Home runs, and foul ball
Thank you for the fine articles about travel to Cooperstown, N.Y. [“Fall Classic,” by Chris Erskine, Sept. 27]. I went there 10 years ago for the spectacular Glimmerglass opera festival and saw all the baseball sights, visited the museums and art galleries and enjoyed the natural beauty of the area.
I still remember my excitement entering the main gallery of the Hall of Fame and seeing my childhood heroes commemorated: Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Duke Snider and Walter Alston, as well as many of their formidable opponents. I can assure you that being a lifelong baseball fan(atic) and being an opera buff are not mutually exclusive passions.
GLORIA VILLALOBOS MULLENDORE
Pasadena
:: I enjoyed the piece on Cooperstown and particularly the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Two years ago, I was a guest of the Hall as my greatgrandfather James “Deacon” White was inducted 123 years after his retirement as a player.
Fewer than 10% percent of the museum’s artifacts are on public display. Everything else, from the oldest, crude baseball to the gold record Abbott & Costello received for their “Who’s on First” routine, is there. Very few experiences in my life can compare with sitting in a rocking chair on the veranda of the Otesaga Resort Hotel and gazing out over the lake while Tommy Lasorda holds court 20 feet away, in an identical rocker, surrounded by fellow Hall of Fame members such as Eddie Murray, Johnny Bench, Don Sutton and Ozzie Smith.
They were laughing and trading memories. No one else was around.
I highly recommend visiting Cooperstown and the Hall. If you can swing it, try to get one of your relatives inducted. It enhances the experience immeasurably. JAMES B. JACKSON
Rainbow, Calif.
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Just because it’s Cooperstown, don’t let your guard down: In the early ’90s, I took my sons and some kids from the Big Brothers of Los Angeles program to the magical place. We loved it for all the reasons in Erskine’s article. We bought a Babe Ruth baseball card from what seemed a reputable place for $1,800 ($600 from each of my kids’ savings and the same from me). We said in 15 years we would sell it.
Fast forward 15 years, when we went to appraise it, we found it was a fake. I called the place and the Chamber of Commerce in Cooperstown. We were ignored repeatedly by both, so my praise for Cooperstown has an asterisk: “Let the buyer beware. Even here.” STEVE SOBOROFF
Los Angeles