Travel Tuesday/Post #1500

So here we are. My 1,500th blog post. Wow!

I struggled with what to post for this milestone. After much thought, I decided a "Travel Tuesday" works. So....here we are "traveling" to the Baseball Hall of Fame.

My Mr. planned a birthday weekend trip for me to visit the HOF last summer. It was all I imagined and then some. It was amazing to look at artifacts that players had worn/used.

Two weeks before we were headed to Cooperstown, they had a 4 foot snow. So, we were a little nervous headed out, BUT most of the snow was gone. It rained and snowed a couple of inches over the weekend but we didn't let it put a damper on things.

The view from our hotel room:

The views were pretty

The locker collections [for all the teams] are awesome!

 Kerry Wood's jersey:

 Yosh Kawano's hat:

 

 

I am not a Mark McGwire fan but there was a display of the home run battle between he & Sammy Sosa in 1998. It was very cool!

 

 

 

 Just hanging out with Benny...

 

This represents Ted Williams' batting averages in the different areas of the strike zone.

This alone made me giddy before I even walked into "the hall". And when I did, it took my breath away!

We literally had it all to ourselves which was wonderful!

Ready for the Class of 2017:

(signed here are: Jeff Bagwell; Ivan Rodriguez; and John Schuerholz)

[Bagwell had been there Tuesday & Wednesday before we got there and Tim Raines was there the Tuesday & Wednesday after we were there]

Some of the plaques:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite baseball guy!

 

This was a fun little display

 

 

After we got done with our tour of the Hall, we went out to the Cooperstown Bat Company factory and watched them turn bats. THAT was really cool! (sorry, no pictures of the actual turning)

 Turned bats waiting to be finished:

One more thing off my bucket list. Plus, it was nice to get away with my Mr. and go on a couple other adventures (I will post those next week).

 

Is this heaven?

No - it's Opening Night at Wrigley Field after they won the World Series!

Opening Night? How is that possible?

Well, last Wednesday afternoon, my Mr. texted and said "Do you want to go to Opening Night? I can get you a ticket." (insert heart palpitation here)  Umm - yes! So he jumped before it was gone.

I don't think I have stopped smiling since then.

Sunday, because he did the ticket as "will call" - we had to run into Wrigley to pick it up.

It was a gorgeous day - sunny, breezy but mid 70s. Ahhhh!!!!! We got to check out The Park and the new construction - it looks really nice.

I worked Monday morning, went home, changed and got my butt on the road. It took almost two hours to get to the parking lot but I made it and got in line for the shuttle to Wrigley. As I stood waiting, a quick downpour came through. My jeans and shoes were soaked but I am sure that smile stayed on my face! I got on the bus, which had an electric atmosphere and got dropped at the gate. The whole neighborhood was packed!

(I really had to keep from dancing around)

I walked around the ballpark and went to find my seat. My mom texted me to say one of the news helicopters had flown over the lot where I had parked and it was overflowing and the people lined up for the buses was forever long.  

I knew it was one of the new bullpen boxes but didn't realize it was almost ON the field. It was an awesome perspective of the field.

(I hate having my picture taken)

I enjoyed taking in the atmosphere and "smelling" baseball. All the hairs on the back of my neck kept standing up.

They pushed off the flag raising ceremony because of "incoming weather". Then Mr. texted and said "You will have rain about 7:30 then it should be clear"

Let me tell you about the rain. It was a monsoon! It was the huge, painful raindrops. I sat in my seat (with the couple in the row behind me) with my poncho on and watched the water running through the stands and down my poncho. Then it lightening-ed (I might have made that word up) and they told us to go under cover. (sigh...) Now my seat is going to be wet. Well everyone was in the concourse already and there was no room for anyone else, so I stood in the rain anyway.

While they readied the field after the rain, they played David Ross' dance on Dancing with the Stars and that place went NUTS!!!! The roar was deafening and any critique by the judges brought loud BOOOOs!

Then they played Game 6 of the NLCS vs. the Dodgers. When Joe Buck's voice came over the speakers, there was a HUGE boo from the crowd, but it was so much fun to re-watch it.

So at about 8:15 they started team introductions, the anthem and the flag raising. It was AWESOME! I seriously can not even describe all my emotions during those events. I yelled and cheered through introductions; was shocked by the fireworks during the anthem and cried through raising the 2016 pennant and championship flags. When they came back on the field with the World Series trophy - I bawled like a baby. (I'm not happy to admit that, but it was just so cool.)

1907 flag raised by Ryne Sandberg:

 1908 flag raised by Fergie Jenkins:

 

2016 NL Pennant raised by Billy Williams:

The 2016 World Series pennant raised by the 2017 Cubs:

A little after 9:00 PM (Central time), the game finally started. And it was a good game!

The game ended in the bottom of the 9th on a walk off single by Anthony Rizzo.

**Please note the Midwestern weather: I left the house at 2:00, carrying my sweatshirt and poncho with a temperature of 75. I sat in my seat in the stadium at 5:15 and got a face full of lake wind. By game time it was 40 degrees and the wind was blowing in and everyone's breath could be seen. Hello again, Old Man Winter.

The Dodgers left fielder caught a ball right in front of me. My Mr. texted me and said "You look cold". Yes, sir - I sure was!

I was wet and cold when the game was over but it was SO worth it! Thank you honey for the ticket and an awesome night!

Misc pics:

 Team back on the field with the World Series trophy:

 A view of the field from my seat:

 Ben Zobrist:

 CUBS WIN!!!!

The game ended Tuesday, at 12:40 a.m.

The good thing (besides the "W"!) was that there was hardly anyone left by the end of the game. It was a breeze walking out of the stadium and got right on the bus, back to the lot.

The not so good thing was it was really foggy on my drive home. I called Mr. and talked to him for a while to stay awake. I pulled in the driveway at 2:15 a.m. That 6:00 alarm went off WAY too soon!!!!

But again - SO worth it!