First Hall Of Fame - 75th Anniversary

Waiting for Dave to be "ready" to write a blog is like waiting to see pigs fly.  Because he was never "ready", I'm going to go ahead and share my interpretation of his trip to Cooperstown in July. 

In July, Dave was able to go on a trip of a lifetime - to see the Baseball hall of fame induction.  One of his favorite ball players, Frank Thomas, was being inducted.  So he went back while Mom and Drew stayed home (or rather  took a road trip to Yosemite).

After a flight filled with drama, he made it back to Albany and spent the night with his parents before making the 2 1/2 hour drive to Cooperstown, home of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  They go all out for induction weekend.  You're able to walk through the streets and see players from the past lined up so you can pay them for their autographs - some Dave said wanted more than $100!  Dave said he waited in the lines just to say hi and shake hands.

Ricky Henderson

Rollie Fingers

Dave Henderson

Tony Perez

So the big story of the weekend were these fellows...

Reggie Jackson (Left) Pete Rose (Right)

 Grandpa Tim saw Reggie Jackson and Pete Rose shooting the breeze inside one of the shops.  And Grandpa Tim being who he is, cut through the line to break up the conversation between the two men to say hi to the guys and pumped up Dave.

Grandpa Tim Photobombing Pete & Reggie

  He went out to find Dave and then he too cut in line to get the autograph.

Grandpa Tim, Dave and Pete Rose
This was the one autograph they paid for.

 Dave made a joke that he wanted to meet Mr. October... but Pete Rose joked and said, "He may be Mr. October, I was known as Mr. April, May, June, July, August and September."

Grandpa Tim, Reggie Jackson, Dave

 It's one of the highlights from their trip.

Frank Robinson

 As you can imagine hotels during induction weekend are expensive and really hard to come by.  So about a year ago Dave looked into campsites where they can stay for a fraction of the cost.  They had a great time, and it looked beautiful. 

Grandpa Tim belting away

Grandma Lolly & Grandpa Tim

Dave & Tim

 They had a parade of the players from the past and inductees as they made their way inside the Hall of Fame.  Dave said he saw and shook hands with many ball players.  One of the most crowd engaging was Cal Ripkin Jr.  He spent about 45 minutes shaking hands and signing autographs.

Baseball Hall of Fame

Dave, Grandma Lolly & Grandpa Tim at Doubleday Field

Grandpa Tim checking out his new ride

 Later they walked the streets and saw more former players.

Ron Guidry

Goose Gossage

Dale Murphy

Darryl Strawberry

Robin Yount

Crazy Crowds

 And then on Sunday it was the day that Dave was waiting for.  To see the induction from the field.  He even made a homemade sign to represent his favorite player.

Dave at the induction with the sign he made

He'd hoped at one point that he could get Frank Thomas to sign it, but unfortunately that never happened.  He did however get his 4-seconds of fame on the ESPN broadcast of the induction. His sign made the opening of the Induction Show.

Frank Thomas receiving his plaque

Frank Thomas' Speech

Others who were inducted that day: Tom Glavin, Greg Maddux,
Coaches: Joe Torre, Bobby Cox, Tony LaRussa

Dave loved the experience and said he wanted to bring Drew and I in about five years.  Just in time for Derek Jeter's induction..... however I think this is much more a father/son trip.  Mom would be a whiner - except for the part where I got to see Jeter...

NY Christmas - Baseball Hall of Fame

Yes I'm a bad blogger lately - life is exceptionally busy.  Here is another highlight of our Christmas trip to New York - Cooperstown - where they have the Baseball Hall of Fame.

We weren't planning on bringing Drew to the Hall of Fame until he was older and could - in Dave's words - appreciate it more.  Well when we were back there and needed something to do indoors (due to weather) that appealed to many there weren't many options.  We gave Drew a choice between 2 or 3 things and he picked Cooperstown.  Good thing we opted to go now - kids are free through age of 6!

So we drove the two hours over from Grandma and Grandpas and made it a few hours before they closed.  First stop inside, the wall of  inductees....

Among the first class....

 

And since I'm a Twins fan.. one of my favorite players!

 Dave and I were last at the Hall of Fame we figure in about 2000 while we were still dating.  Since then they've expanded - one of the new additions, the Sandlot Kids.  Drew had a blast!

There were just a lot of hands on activities for them.

As we left the Sandlot we had a shot of outside... before the storm came.

One of my favorite baseball movies - Dave subjects me to all of them - is a League of Their Own.  If you've seen the movie you know they highlight the Woman's Baseball League.  Here's the Rockford Peaches.

Drew asked to take pictures next to sooooo many exhibits.  I will only "bore" you with a few.

 I think the Yankee Jersey was Babe's but I can't recall 2 months later.

The Dodgers is recognizable - assuming you know anything about #42 - Jackie Robinson.

I'm just sharing the locker/trophy because Drew's baseball team this year is the Yankees!

Of course Drew needed Daddy to be in the picture with the Dodgers....

But I must give props to my Minnesota Twins!

There were exhibits highlighting the Mascots.  Drew had to ham it up with the Phanatic.

And then the final picture - Drew posed himself.

Hank Arron's locker.  Drew is pretending to put on his cleats.

We were there for about 2-3 hours until they closed.  Then we had to grab a slice of pizza at the famous pizzeria in town - Sals.  When we walked outside of the Hall of Fame we were greeted with snowflakes the size of post-it notes.  They were huge!  We knew we needed to get on the road but we figured eating now rather than trying to figure it out later was a safer bet - boy were we right!  The 2 hour drive there took about 4 getting back!  The road were terrible!  Dave drove our rental and he said that was the worst experience ever!

Dave will be going back to Cooperstown this Summer for the next induction - his first time being there for the big event.  He's going because he's a huge Frank Thomas fan.

Thrill Seeking on the New York Mountaintop

While in New York and I was bedridden courtesy some version of the flu, Drew, Grandma, Grandpa, Dave and Brianna went up to West Mountain to do some tubing.  Drew thought it was fantastic!

I don't have much to offer since I wasn't there, but the boys are still talking about how fun it was so I guess it was a blast!

They would go up on a "line" and then Drew would get to the top and down he'd go! I guess he did several runs, he was afraid at first then wanted to go up higher and higher!

Here are a couple of videos:

One Run



And another run from higher up!

White Christmas

For the first time in 17 years, Dave spent Christmas with his Mom, Stepdad and siblings (well, minus one who lives in Arizona).  And even better yet it was a white Christmas - as in snow on the ground, it didn't snow that day.

Of course the first thing Drew wants to do is open presents, unfortunately we made him wait until everyone woke up.  He was really patient though.
 

He was so excited to see some of his presents - here he was opening up one of his two stockings...





And then another present... here's the video..  What he says cracks me up.


Of course the present he loved the most was the iTouch (our recycled phone turned iTouch).

After a while Drew got to play outside in the white stuff...

And Grandpa built a bonfire! 

I came out to join the fun (notice the box of tissues I'm carrying).  I ended up getting sick for 3 days about 2 hours after this photo.

Aunt Brianna and Drew..

Daddy and Aunt Brianna

Me and Brianna

The temperature was dropping quickly, so we went inside for dinner. 

This was the last fresh air I had for days.  Getting sick on vacation blows.