Hi everyone… Today we have such a special guest blogger I’m not even sure how to state the honor of it accurately. Let’s see… I’m wondering many times have I written the line “Our guest blogger today will be inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame this July.” Using both hands and our guest blogger’s “California math” I come up with the grand total of “this is the first time I’ve ever written that sentence.” And trust me, I’ve written a lot of sentences.
I present to you our Advisory Council member, Bert Blyleven. He has supplied this first-hand account of his recent trip to Cooperstown for his Hall of Fame orientation, and it’s a terrific inside view of what must be one of the great thrills any athlete can experience. Enjoy!
Bob Wilber
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OUR TRIP TO COOPERSTOWN FOR MY ORIENTATION
Monday, May 2, 2011
Good morning, as I sit at the Kansas City airport waiting for my 6:30am flight to leave for Detroit and then catch a flight to Albany, New York. Cooperstown is about an hour’s drive from Albany and someone is supposed to be there from the Hall of Fame to pick me up at about 2:00pm.
This is not the way that my wife Gayle and I planned our trip about 3 months ago!
Gayle and I were planning on meeting in Atlanta and fly together to Albany. But, we were informed by Delta, at 12:04am this morning, that our flight from Atlanta was cancelled to Albany. They booked me on the flight above and they booked Gayle on a flight leaving Fort Myers at 1:25pm through Minneapolis and then to Albany. She will be arriving about 10:30pm.
Guess things don’t always work out the way you plan. The Twins didn’t expect to have a 9-18 record to start off their season but it happens. Positive attitude, continued hard work, and hopefully their season will get brighter and more successful.
Anyway, we are really looking forward to visiting Cooperstown and finding out all the details what Induction Weekend will be all about in late July.
Since I was elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame in January it’s been a great ride. I waited 14 years to get that phone call the morning of January 5th. The first thing I did was hug and kiss Gayle and then I got on the phone to call my mother and our children. My mother was so happy and she told me maybe this is why they left Holland back in 1953, with 3 children, wanting to go to the United States. My mother saying that made me feel very proud!
Rob, a security guard for the Hall of Fame Museum, was waiting for me and he drove me to the Otesaga Hotel here in Cooperstown. The Otesaga Hotel first opened its doors in 1909. What a beautiful place overlooking the Otsego Lake! Breath taking!
After checking in I began my tour of Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum with Jeff Idelson, President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and his staff. I was actually very nervous walking around the Hall of fame Museum. This is the beginning of a new life: A Hall of Farmer! Jeff showed me around and introduced me to so many nice people.
I had dinner tonight with Jane Forbes Clark, Chairman for the Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, Jeff Idelson and some of their staff at the hotel. Great meal and I recommend the blackened prime rib.
About 9:00pm I rode with Roger, another security guard for Cooperstown, to Albany, which is about an hour drive, to pick Gayle up at the airport and then we headed back to Cooperstown. What a long day of flying for Gayle.
Tuesday, May 3
About 9:30am Gayle and I went to the Hall of Fame Museum and met with Brad Horn, head of Communications and Education and Whitney Selover, Director of Special Events and Travel. We went over the itinerary for the Induction Weekend in July. We also had a chance to walk through the Museum and see all the history of the game of baseball.
I was particular interested in the way the baseball had changed over the years. When the game was first played over 200 years ago, there were town teams that maybe had only 1 or 2 baseballs for a game. Also each town team had their own rules and before another team came to play them, the other team would have to play by their rules. Each home team was responsible for supplying a baseball and some teams may have had only 2 or 3 baseballs. These baseballs were hand made by some of the players on the team and they came in all different sizes. They were all round but a lot softer then the baseballs used today. Some didn’t even have seams and others had 4 seams that were formed like a bulb. Baseballs were very hard to make because of the time and yarn that it took to make one. A foul ball was always returned to the playing field. When you visit Cooperstown you have to see for yourself.
We were invited to have lunch at a great restaurant called Alex & Ika’s, right next to the Museum. Many of the staff joins us along with MLB.com writer Barry Bloom. We had a great lunch.
After walking through the Museum, Gayle and I got an opportunity to go downstairs to the museum artifacts, with Erik Strohl, Senior Director of Exhibitions and Collections. There we put on white gloves and were shown things that weren’t displayed, at the time, in the Museum. We got to hold a Babe Ruth bat, gloves that Christy Mathewson, Walter Johnson and Bob Feller used. We also got to hold up a jersey that Cy Young wore and the sweater that Walter Johnson wore with the Washington Senators. What an honor it was to see and actually hold these historical items.
