Hall of Fame ? looking for comments??

[mrtwinsfan]

Planning a trip there,  Looking for those who have went, and can recommend any good or ? experiences ,  Time of Year-  alot of things to consider, Any response would be Welcomed, Thanx !!

[Seth Stohs]

On 5/27/2023 at 4:34 PM, mrtwinsfan said:

Planning a trip there,  Looking for those who have went, and can recommend any good or ? experiences ,  Time of Year-  alot of things to consider, Any response would be Welcomed, Thanx !!

I went to Cooperstown with my dad and brother, a high school friend and his dad. He was in DC at the time, so we flew into DC, and spent about 24 hours seeing everything (not literally, but the monuments, the Mall, Ford's Theatre, Arlington, and an ESPN the Restaurant). Then we drove a van up to Cooperstown. 

We actually stayed at a camp site about 20 minutes outside of Cooperstown. It was nice, though, had a pool, showers, a lake, canoeing, etc., and more. Figured that would be much cheaper than trying to rent two hotel rooms on a Hall of Fame weekend. 

We were there in 2001, when Puckett and Winfield and Mazeroski and Hilton Smith were inducted. We were there probably Thursday night through Monday maybe. 

Before we went, we ordered VIP memberships which allowed us into most everything. So, we spent time in the HOF museum every single day. You can fly through it in a few hours, but it is so great to be able to go back there each day and spend a little more time reading plaques or noticing little displays or at that time, they had just set up the Women in Baseball display. 

That weekend, they had a Hall of Fame game... It was the Marlins and someone. I remember that because Adrian Gonzalez had been the #1 overall pick the year before and played in that game. It was an exhibition game, but still fun. 

The cool thing about that time was just walking around the old town. My brother ran into Tony Oliva and got a photo with him outside the little stadium. I walked into a little cafe, and as I was walking in, Frank Robinson was walking out. My friend spent a little money and got an autograph and a photo with Harmon Killebrew. I could go on and on. The ceremony was great (but really warm). 

Now, saying that, I would love to go back, but not on a Hall of Fame weekend. I think just some random Thursday to spend like 6 hours there and kind of take in the town, maybe even learn a bit more about James Fenimore Cooper too. Also, I haven't check the Hall of Fame's website since I started this message, but once in a while, they will bring in a speaker to the museum and they have a program, and it's interactive. I'm sure they've got stuff going on all the time. 

Here is that page. https://baseballhall.org/ 

Feel free to ask questions... I need to check this more often and others should share their stories too. 

[mrtwinsfan]

15 hours ago, Seth Stohs said:

I went to Cooperstown with my dad and brother, a high school friend and his dad. He was in DC at the time, so we flew into DC, and spent about 24 hours seeing everything (not literally, but the monuments, the Mall, Ford's Theatre, Arlington, and an ESPN the Restaurant). Then we drove a van up to Cooperstown. 

We actually stayed at a camp site about 20 minutes outside of Cooperstown. It was nice, though, had a pool, showers, a lake, canoeing, etc., and more. Figured that would be much cheaper than trying to rent two hotel rooms on a Hall of Fame weekend. 

We were there in 2001, when Puckett and Winfield and Mazeroski and Hilton Smith were inducted. We were there probably Thursday night through Monday maybe. 

Before we went, we ordered VIP memberships which allowed us into most everything. So, we spent time in the HOF museum every single day. You can fly through it in a few hours, but it is so great to be able to go back there each day and spend a little more time reading plaques or noticing little displays or at that time, they had just set up the Women in Baseball display. 

That weekend, they had a Hall of Fame game... It was the Marlins and someone. I remember that because Adrian Gonzalez had been the #1 overall pick the year before and played in that game. It was an exhibition game, but still fun. 

The cool thing about that time was just walking around the old town. My brother ran into Tony Oliva and got a photo with him outside the little stadium. I walked into a little cafe, and as I was walking in, Frank Robinson was walking out. My friend spent a little money and got an autograph and a photo with Harmon Killebrew. I could go on and on. The ceremony was great (but really warm). 

