The Baseball Hall of Fame opened on this day back in 1939. I have been to Cooperstown 5 times but its been 20 years since I’ve been there. A trip is overdue. Cooperstown is picturesque,  great little town to have the Hall of Fame in. You feel like you have gone back in time when you are there. The Hall of Fame itself is tremendous well worth the 10 hour drive it takes me to get there. Cooperstown is out of the way. No interstate highway runs past it.  It’s not  a place where the curious stop on the way to somewhere else, it’s a destination. Kind of reminds me of Shiloh Battlefield in Tennessee. Only people who are into the Civil War go out of their way to visit Shiloh. I live an hour and a half from the Football Hall in Canton. It’s nice but I haven’t been there in 15 years. If I lived an hour and a half from Cooperstown I’d be there a few times a year.

My main beef with the Baseball Hall of Fame is some of the players that are in the Hall and some that are not.  The latest thing to anger me is the election of Ron Santo this year into the Hall of Fame. I think he should be in. He was the best thirdbaseman in the National League in the 1960’s. For 15 years he didn’t get enough votes from the baseball writers. For 9 seasons the Veteran’s Committee didn’t put him in. Ron Santo died 18 months ago. This year he will go into the Hall of Fame. His playing career ended in 1975. It took them that long to decide he was a Hall of Famer and the tragedy is he is no longer alive to enjoy his moment.

I think something needs to be done with the Hall of Fame. Bill James [who should be in the Hall of Fame for his contributions} in a book years ago suggested something like a pyramid. Different levels of Hall of Fame-going from a Level 1-which would be the players who lets face it are questionable- to a level 5 for the few all time greats-the Ruth’s, Ted Williams, Ty Cobb etc. I will write more on Baseball Hall of Fame in the future.