The Hall

The Hall
Originally uploaded by dlew022.

Yeah, I'm a blog flake. What can I say? I've been busy...and lazy. So here's what I've been up to...

The last weekend in September, my grandpa took me to Cooperstown, NY to the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was AWESOME!! My grandpa and I are very close but we haven't been on a trip together in probably, 20 years. I owe pretty much everything to my grandpa. He's always been supportive of me and my ideas. He financially helped me get through college and he's just a really neat guy.

The Cooperstown area is simply gorgeous. I never realized that it was named for the father of author James Fennimore Cooper. When I think "baseball" and "New York," idyllic farm country doesn't come to mind. But that's exactly how the area is. I'd love to come back in the late Fall and see all the orange, red and brown trees. In fact, I could see myself retiring there. It's just so pretty and mellow and there's such rich history...and baseball stuff.

The Hall of Fame was really cool. Did you know there are only TWO teams in all of baseball? Yep, that's right. There's the Yankees and there's the Red Sox. That's it. Well, that's what you would think if you had never heard of baseball and went to the Hall of Fame this past summer. Yeah, I know the Yankees are the #1 team popularity wise in the world and yeah, the Red Sox finally won the World Series. But c'mon. I shouldn't have found the Hank Aaron exhibit by accident. I was literally wandering around and there, in a dark corner was the Hank Aaron stuff. That's just weak.

I was really just bummed there wasn't more Giants stuff, but they haven't won anything in forever and Barry is still a few homers away from the record. Speaking of Barry...

I thought it was cool the HOF was just about baseball. There was none of the drama surrounding players. They had McGwire, Sosa and Canseco stuff without any mention of steroids. They had a Ty Cobb exhibit with no mention of racism and general assholeness. That stuff does matter in personal judgement of a player, but when you'e at a place to celebrate baseball, it's nice to just have it be about baseball.

It was really cool to see so much great baseball stuff. It was also REALLY great to spend time with my grandpa again. If you have an older relative you haven't talked to in a while, give them a call or take them out to lunch. Take advantage of this time you have together while you can. it won't last forever. Plus, they don't eat much and dinner is usually around 4:00.