baseball history.
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