Baseball Museum 8: Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame

We went to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame back on June 26, 2009, on our way to the campground in the Toronto area. Well, it was not exactly on the way, as the distance from it to the campground was about the same as the distance from Niagara Falls to the campground and it took three hours to get there from Niagara Falls. Anyways it was a very worthwhile detour and the only baseball thing that was enjoyable in Canada. In fact it was an even better overall experience, although there was not as many things to look at, than the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is really small. The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame at Great American Ballpark is actually at least twice as big as the Canadian one and that one is just about one team. It is about the same size as the part of the San Diego Hall of Champions devoted to baseball, but that is just for one city and not one country. It is not that the museum does not have enough stuff to make a bigger museum, as they way they are they have quite a lot crowded on display, but just that baseball is not that big of a thing in Canada and they do not have the resources to have a larger exhibit space.

The Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame is located inside a house tucked back in a mostly residential area of the small town of St. Mary’s in Ontario, Canada. The house is adapted to have a ramp up to it, so it is just as accessible as a regular museum building. It is a little cramped inside, but only because they have so much they want to display at one time (by the way they try to rotate what is on display regularly) and have such limited space. It may be to the point of almost cluttered, but there was still adequate space for Mik to go through it. Also, the bathroom is very accessible, as it is the original one from when it was just a residential house with the tub removed. For such a small museum it is amazingly accessible and part of why it was so disappointing to see the lack of consideration for wheelchair in the Rogers Centre accessible seating rows.

There are only two rooms in the museum, but there is plenty of interesting things to discover. One of the things that caught Mik’s attention was an old pitching machine, which had an interesting sign about how a similar one was actually used as the pitcher in a college baseball game once. Other things included some Babe Ruth memorabilia and info on his connection to Canada, such as hitting his first professional home run in Toronto. There was also some Jackie Robinson things, as he played for the Montreal Royals Minor League team before debuting in the Majors.

Induction Weekend was the weekend before we visited, so they had some exhibits on this year’s inductees, such as Ernie Whitt and Larry Walker. They also had some other recent memorabilia, such as things from the Canadian team playing in the Beijing 2008 Olympics and the ’09 World Baseball Classic.

Overall the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame was a lot of fun to visit. There was a good amount of items to see and it was interesting to the Canadian connection to MLB, which has increasingly become almost exclusively in the United States, but used to have more of its teams (i.e. Montreal Expos) and Minor League teams in Canada. Also, the one employee there was very knowledgeable not only about the things in the museum, but also Canadian baseball history and general baseball history as well. It was so nice after visiting places like the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site that had people that barely knew the script for showing the site to have a person that knew a lot about the place and also had passion about it. By the way I was impressed from the start when I noticed a little sign about the history of the house the museum is located in.

Day 36: Niagara Falls Videos

Finally have a good enough Internet connection to upload a few of the videos I took of Niagara Falls. The first one is of the American Falls seen from the Observation Deck. The other is of Horseshoe Falls.

Day 41: Cooperstown - Birthplace of Baseball

Today was spent in Cooperstown, New York, where the legend/myth says baseball began in 1839. We mostly spent the day at the National Baseball Hall of Fame. We also had lunch at a little basement restaurant in town. Before heading back to camp we browsed some souvenir shops.

Browsing the shops was worthwhile as we are now back up-to-date with team stickers on the car, but at the same time kind of disappointing. They have a lot of cool baseball memorabilia with my favorite being the baseball cards, but pretty much nothing Nationals related. One shop did have some Ryan Zimmermann cards, but just plain rookie type ones. I really wanted one of the game used piece of jersey or bat type ones, but there was no player worthwhile in my opinion. Sure there were some well-known guys, but no Nats. Anyways, it was still fun looking at all the cards.

We are now back at camp and I do not have the patience for the slow Internet here, but I have plenty of posts ready to cut and paste to add photos to and post. I hope I get good Internet tomorrow on the road. At least we should get good Internet tomorrow night, as we are staying in a hotel outside New York City.