Now, saying that, I would love to go back, but not on a Hall of Fame weekend. I think just some random Thursday to spend like 6 hours there and kind of take in the town, maybe even learn a bit more about James Fenimore Cooper too. Also, I haven't check the Hall of Fame's website since I started this message, but once in a while, they will bring in a speaker to the museum and they have a program, and it's interactive. I'm sure they've got stuff going on all the time. 

Here is that page. https://baseballhall.org/ 

Feel free to ask questions... I need to check this more often and others should share their stories too. 

Thank You, Very Helpful 

[Rod Carews Birthday]

I was there in September, 2021 and it was a really nice experience.  Cooperstown is not the easiest place to get to due to the finger lakes and a lot of north/south-ish sort of roads but not much east/west (we were driving from Buffalo).  We stayed in a very low budget hotel on the road north of Cooperstown.  It was very old school, but clean and pleasant enough.  The bigger/nicer hotels were all booked, so I'm guessing the lesson is to book earlier than we did.

The HOF is really excellent and it takes quite some time to work your way through.  The room with all of the plaques is very cool as a general concept just because of how many really amazing players are enshrined there and looking for Twins (or any other teams) players is pretty fun.  However, reading every plaque will get very tedious very quickly so I don't recommend trying to do that at one visit.  The rest of the museum is a real gem.  I probably spent at least five or six hours going through the exhibits, ranging from overall baseball history to information about baseball integration and women's leagues.  The gift shop has good quality souvenirs as long as you are willing to cough up pretty serious dough.

The rest of the town is quite cool as well.  It is a quaint little place with a fun main street and neat little HOF field named after Abner Doubleday.  As Seth mentioned, Cooperstown is also the home of James Fenimore Cooper.  We didn't spend enough time there but the accompanying museum/gallery was quite nice and very worthwhile.  There were also a couple of breweries in the area that we visited.  We would like to have seen an opera (yes, an opera) at Glimmerglass, which is a state park on the lake and an opera company, but weren't there to see one timingwise. 

On a "normal" (non HOF) weekend you probably need two days to take in the HOF and the rest of the town.  I would have loved to go during a hall of fame weekend to see the legends, but our visit didn't coincide.  That would have been pretty amazing. 

[IndianaTwin]

Go. 

That's my suggestion. But to (perhaps) be more helpful...

I've been there four times, twice on induction weekend (Puckett and Oliva) and twice at other times. If you are specifically wanting to see the induction, go then. It will be packed, and you'll likely need to get lodging some distance from Cooperstown. The most enjoyable part of the weekend was actually the Saturday evening parade, when all the living HOFers in attendance ride down Main Street on the back of a pickup. If you're wanting to go on an induction weekend, I could give you some other suggestions.

However, if your biggest interest is in visiting the museum, go at another time. The crowd will be much more manageable and you will be able to visit it in a more leisurely fashion. As Seth notes, you can fly through it in a couple hours, but I've spent as much as six hours or more there and didn't feel like I did it justice. I like to stop and read every display, however. I don't remember if they have a two-day pass, but if you are into history, it would be well worth considering. By the end of six hours, my brain was no longer absorbing it all. (Some would suggest I reach that point much earlier.) If you go at a time reasonably near the induction ceremony, there will be special exhibits related to the current year's inductees. I don't know when those go up and come down.

I will also add that my wife doesn't enjoy baseball, but she's been hanging out with me for almost 40 years. As such, she actually found it enjoyable (okay, tolerable), since it really is a way of telling a story. That was more in the several-hour visit, however. Six hours would have moved it down the toleration scale a great deal.

There are other things to do in the area as well. Cooperstown itself has a couple other museums. The Women's Rights National Historical Park is in Seneca Falls, and we enjoyed that. We also enjoyed the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park in Auburn. Those two are near each other, but about two hours west of Cooperstown.

