Cooperstown - Will the Holy Grail Save the Sox?

I don't often do a baseball-only post, but I think this one has merit for any baseball fan. My sons and I visited Cooperstown this weekend, and it sure was fun. I can now check that one off the father/son bonding checklist, but something tells me we'll be back.

The Baseball HOF is camera-friendly, and I'm just going to post a few photos here, courtesy of my Nokia N93. Got lots more if anyone's interested.

In case you're wondering, the Holy Grail - at least for Red Sox Nation - is the "bloody sock", and we found it alright - see below. I can now say that I've lived a full life - seen all 4 Boston teams win championships, and now I've seen the sock. I can die happy now.

Oh - Cooperstown is very much Yankees country, and it's not hard to tell with all the New Yawkers there - can't miss them. I can report no incidents though, while wearing my Red Sox cap, as there were tons of New Englanders there too. And Max wore a vintage Toronto Blue Jays jersey, which registered about zero on the attention scale there.

Aside from being Yankees country, this part of NY state is classic small town America. I just can't get that Arlo Guthrie song out of my head - "City of New Orleans". Good morning, America how are ya?....






Baseball heaven - literally and figuratively...





The Phil Rizzuto "Holy Cow"; Dean in a staring contest with Christy Mathewson




Everywhere you look around Cooperstown, it's Yankees-Red Sox...




Yankees-Red Sox....




You get the idea. They sure know their market (tons of Mets stuff too). Pretty tough to be a Jays fan around here...




And to give you a warm fuzzy feeling while waiting in line to buy your tickets to the hall, you're greeted by these 2 guys....




The Red Sox Holy Grail! We finally found it - in a rather inauspicious corner, but it's there. The sock...





The shoe...



The ball...




The Holy Trinity of Red Sox Baseball...




As much as I hate to say it, the Red Sox are very much in a pennant race, thanks to their indifferent play the past 2 months, and the Yankees catching fire - and you knew they would. There's a huge NY logo in the Red Sox rear view mirror, and all of a sudden, things are looking scarily like 1978. We were up 14 on the Yankees then too, but I'd rather not complete that sentence.

So, while far from being a practising Catholic, I needed to see this Holy Grail to restore my faith that the Red Sox can hang on, and find a way to play like they were earlier in the season. They did beat Baltimore the day we were there, so that was a good sign. And the mojo from seeing Schilling's sock here sort of carried over to his start yesterday. He only gave up 1 run, so he did his job. The bullpen didn't though, and the O's won again. It's 4 games now, and Yankees look upstoppable. Better focus on something else... (but how can you?)...


Well, I will shift gears just for moment. Aside from Max's Blue Jays jersey, there were 2 visible references to Canada at Cooperstown. First, of course, is Fergie Jenkins. As far as I know, he's the only MLB player inducted to both Cooperstown and the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame, which we visited the week before. Are my kids, lucky, or what?

Anyhow, the second Canada siting was a rather obscure plaque outside the hall commerating a maple tree planted to recognize our links to the game, and the fact that we have a HOF too. We only stumbled across this by accident, but I can at least say Canada is part of Cooperstown. Sure hope that tree grows big and strong.




Lunch! Could there be a more perfect spot to go? As American as apple pie...






Technorati tags: Boston Red Sox, Jon Arnold, Cooperstown, Baseball