We’re coming close to Opening Day

The baseball season starts Monday. I’m ready for some real New York Mets action on the flat screen. For now, though, I’ll admire the quite reasonable souvenirs I purchased on my dear wife Karen and I’s trip to Cooperstown this winter. The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum store has a wall of postcards featuring…

How do you top off a five-beer afternoon?

Well satisfied from our five craft beers served in the Brewery Ommegang sampling, my dear wife Karen and I got to peruse the goods in the souvenir store for just a few moments before the red lights started flashing to signal that our table for a late lunch in the adjoining cafe was ready. There’s…

A sample of Ommegang goes down well

Brewery Ommegang is expanding. Popular this Cooperstown craft beer brand is. I’d been to the rolling hill a few miles outside the village while I worked covering the music scene for the big daily. Cool promoter Dan Small puts on a warm weather series using the natural amphitheater behind the brewing operation and cafe. But…

Meet the Mets? Just go to the Hall of Fame

Of course I know the lyrics to the song Meet the Mets. It’s been playing in my brain since the early 1960s when Jane Jarvis would play it on the Shea Stadium organ and the crowd would be coaxed to sing along “bring your kiddies, bring your wife, guaranteed to have the time of your…

So much baseball has hit my senses

I started following baseball before kindergarten. No kidding. So when I consider exhibits from the Hall of Fame and Museum that cover my lifetime, yes, I must include the striking photograph of great Pittsburgh Pirate and humanitarian Roberto Clemente. He had 3,000 hits, sure. Of greater importance, the native of San Juan, Puerto Rico, died…

A must for baseball fans of all ages

I closed my eyes and imagined … They wore those uniforms. They hit that ball, swung that bat. They were the heroes of so many throughout the world. Put your favorite baseball dream at the start of each sentence, and you’re likely to find it at the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown.…

Pete Rose, the sight of you makes me sad, and a bit angry

As all of baseball returns to the diamonds across America today to commence the races for division titles and wild cards and the playoffs that will lead us to the World Series, I’d like to take one more deep All-Star Break breath and ponder Pete Rose with you all. Yeah, the American League team will…