Visiting Cooperstown [Part 6]
Posted by Steve Lombardi on October 3, 2010
This is the last installment of the photograph collection from my recent trip to Cooperstown, New York.
For “Part 5″ of this series, click here.
This installment somewhat speaks for itself - as it's some plaques that caught my attention when viewing those in the Hall of Fame.
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Click on the thumbnails to enlarge the photos.
Satchel Paige - He looks so young here.
Cal Ripken - Imagine playing 19 All-Star Games in a row?
George Sisler - No Hall of Fame plaque cap controversy here.
Mickey Mantle - he looks so happy here.
Rickey Henderson - Note all his teams listed here.
Henry Chadwick - The G.F.O.S. (God Father of Stats).
Lou Gehrig - Raise your hand if you knew that a "score" was twenty.
Goose Gossage - Will we ever see someone again with 50+ saves of 7+ outs?
Lefty Grove - Why is he not wearing an A's cap?
Nolan Ryan - The rare HOF'er who shares the same middle name as my son.
Tris Speaker - My all-time favorite player that I wish I could have seen play in his prime.
Heinie Manush - If you cross your eyes while looking at this, you'll see Don Zimmer.
Phil Rizzuto - Note this plaque leaves the Hall at least 30 minutes before closing time.
Charlie Gehringer - Major bummer that they didn't include "The Mechanical Man” on his plaque.
Joe DiMaggio - It took him three ballots to make the Hall. Go figure.
Ty Cobb - He flies in the face of my totally subjective and entirely personal theory that it's helpful for a ballplayer to have big eyes.
Bill Veeck - I was just about to say "Will we ever see someone own a big league team and then later own another team again?" and then I remembered what Bud Selig did with Jeffrey Loria and John Henry.
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:36 pm
What an excellent series, Steve! I was able to visit the Hall of Fame road tour at the Oakland museum several years back, and your series re-kindled the emotions I had at the time. Gotta get to Cooperstown one of these years...
October 3rd, 2010 at 1:46 pm
Steve, I loved the series. It might be nice if you put them all together into a website.
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:09 pm
andyr - thanks for the kind words. Glad this clicked for you.
bluejaysstatsgeek - This was my pleasure to share - and, that's a nice idea. I'll have to look into that - thanks.
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Thanks Steve!
Who besides Cornelius called "Lefty" Robert? Didn't Mays, Mantle and Aaron among others, play in more consecutive All-Star games than Cal? (They were helped by having 2 games a year from 1959 to 1962.) Sort of strange how little Rizzuto's plaque mentions defense. Instead we get his SLG in 1950! Lots of fun.
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:42 pm
Thanks Kds. I know that Hank Aaron, Willie Mays and Stan Musial each played in 24 ASGs. Not sure if they were in a row. But, for certain, those 2-a-years helped there some too.
October 3rd, 2010 at 4:45 pm
BTW, in case anyone is interested, here's a similar type photo collection from my trip back in 2003:
http://www.netshrine.com/cooperstown2003.html
October 3rd, 2010 at 5:00 pm
The Mechanical Man. Totally one of the best nicknames ever. You're right. Should have been on his plaque.
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:33 pm
Nice feature. Though for Scooted, you wrote "plague", not plaque.
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:34 pm
Duh...."Scooter".
October 3rd, 2010 at 8:56 pm
Steve,
This was a great series of posts. Just another reminder that I need to visit Cooperstown soon.
October 3rd, 2010 at 9:23 pm
Thanks Stephen! Mike - D'oh! Thanks. I fixed that.
October 3rd, 2010 at 11:49 pm
I can't believe I am Canadian and I'm going to comment on this before anyone else. A "score" is used in maybe the most famous American speech of all time by Abraham Lincoln: "Four score and seven years ago.." I believe it was written in 1863 because 87 (4 score plus 7) years ago was the Declaration of Independence for the U.S. Maybe its redundant for most of you, but I thought I'd comment on it.
Interesting also is that I heard via Ken Burns that Cobb refused to take part in the first HOF induction picture because of his feud with Kenesaw Mountain Landis. That's why Cobb is not in the famous picture featuring Ruth, Wagner, Johnson, Mathewson.
October 4th, 2010 at 2:47 am
thanks for the kind words. happy this clicked for you.
October 4th, 2010 at 8:31 am
It's amazing to me how few of the plaque pictures resemble the men themselves. Wonder why that is. Or perhaps it's just me.