Today's my Dad's birthday, so Happy Birthday, Dad! It's also appropriate I do a post about the other trip Dad and I took while my parents were in town. Thursday, after Katie and my Mom had gone down to the city for a play and lunch, Dad and I made the 3-hour drive up to Cooperstown, New York, to see the baseball Hall of Fame. Katie and I had been there once before for the HOF induction ceremony in in 2009, when we lived in Columbus. I'd really wanted to go back when we got to New Jersey, since it's so close. But for various reasons, we never had the chance to make it to any of the 3 induction ceremonies since we've been out here - including hometown favorite Barry Larkin's induction this year.
The drive is about 3 hours from where we live in Ramsey, and 2 of those 3 hours are on rural roads. Cooperstown is a beautiful little town, though it was surprisingly busy the day we went. It seemed like there was a little league tournament going on - we saw a bunch of kids in baseball uniforms. Makes sense, as there is a field in the middle of town. We had lunch at the Double Day Cafe, which is somewhere I remembered that Katie and I had really liked. From there, we walked to the Hall of Fame & Museum, first checking out the Museum part. There is an incredible amount of baseball history there. Starting on the 2nd floor, the exhibits go chronologically, starting with the teams from the Northeast that played baseball in Hoboken, NJ and various parts of Manhattan. There is a ball used by 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings - baseball's first professional team - and a trophy given to the team for their undefeated 1869 season.
There was a Babe Ruth exhibit that had many things, including the bat from Ruth's famous called shot against the Cubs in the 1932 World Series.
There's that bat Bobby Thompson used to hit the "Shot Heard Round the World". He homered off Ralph Branca in 1951 to beat the Brooklyn Dodgers send the New York Giants to the World Series. This is considered in many sources to be the most memorable moment in baseball history. My Grandmother Dorothy, who was from Brooklyn, was at this game. They never found the ball that Thompson hit.
There was a good display with a bunch of mementos from the Big Red Machine. The bat above Rose's jersey was the one he used to notch his 4,000th hit.
A full locker that Hank Aaron used to have had been placed in an exhibit to honor him; I took a picture of Dad in the locker. 
I got my picture in front of the plaques for two new Hall of Fame inductees - hometown hero Barry Larkin, and Ron Santo. Santo was my mom's favorite player growing up, while Larkin was of course a Cincinnati Red for his entire career. Larkin was the first native-born Cincinnatian to be inducted into the Hall - and he's an answer to an interesting trivia question. He's the 4th Hall of Fame players played their entire career for a team from the city they were born. Larkin is the only player not from New York - the other 3 (Lou Gehrig, Whitey Ford, Phil Rizzuto) all played for the Yankees.
Below is a closer-up look at Larkin's plaque.
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