One hot Sunday in July, thousands of baseball fans converged
on someplace akin to Paradise for lovers of America’s National Pastime. That
place goes by one name: Cooperstown.
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| National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum on Induction Ceremony morning |
The village of Cooperstown, New York is home to more than
the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, but for the last weekend of
July, there is nothing else. That weekend is Hall of Fame Weekend, and this
year, six new members were inducted into the Hall.
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| Inside the Hall of Fame |
D&F Travel offered a day trip to the hallowed grounds of
baseball on Sunday, July 27th for the Induction Ceremony, with six
inductees who were a who’s who of my era of baseball fandom: Tony LaRussa, Frank
Thomas, Bobby Cox, Greg Maddox, Tom Glavine and Joe Torre. To say that Atlanta
as a baseball city (LaRussa, Cox, Maddox, Glavine and Torre) and Georgia as a
state (Thomas, who was born in Georgia and went to Auburn) were well
represented is an understatement.
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| Atlanta fans doing the Chop |
Tomahawk chops began well before the ceremony started, and
continued through the first three inductees presented: Maddox, Cox and Glavine.
Glavine, who was also drafted by the Los Angeles Kings, made reference to his
two-sport past with tongue-in-cheek humor: having been drafted ahead of Hockey
Hall of Famers Luc Robitaille and Brett Hull, he imagined that he would’ve been
inducted into that Hall of Fame if he hadn’t chosen the baseball path.
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| Tom Glavine |
LaRussa and an emotional Thomas came next, followed by the
man I, as a Yankees fan, went there to see: Torre, the Yankees skipper for six
AL pennants and four World Series titles; Torre was also a nine-time All-Star
as a player for the Braves. Torre was cheered loudest when he told us we’d be
back in a few years to see a couple more Yankees inductions, referring to
future Hall of Famers Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter.
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| Joe Torre's plaque presentation |
I also spent some time in the Hall of Fame Museum, but in
all honesty, it’s
not the place to visit on Induction Ceremony morning –
it’s a huge monument to the game, but seemed sooooo small with thousands of
people trying to make their way through it in a short time. I
definitely need
to go back!
all photos: paulathompsonfreelance.com
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