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Day 37: Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum

On June 25, 2009, after going to the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural National Historic Site we headed to the town of North Tonawanda to see the Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum. This museum only cost $5 per person. It was totally worth the price compared to the Theodore Roosevelt site in Buffalo that without Mik’s access pass would have cost us $10 a person ($5 for Mik’s age) and had very little to see or even learn about.

The Herschell Carrousel Factory Museum is a rather small museum, but it is really well done. The museum is housed in the factory where the Herschell company once made the carrousels and other early amusement park rides. The self-guided tour begins in a room that has a carving station where demonstrators sometimes work live to show how the early carrousel horses were carved. No one was working when we were there, but they did have some pieces that are part of the process of carving a carrousel horse on display, such as legs and bodies. They also had a video showing how the carvers worked.

One part of the room that has the carving display has a display on Wurlitzer organs. According to Dad this is a famous organ brand, but of course I have not ever heard of them, however if you know me then you know I know nothing about the particulars of anything music related and can rarely even tell you who sings my favorites songs. It was an interesting display about the making of the Wurlitzer organs with a main focus on the drums for the automatic ones, such as the ones that were put in Carrousels. They even had a video showing the making of the organs.

The next part of the museum is a room with some of the carrousel designs the company made. This room is technically the second one to go through, but you do go through it on the way to the first room on the self-guided tour. This room tells the history of the company and the carrousels creatures. One of the interesting things I learned here is that the carrousel animals were usually elaborate on the side that was seen from the outside of the carrousel and the side that faced the middle was more plain.

On display are mostly horses, but they have some other animals including a rooster, a dog, a pig, the rare ostrich, and a zebra with a painted saddle. Interestingly the zebra model was originally made without a saddle because it was thought of as a wild animal and should be ridden saddleless (somehow the same thought did not apply to kangaroos, frogs, ostriches, etc.), however after most patrons refused to ride the saddleless zebra owners of carrousels often painted the saddle on it and people would then ride it.

In the hallway that leads to a big 1916 carrousel has some other kiddie rides the company made including a roller coaster. The room next to it is for young kids and includes a lot of things to entertain young kids including a kiddie carrousel.

Admission to the museum includes one ride on the carrousel per person. Being a 1916 carrousel it was not accessible and Mik was not interested in even being put on the bench part to ride on it, so just Dad and I went on it. It was fun to ride it. What was really cool is that the middle is open, so you can see the organ and such that is usually surrounded by panels.

Smashed Pennies: Niagara Falls

At Niagara Falls the other day we found a smashed penny machine near the visitor’s center that had a movie theater and a food court. I choose the design with the Rainbow Bridge that also said Niagara Falls State Park. Mik was busy eating some rainbow sherbet, so I choose for him. I got him the design with the Nikola Tesla statue.

Kj’s Baseball Collection: Niagara Falls

One would think that getting a baseball at Disneyland was as far as my non-baseball sightseeing stops part of the trip collection would go, but it is not. I actually was not surprised to find one at Disneyland, as Mik got me one from there once when he went on a camp trip to California. Finding one at the Maid of the Mist gift shop at Niagara Falls, however, really surprised me. At first Dad thought they only had the tee ball soft ones, but then he picked up one in the basket below an it was a hard regular baseball. While we did not actually go on the Maid of the Mist boat ride I just could not pass up getting this ball for my trip baseball collection. Besides it does still show Niagara Falls.

The ball says Niagara Falls on one side. It has a picture image of the bottom of the falls that includes the shoreline and the Maid of the Mist boat near the falls. Another side has a closer view of the Maid of the Mist boat. Opposite that is the Maid of the Mist Since 1846 logo.

Car Sticker Update: Pittsburgh Pirates

The Pittsburgh Pirates sticker Dad ended up choosing was an all white colored one. It is the Pirate crossed bats logo that says Pirates.