Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Doubleday Field

In Cooperstown there is a field called Doubleday Field that is on the site that they say Abner Doubleday basically invented baseball back in 1839. Mik wanted to find a mini bat that said Doubleday Field. At Cooperstown Bats we found a medium sized and big bat that said Doubleday Field, but no mini bat. We talked with them a little and worked out they could put part of the logo from the medium bat design on a mini bat, so Mik ended up with a special order mini bat that we picked up a half hour later as his Doubleday Field mini bat. It was not even that expensive, as it was about the same as the mini bat he got personalized at the Louisville Slugger Factory.

The mini bat has the Cooperstown Bats logo on it. The Doubleday Field logo says Doubleday Field, Cooperstown, N.Y., The Home of Baseball. There is also a C logo with a batter.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: 2008 Hall of Fame Induction

Mik got a second bat at the National Baseball Hall of Fame because they had a special bag of goodies for only $8 that included this mini bat, a postcard, a ice cream helmet with the museum logo, and two 2008 pins. The bat is gold colored. It has the 2008 induction logo on it which includes the names of the 2008 class (Gossage, Dreyfus, Kuhn, O'Malley, Southworth, and Williams).

Kj's Baseball Collection: Gold 2009 Hall of Fame Induction

At the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum I got a baseball commemorating the 2009 inductees. The ball is colored gold. It has a logo for the 2009 induction. It has the names under the logo (Gordon, Henderson, Rice). On the other side it says July 26, 2009, Cooperstown, N.Y. The other part of the ball has the three inductees signature logos.

Mik's Mini Bat Collection: Brown National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

At the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum Mik choose the dark brown colored bat. It has the logo of the Hall of Fame in gold colored ink.

Baseball Museum 9: National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

On Monday, June 29, 2009, we visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, New York. It is not a bad museum and definitely a must see for any baseball fan, however, the overall experience is not as good as visiting the small Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. There is of course a lot more to see, which is one thing that makes it better than the Canadian one. However, the fact that there is not much staff around the exhibits and none that seemed any where near as knowledgeable about baseball as the one at the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame and their better up-to-date exhibits makes them on equal grounds of worth visiting in our opinion.

We started our visit to the Hall of Fame by seeing the movie on the second floor. The movie theater is made to be like a baseball stadium. It is pretty cool, but its handicap seating is not that great. There is not an actual spot to roll the chair into, so Mik just sat in front of the seating with the wheelchair logos on them. Not horrible, but rather odd. The movie really is not all that special, but I did like how giant baseball cards were slowly lit up and revealed hanging from the ceiling at the end.

After the movie we began moving through the second floor of the museum, which is organized in a time line way from the 19th century through to today's game. There is plenty of interesting things to see, but the going through it was extremely slow due to the amount of people slowly moving by the exhibits. It was especially hard with Mik because we would be waiting patiently for room to move up to the exhibit and then people would squeeze into the small spots that he could not fit into and making it take forever for enough room to clear to get up to the display cases. This really ruined the whole experience and part of why even though there are a lot of things to see here it is not as worthwhile as the few things that are easy to see due to few people being at the Canadian Hall of Fame. Anyways it is still pretty interesting to see the artifacts related to the history of baseball even though a lot of the information I have read in books before. At least they do have the information along with the artifacts, which is what the Negro Leagues Museum was not very good at. By the way the Negro Leagues exhibit here is pathetic in comparison to that museum. Sure it has all the important information, but it is mostly walls of words with very few artifacts.

The third floor of the museum had some of the more interesting things, but it is also what ruined the credibility of the museum. Sorry, but it is hard not to wonder what inaccuracies they made me believe when the ballpark exhibit called Sacred Grounds is not just a few months out of date by saying Yankee Stadium is still in use, but years out of date by also frequently referring to the Dbacks Chase Field as Bank One Ballpark. Sure I still often call it the BOB, but that is out of remembering it once being called that and that type of inaccuracy does not belong in a museum that can keep the active leader stats up-to-date every week.

Besides the Ballpark exhibit not being that great there is plenty of interesting things worth seeing on the third level. Mik really liked the wall of balls from no-hit games that have been pitched since the late-1930s. I enjoyed seeing the pins from almost all the World Series. Also, interesting was the display of baseball cards through the years.

The last part of the museum we visited was the first floor, where the actual Hall of Fame is located. Also, behind the hall of fame is a small exhibit on reporters and announcers. There is also an exhibit on Baseball Movies, which includes props from various movies and trailers playing on a television in the exhibit.

Car Sticker Update: Toronto Blue Jays

The sticker we got at the Blue Jays says Toronto and below it is a Blue Jays J Jay logo.

