Aber: Two trips to Cooperstown, 25 years in between
From SABR member Matt Aber at Seamheads.com on July 8, 2013:
Summer and baseball go together like Phillies skipper Charlie Manuel and incoherent sentences—you just can’t imagine one without the other. This formula lends itself for even the average baseball fan opportunities to create memories with family and friends by taking in a game at any level, whether professional or little league, or making a pilgrimage to a favorite park or historical site. The Baseball Hall of Fame has been the catalyst for me twice now in providing me memories that only baseball can, though in two different ways.
The last time I was in Cooperstown was 25 years ago in June 1988 after graduating from 8th grade on what was the final leg of the best family vacation of my youth, on the way back to Philadelphia from Toronto after seeing the Blue Jays play in old Exhibition Stadium. Unfortunately over time, much of what I had seen had diminished from my memory as the clutter of what accompanies the exercise of becoming an adult like schooling, dating, parties, bills and establishing myself in a sustainable profession filled up the compartments in my head where this was once stored. But the one thing I always remembered was the fun that I had with my parents on that vacation and the excitement that I felt seeing a game in Toronto and spending time in Cooperstown, and after all these years that is what matters most to me.
Earlier this year my older brother proposed to me that instead of taking our annual trip together to Yankee Stadium that instead we change it up and head to Cooperstown. Needless to say I could not have said “yes” fast enough.
Read the full article here: http://seamheads.com/2013/07/08/cooperstown-25-years-later/
Originally published: July 8, 2013. Last Updated: July 8, 2013.