The Hall of Fame

“I’ve been to a lot of museums in my day, but this one is the best. Apologies to the Smithsonian.” –Dayton Daily News.

Every baseball player dreams of being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Some of the games most prestigious athletes from Cy Young to the lonely Washington Senators star Walter Johnson, to Carlton Fisk of the 1975 Red Sox are members of the Hall of Fame. The first inductees were Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Walter Johnson and Christy Mathewson. However, now players who hit .200 but had only one great season or will forever be remembered for one specific moment in baseball history are now in the Hall of Fame. The shrine is open year round. Over 165,000 artifacts can be found there.

            The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was officially christened on June 12, 1939. On July 22, 1968 the National Baseball Library was opened there. In addition, there are other rooms dedicated to specific parts of baseball: The Records Room, No-Hitters, Umpires, Women in Baseball, Evolution of Equipment, Evolution of the Uniform, World Series, the African-American Baseball Experience, Baseball Around The World, and The Heart of Baseball. There is also a media room entitled, Hall of Fame's Timeline, which is a chronological history of baseball.

            There is an entire floor dedicated to Baseball Parks. Housed here are the actual grandstand seats, dugout benches and turnstiles. Some of the featured ballparks include the now demolished New York's Polo Grounds, Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, Pittsburgh's Forbes Field among others. The players that are eligible for election to the Hall of Fame next year are: André Dawson, Ozzie Smith, Alan Trammell. The Hall of Fame is a great place to visit, is full of historical artifacts, and is a lot more fun to go to than any other museum I can think of.