Cooperstown Part I: The Town

Posted by Bad Kermit

Posted on February 7, 2008

I realized today that there’s no way I’m going to be able to fit all of the pictures and descriptions I have of my recent Cooperstown trip into one post, so I’m going to go ahead and divide them into three posts. First, I need to thank Mrs. Kerm for coming up with such a completely fantastic gift and for being so patient with me as I went baseball crazy. So, here we go (click any of the pictures for gigantic versions).

We left on Friday during the (first) horrible snowstorm, and we were one of the lucky few to make it out of Midway Airport. There were flights canceled all around us, but somehow we sneaked out early on Friday morning after only about a one-hour delay. We arrived at MacArthur Airport in Islip early Friday afternoon. We rented a car and began the approximately four-and-one-half-hour trip to Cooperstown. The weather conspired against us once more, as visibility was horrible, and we were slowed to a crawl due to fog as we approached Cooperstown.

We made it, though, at around 6:00 on Friday night. The drive, even at night with poor visibility, was actually quite pretty. Cooperstown came up out of nowhere, though. I told Mrs. Kerm, after seeing distant lights following quite a while of driving a twisting, turning road without seeing much of anything, “That has to be Cooperstown.”

And it was. We approached Cooperstown and were struck by how quiet and empty the town seemed. Quaint, beautiful, and pretty empty.

The resort owned by the family that owns the Baseball Hall of Fame closes in the winter, so we weren’t able to stay at the same room where Joe Morgan drops miniature models of himself off at the pool. We did the next-best thing, though, staying at the the Cooper Inn, the bed and breakfast around the corner, which is owned by the same family.

As we were resting after the long drive in our room, we heard a pretty disturbing siren. I went downstairs to check it out, and asked the desk clerk what the alarm meant. He said that it was just Cooperstown’s volunteer fire department responding (most likely) to an accident. I guess when you have a town with only one stoplight, accidents happen.

After settling into our room, we decided to take a look at what the Cooperstown night life had to offer. What did we find? Two bars right across the street from one another and a Chinese restaurant that should seriously consider playing music so you can’t hear everything that’s going on at every other table. Fortunately, there was only one other table to hear.

The first bar we visited, the Taproom, had about five people in it. The bartender was playing darts, but everyone was friendly. We didn’t stay long, but stayed just long enough to be asked by a former South Side native whether we knew a list of about ten people he knew. We didn’t, so we went across the street to Cooley’s Stone House Tavern. The place was actually pretty nice and had a friendly bartender named Sasha and approximately double the number of people as were in the Taproom.

I really should have taken a pictures of both bars, but I was afraid that the patrons would think I was trying to steal their souls. I will say this. I believe Mrs. Kerm and I had a combined nine drinks just at Cooley’s, and the tab was only about $25. Neat.

The next morning was to be Hall of Fame day, so I decided to wake up early to take some pictures of the town while Mrs. Kerm prepared to be bored out of her mind for the better part of the day. I have never seen more souvenir bat shops in my life.

Wouldn’t you know it, but this is the first sign I saw.

Next, it was off to Doubleday Field, named after the (incorrectly identified) “founder” of baseball, Abner Doubleday, and home, this summer, of the final Hall of Fame game between your Chicago Cubs and the San Diego Padres. One theme I noticed at Cooperstown was that no one there seems to believe that Doubleday invented baseball, either.

Down the street from the field and near the Hall of Fame, was basically the end of Cooperstown’s Main Street. The view of the hill in the background was awesome. The library (founded in 1797) is to the left with the columns.

Basically kitty corner from the library is the completely unassuming Hall of Fame.

I walked around the left side of the Hall toward the National Baseball Library and Archive (attached to the Hall), and noticed some pretty cool sculptures behind the Hall outside the library. If you click, you can see better detail. Someone please correct me if I’m wrong (my camera was being a bitch when I actually was inside near the plaque describing the scene), but I believe that the pitcher and catcher are meant to be Don Drysdale and Roy Campanella.

Oh, and James Fenimore Cooper was back there, too.

I decided to get a couple of shots of the town before heading back to the room and collecting Mrs. Kerm prior to the Hall of Fame trip. Here they are.

After picking up Mrs. Kerm, we headed back out to the Hall. We took a quick swing by the resort where the Hall of Famers normally stay. The place was under construction, but still looked incredible.

Mrs. Kerm and I sneaked around back to see “the porch.” While the rocking chairs were hibernating for the winter, the porch was not.

The view from the lawn was also extremely cool.

On our way to the Hall, we also took a picture of a tiny diner, which was approximately the size of a truck trailer. It’s quaint, damnit!

After snapping the picture, we headed for the Hall of Fame.