We then went back to the first floor and went into the “Wall of Plaques” room. This is where my Hall of Fame plaque will be hanging with all the other men in the Hall of Fame after my induction on July 24. I am very proud to be in the same Hall as other Twins Hall of Fame players; Harmon Killebrew, Rod Carew and Kirby Puckett. I went to all their plaques and gave them a high five.
One more event after that at the Museum and that was getting the opportunity to meet the entire staff here in Cooperstown. The staff had a beautiful cake for us and they all welcomed us to their family. Gayle and I met some great people who are dedicated to continue making the Hall of Fame Museum the success it has been since 1939.
About 5:00pm Gayle and I went back to the Otesaga Hotel to change so we could get ready to go and have a private dinner at Jane Forbes Clark’s Estate. We were joined again by the great people at the Hall of Fame: Jeff Idelson, his wife Erika, Bill Haase, Senior VP, Brad Horn, Erik Strohl, Whitney Selover and Evan Chase, Security Director. Another great meal with great people and Jane Clark was a excellent host. What a beautiful Estate she has and her house was so open and cozy.
When Gayle and I got back to the hotel, I checked on the Twins score and noticed in the 6th inning that the Twins were winning 1-0 and that Francisco Liriano had not given up a hit yet! On goes the TV has we watched Liriano no-hit the White Sox. We were very excited for him to accomplish this feat. His no-hitter is the 242nd Major League no-hitter in the history of baseball. Brad Horn called me and informed me that he had already asked the Twins if the museum could get a souvenir from his game to display here in Cooperstown. Good for Francisco and the Twins. They needed that win.
Congratulations Francisco!
Wednesday, May 4
I had a chance to play golf today but it has been raining for the last two days here and it’s been very cold. I woke up at 7:00am to get ready just in case it stopped. I met Jeff Idelson and Bill Haase for breakfast downstairs and we all decided that it wasn’t a good day to play. But the breakfast and company was great!
Gayle and I decided to go back to the museum to do a little shopping and go over our guest list for our family and friends for the Induction Weekend in July. Gayle and I are very happy that we were able to get this into the hands of Whitney, who will now contact all our family and friends and make sure their visit here is successful. Thank you Whitney for all your help. You are the best.
Before shopping though, Whitney took Gayle and I to the 6-bedroom house that we are renting, for 4 nights, for our children, who are attending the Induction Weekend. The house is right next to Lake Otsego with a beautiful view. After they see this house they may not want to go to any of the events during the weekend. They might stay there and blow us off!
Now, it’s time to go shopping! Something that I love! Not! Anyway, we walked back to the Museum and Gayle went crazy! It was a good crazy though because she got a lot of great things that have the Hall of Fame logo for some friends and us. Gayle is always so thoughtful and, believe me, when I say that she is always thinking of others first.
We walked back toward the hotel and stopped to have lunch. It seems like every store has a baseball theme for the name of their store. We ate at Double Day Café.
After lunch we walked back to the hotel and almost froze. Being from Florida our blood is thin so the 3-block walk back seemed like 5 miles. But we made it back OK.
Got back to the room and got the final 2 innings of the Twins 3-2 win over the White Sox. The Twins won both games that I missed doing the games! Maybe I should stay here longer rather then meeting the team in Boston on Friday? Nice job Ron Coomer, helping announce a no-hitter and 2 straight Twins wins. Tough act to follow!
Our evening was free to just relax at the hotel and time for us to catch up with our sleep. We had a great dinner at the hotel and some needed sleep.
Thursday, May 5
Today is our last day here in Cooperstown until July. Gayle and I went back to the Museum and we met Brad Horn. He asked me yesterday if I would like to sit down and have a discussion with some of the baseball fans, which were attending the Museum today and talk baseball. I said that I would love to.
I had a great time taking the game of baseball with so many nice people from all over the country who were visiting. They were like kids in a candy store. Just like Gayle and I.
We headed back to the Otesaga Hotel for the last time on this trip. We are all packed and ready for our long ride to Boston to get back to my job of announcing Twins games. A car service picked us up and we are off.
Gayle and I want to thank the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum for making us feel like family. We learned so much about what to expect for my induction into the Hall of Fame. So many wonderful people we met and we can’t wait to see them all again in late July. They all made us feel so welcome beyond words.
We hope you enjoyed this article and will check out my website in more detail. We are in the process of adding our other site, www.circlemebert.com, to announce a new line of apparel that Gayle has come up with through this site. Please check it out once it’s ready to go up.
Also check out my autographed column for your opportunity to get my autograph on different baseball items. I hope to write more columns for our sites in the near future.
We are adding some pictures we took in Cooperstown for your enjoyment.
Have a great day and thank you for being baseball fans.
You are all “Hereby Circled”
Bert Blyleven