Accessibility Review: Rogers Centre

The lack of thought towards accessibility should have been obvious from the start, but it did not really set in until we were shown were our seats actually were. The parking garage located on one side of the Rogers Centre had only one handicap spot available when we got there (not sure if they had any more as they are marked on the ground and totally unrecognizable when parked in). We were then informed that they do not have an elevator and we had to walk up the car ramp that goes in and out of the garage. Not too bad, but it is quite a hill, and they did at least actively tell us where to park without us asking where the handicap spots were and also right away told us how to get out of the garage.

Out of the parking garage we ended up at the hotel corner of the Rogers Centre. From there we could not walk to the right because there were stairs. Thus we went to the left up a ramp to try to get to Gate 7, which was the entrance gate marked on our ticket. We again ended up at steps outside Gate 3 and thus could not get to Gate 7. However, Gate 3 is a handicap entrance only and the elevators are right there, so that worked out. Going into the game we had no problem with the elevators, as it was not a general public entrance. At the end of the game, however, as usual one group of elevators were filled before we got on and we almost did not get on that one because a pushy guy with a kid in a stroller tried to get in front of Mik, but Dad was aggressive back and we squished into that load.

When we got up to the 100 level we easily found section 112, where we originally had tickets. However, the handicap seats were nowhere to be found. We asked an usher and she showed us to the concourse and pointed to here are your seats and began to set out two chairs right there on the concourse. There are no markings or anything, but this is what the Canadian $9 handicap seats are. It was basically just as bad as at Dodger Stadium, but at least not so expensive. However, the real issue is that they have a fence of vertical bars right in front (see example in above photos) making it impossible for someone seated (i.e. in a wheelchair) to see the game except by leaning forward and peering through the cracks. Basically they are standing room type seats and you actually need to stand to see the game. Right away we decided this was not going to work and went to see if we could upgrade. Later we found this seating area was full of a wheelchair group along with being crowded with people standing.

The seats we actually ended up with were in section 120. They are also on the concourse, but they are set apart and actually have the seats number and such. The seats were located right behind home plate and were about as good as the Cubs tickets, but for a crap team like the Blue Jays who do not even come anywhere near filling up their stadium it is sad that we were forced to pay Canadian $49 per ticket just to see the game from a wheelchair section. The guy said they have some in the upper section, but they are supposedly worse just because they are all the way at the top. However, they looked better than the tickets we originally had and would have been better than feeling ripped off and being upsold to these seats.

Sitting in section 120 was not horrible, but it also was not worth the price. First of all they are the most expensive seats at the game and the same price as those right on the field in that section, so it is kind of a rip off that you cannot pay that much and actually be right up by the field with a wheelchair. The view was great with the whole field visible and the bar in front not getting in the way of viewing the game. I thought the glass panel above the bar might be an issue, but it was not and unless you really zoom in on the photos you probably will not even notice that half the photo of the whole field is being viewed through the glass. Mik, of course, was disappointed in there being no cup holders, but he was not mad because the regular section also lacked them. The biggest issue, however, was that there was a lot of people standing behind the section making it a maze to get out of the seats and onto the concourse to get stuff. Of further annoyance was that the fans frequently did not pay attention to the yellow line and crowded oue section including a man that kept getting food and drinks for his kids in the row below us and passing it down to them by almost coming right in front of us, which blocked the view of first base and the outfield. This is something that could easily be fixed if they had a rope behind every part of the handicap section, as our part was the only one that lacked that, or at least put an usher there.

Overall I was very disappointed at the experience at the Rogers Centre. It was not as bad as Dodger Stadium, as the overall atmosphere was not quite as bad as at the Dodger game and the ushers we did encounter were friendly here. It is, however, the worst accessible park we have been to so far. It is also entirely unacceptable because it is a fairly new park. The thing that really gets me is they have the nerve to sell those Canadian $9 wheelchair seats that are impossible to see the game from. I will never again go here with Mik and actually sit in the Rogers Centre.

So how would I do it instead? Well, the Rogers Centre is quite unique. It has a hotel and a Hard Rock Café in it that do not offer access to the rest of the Centre (i.e. team shop, concourses, concessions, the field). The hotel and Hard Rock do however offer great outfield views of the game. One possibility is to get a table at the Hard Rock Café right up against the windows that overlook the park and watch the game that way. However, I do not really like the Hard Rock, so that would be sort of a waste of money like the $49 seats are. The hotel option sounds like it could be great, as it would just like having a suite. Mik thought it would be cool because he could watch television or do something else if he was not into the game. It might not be a cheap hotel, but that would certainly be a worth it type expense for an accessible way of enjoying the game.