A Cooperstown World Series Journey

In the last installment of The Grandstander, I had hinted that Marilyn and I would be watching Game 3 of the World Series from a most unique vantage point. From the title of this post and the picture above, you have by now figured it out (as did one astute Loyal Reader) just exactly where that was.

For the last 15 years, the Baseball Hall of Fame has held a Members event, a World Series Gala, on the Saturday night game of the World Series. Since I first read about it, this is something that I have always wanted to do, and this year, we did it! So cross of another item from the Baseball Bucket List.

For Marilyn and I, this was out fifth visit to Cooperstown, and we never get tired of it. (We always seem to forget how long a drive it is, though. For some reason, we had it in our minds that it was about a 5 and 1/2 to 6 hour trip. I wish. It's an easy drive, all but the last 25 miles are on interstate highways, but it's long and somewhat boring. Eight hours to get there on Friday, but only 7.5 hours to get home on Sunday!) We left bright and early on Friday and arrived in Cooperstown by 2:00.

We spent that first afternoon exploring the Hall of Fame itself, and, of course, dropping a bunch of cash in the gift shop. This was about a two-and-a-half hour visit exploring some of the new exhibits added since our last visit in 2006. There are two exceptional new permanent exhibits. One is called "Chasing the Dream" and is dedicated to the life and career of Hank Aaron. The other is called "One for the Books: Baseball Records & The Stories Behind Them." Great exhibits. The Records exhibit has all sorts of interactive stuff where you can look up both career and active records for just about any thing you can think of. You could spend hours in that exhibit alone.

Stopped after that at a local bar for a beer and some wings, before our one big indulgence of the trip - dinner at the Hawkeye Grill in the super ritzy Otesaga Hotel. This was the one big disappointment of the trip since the steak that I ordered had the consistency of the sole of a nice pair of Florshiems. What are you gonna do? It happens sometimes. On the bright side, Marilyn's shrimp dinner was perfect.

Saturday began with breakfast at the Doubleday Cafe and visit to a terrific local farmer's market held every Saturday morning outside of Doubleday Field. We then went our separate ways. Marilyn explored the various shops of downtown Cooperstown, while I spent close to four more hours in the HOF on my own. What can I say? It was four hours well spent. We then met up and had a dinner at a another local tavern, where the terrific bacon cheeseburgers more than compensated for the bummer steak of the night before.

Then, of course, came the event that brought us to Cooperstown this time around. Here we are on our way into the Hall and seated in The Grandstander Theater:

The theater holds a little over 200 people and it was packed. The Fox telecast of the game was projected onto the big movie screen. In the course of the evening, we learned that there were people in attendance from 15 states, Canada, and one person from Cambodia! The Hall provided free hot dogs, soft drinks, and chips (courtesy of Price Chopper Supermarkets!), and between each commercial break, they would call people from the audience to answer various trivia questions. The questions were easy enough, and with help from the audience, no one ever lost when they were called to the stage.

This led to a really big thrill for me, as my number was selected to come on down to answer the questions. When I said where I was from and that I was a Pirates fan, the emcee asked if I thought the Pirates would ever get to the big screen behind us. My response was "I hope in my lifetime" whereupon some guy in the audience yelled "and just how old ARE you?" Gives you an idea of what kind of a fun night it was. For answering my questions correctly and because I was a Pirates fan, my prize was a beautiful matted photograph of Roberto Clemente, which will be framed and find a place of honor in our house!

Unfortunately, the lighting in the Grandstand Theater was such that it didn't lend itself to picture taking, but the one below did come out pretty well, and will give you and idea of what it was like.

The game itself was the one that will forever be known as the "Albert Pujols Game", and the fact that it was such a blowout took some of the excitement out of the evening. Since the game ran so late, a lot of people left early, which also took some of the edge off the night. Too bad it wasn't one of those edge-of-the-seat pitching duels that the other three games have been.

I can't say enough about the great job that Hall of Fame did in putting this event together. It was just a completely and totally FUN event from start to finish. I think that the only way that I would enjoy a World Series game more would be to watch one in person at PNC Park.