If you've got 30 minutes to waste, here's a YouTube video I put together from Oliva's induction weekend, though to call it a "video" is overselling, since it's really a PowerPoint with commentary: 

 

[mrtwinsfan]

41 minutes ago, Rod Carews Birthday said:

I was there in September, 2021 and it was a really nice experience.  Cooperstown is not the easiest place to get to due to the finger lakes and a lot of north/south-ish sort of roads but not much east/west (we were driving from Buffalo).  We stayed in a very low budget hotel on the road north of Cooperstown.  It was very old school, but clean and pleasant enough.  The bigger/nicer hotels were all booked, so I'm guessing the lesson is to book earlier than we did.

The HOF is really excellent and it takes quite some time to work your way through.  The room with all of the plaques is very cool as a general concept just because of how many really amazing players are enshrined there and looking for Twins (or any other teams) players is pretty fun.  However, reading every plaque will get very tedious very quickly so I don't recommend trying to do that at one visit.  The rest of the museum is a real gem.  I probably spent at least five or six hours going through the exhibits, ranging from overall baseball history to information about baseball integration and women's leagues.  The gift shop has good quality souvenirs as long as you are willing to cough up pretty serious dough.

The rest of the town is quite cool as well.  It is a quaint little place with a fun main street and neat little HOF field named after Abner Doubleday.  As Seth mentioned, Cooperstown is also the home of James Fenimore Cooper.  We didn't spend enough time there but the accompanying museum/gallery was quite nice and very worthwhile.  There were also a couple of breweries in the area that we visited.  We would like to have seen an opera (yes, an opera) at Glimmerglass, which is a state park on the lake and an opera company, but weren't there to see one timingwise. 

On a "normal" (non HOF) weekend you probably need two days to take in the HOF and the rest of the town.  I would have loved to go during a hall of fame weekend to see the legends, but our visit didn't coincide.  That would have been pretty amazing. 

Awesome info, 

[mrtwinsfan]

38 minutes ago, IndianaTwin said:

Go. 

That's my suggestion. But to (perhaps) be more helpful...

I've been there four times, twice on induction weekend (Puckett and Oliva) and twice at other times. If you are specifically wanting to see the induction, go then. It will be packed, and you'll likely need to get lodging some distance from Cooperstown. The most enjoyable part of the weekend was actually the Saturday evening parade, when all the living HOFers in attendance ride down Main Street on the back of a pickup. If you're wanting to go on an induction weekend, I could give you some other suggestions.

However, if your biggest interest is in visiting the museum, go at another time. The crowd will be much more manageable and you will be able to visit it in a more leisurely fashion. As Seth notes, you can fly through it in a couple hours, but I've spent as much as six hours or more there and didn't feel like I did it justice. I like to stop and read every display, however. I don't remember if they have a two-day pass, but if you are into history, it would be well worth considering. By the end of six hours, my brain was no longer absorbing it all. (Some would suggest I reach that point much earlier.) If you go at a time reasonably near the induction ceremony, there will be special exhibits related to the current year's inductees. I don't know when those go up and come down.

I will also add that my wife doesn't enjoy baseball, but she's been hanging out with me for almost 40 years. As such, she actually found it enjoyable (okay, tolerable), since it really is a way of telling a story. That was more in the several-hour visit, however. Six hours would have moved it down the toleration scale a great deal.

There are other things to do in the area as well. Cooperstown itself has a couple other museums. The Women's Rights National Historical Park is in Seneca Falls, and we enjoyed that. We also enjoyed the Harriet Tubman National Historic Park in Auburn. Those two are near each other, but about two hours west of Cooperstown.

If you've got 30 minutes to waste, here's a YouTube video I put together from Oliva's induction weekend, though to call it a "video" is overselling, since it's really a PowerPoint with commentary: 

 

Awesome info,