I'm back! Oh my goodness I have so much to share about my first ever trip to New York state, but I'll start with one of my favorite parts, going to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. 

First of all, and I had forgotten, Cooperstown is named after writer James Fennimore Cooper, author of The Leatherstocking Tales of which the most famous of the series is The Last of the Mohicans. I was essentially standing on historic ground at almost every turn of the my trip to central New York. All right, let's play ball!

Babe Ruth uniform
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Yes, it's the uniform of the one the greatest to ever play the game, George Herman "Babe" Ruth. There is an entire section of the museum dedicated to the "Sultan of Swat". My late boss Moon Mullins, as you know, was an avid Yankees fan. I'm sure he had been to the Hall of Fame a time or two. I thought about him a lot when I saw Yankees memorabilia, like this gem.

Ron Guidry hot sauce
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Cy Young Award winning pitcher Ron Guidry was dubbed "Louisiana Lightning" as he hailed from Lafayette before he rolled into the Bronx. A bottle of hot sauce being merchandised was inevitable. I didn't see a Reggie (Jackson) candy bar though. You want mascots?

San Diego Chicken
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The 1980's baseball scene wouldn't be complete without the San Diego Chicken. At one point in the museum, there was a huge video screen with clips of plays from games and one clip from the show This Week in Baseball where the Chicken caused a lot of mayhem on the segment "The Baseball Bunch".

Now Kentucky is represented in the Baseball Hall of Fame by Jim Bunning, Yankee Earle Combs, and late Governor and Senator Albert Benjamin "Happy" Chandler.

A.B. "Happy" Chanler HOF plaque
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Chandler also served at the Second Commissioner of Major League Baseball. During his tenure (1945-1951), the sport's color line was crossed with newcomer Jackie Robinson. There's a section in the Hall of Fame covering the Negro Baseball League and one display was a facsimile of a piece of hate mail Robinson received. It was very powerful.

Jackie Robinson hate mail
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A couple of other cool finds. one of the last sections of the museum is dedicated to "Baseball at the Movies" and here is one you might recognize.

Roy Hobbs The Natural props
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It's Roy Hobbs's (Robert Redford) cap, bat, and jacked from the Oscar-nominated classic The Natural. In his final game, Hobbs broke his bat "Wonderboy" and he had to settle for the "Savoy Special" and of course, he still knocked it out of the park, rather he knocked the lights out.

Want to visit the Hall of Fame yourself? HERE you go!

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