Page 32 - ARUBA TODAY

A32 FEATURE
Thursday 16 augusT 2018

Cooperstown stirs emotions for dad of young baseball player

By LARRY LAGE a pool and an awesome
Associated Press deck. Bed-and-breakfast
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) options include the Land-
— Two places have trig- mark Inn where guests can
gered tears of joy in my life: help themselves to peanuts
The Vatican and Cooper- and Cracker Jack, a nod
stown. to the song “Take Me Out
I wasn’t surprised when it to the Ballgame.” Near the
happened in my mother’s stop light, the Inn at Coo-
homeland while kneeling perstown serves ice tea,
and praying in St. Peters as lemonade and cookies on
the nephew of a Roman the porch.
Catholic priest and the To accommodate the
great nephew of a Domini- seasonal floods of people,
can nun. there are also many hotels,
Even though I’m an emo- including some nationally
tional Italian-American, I known ones, and motels
did not expect to have my along with homes from
emotions tugged as they lakefront homes to simple
were last month in upstate cabins for rent.
New York. WHERE TO EAT
With my wife, our son, In this Sept. 25, 2014, file photo, an exhibition baseball game is played at Doubleday Field in Main Street is filled with din-
daughter and her friend, downtown Cooperstown, N.Y., near the National Baseball Hall of Fame. ing options, including the
we broke up a nine-hour Associated Press can’t-miss Nicoletta’s Ital-
drive from Ann Arbor, Mich- sprawling and spectacular foot fly is a home run. When check out a game if you ian Cafe along with Sal’s
igan, to Cooperstown into 165-acre facility is surround- I saw that the first time, it can make it there before Pizzeria and Cooperstown
a two-day trip. We stopped ed by lush forests providing touched me and that’s the end of the month or Diner. Please do yourself a
for chicken wings at Duff’s a picturesque backdrop on tough to do at a sporting any other summer. favor and make a 5-minute
in Buffalo, spent a night in any one of 20-plus fields en- event for a sports writer It’ll give you a good excuse drive north of downtown,
the Finger Lakes region and closed by green, eight-foot who has been to thousands to check out a place un- to eat and or drink at The
visited Seneca Falls where walls. of games. like any other. Locals say Blue Mingo Grill. The res-
the women’s rights con- Cooperstown Dream Park The tears flowed, though, they love the fall when the taurant is in a boatyard on
vention was held in 1848. host 13 weeklong tourna- on another day when walk- leaves are changing col- 9-mile-long Otsego Lake
We were going to Cooper- ments each summer and ing to the National Base- ors on countless trees and and serves perhaps the
stown, naturally, for base- draws the country’s best ball Hall of Fame on Main crowds are smaller, so that best chowder west of New
ball. travel baseball teams from Street, which looks like a may be a great time to England.
I found out over the course as far away as Hawaii. It Norman Rockwell painting. getaway to this gem. MORE THAN BASEBALL
of a week there’s much brings in more than 500,000 It took some time for me GETTING THERE Two museums perched on
more to the one-stoplight visitors to a village with few- to pull it together before If it’s too far to drive, fly to waterfront property once
village than its No. 1 attrac- er than 2,000 year-round joining our team’s players, Albany, Binghamton or Syr- owned by author James
tion, the National Baseball residents. coaches, parents and sib- acuse and rent a car for a Fenimore Cooper who
Hall of Fame, which is truly The tournament has cre- lings for a wonderfully infor- 90-minute drive to Cooper- wrote “The Leatherstock-
a great shrine for the game. ated a unique culture in mative 30-minute talk with stown. ing Tales” series, are also
My son plays for a 12 years which it is common for an Baseball Hall of Fame di- WHERE TO STAY popular attractions. The
old-and-under travel base- infielder to extend a hand rector of communications We rented a spacious Fenimore Art Museum has
ball team, Michigan Blue for a competitor to slap Craig Muder. home with a spectacular a highly regarded Native
Jays Treat, that wrapped when rounding the bases Even if you don’t have a view of forests with trees American collection and
up its season at Cooper- after clearing the fences player to root for at Coo- so clumped together they the Farmers’ Museum puts
stown Dreams Park. The in a ballpark where a 200- perstown Dreams Park, looked like broccoli florets, visitors on an active farm.q

In this July 16, 2018 photo, baseball greats from the first class
inducted into National Baseball Hall of Fame are honored in
In this July 16, 2018 photo, baseball greats Babe Ruth, left, and Ted Williams are depicted at bat, the Plaque Gallery at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in
in statues at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. Cooperstown, N.Y.
Associated Press Associated Press