Cooperstown: Ride of a lifetime

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (Map, News) - The town’s red open-air trolleys motored visitors up and down the streets of Cooperstown throughout induction weekend. On the eve of the induction ceremony, those same trolleys transported Hall of Famers and former players to the National Baseball Hall of Fame for a private red-carpet reception.

My husband, Ken Singleton, and I rode on one, thrilled to sit several seats behind Willie Mays and Harmon Killebrew, both in the Hall of Fame.

As the vehicle exited the Otsego Hotel’s gates, flashbulbs immediately lit up the summer night as hundreds of people lined the street in parade-like fashion. Video cameras scanned right to left as we passed. Orioles and Padres and Cooperstown T-shirts covered torsos everywhere. Fans’ necks stretched to glimpse who this particular trolley carried. Though the darkness hid the two legends, the crowd cheered in general, knowing a baseball "somebody" was inside.

The closer we inched to 25 Main St., the more boisterous the cheers, and the number of faces grew to a few thousand. It was dream-like. It was surreal.
It was the ride of a lifetime.

The last time I experienced such a baseball-related "rush" like this was during Cal Ripken Jr.’s 2,131 game at Camden Yards in 1995. Over 45,000 fans screamed and chanted for No. 29 as Ken was introduced onto the field and I was escorted to the Orioles dugout to watch Cal accept the attention. Ken may be accustomed to that kind of head-spinning exhilaration, having been on baseball fields for decades, but I’m not.

So here we are 12 years later dressed to the nines preparing to enter the Hall of Fame. After Mays and Killebrew stepped off the trolley and were introduced by the outdoor emcee, the rest of us walked the red carpet with dozens of TV cameras rolling, and entered the glass doors.

There we spent the evening in the "shrine" of the museum among many Hall of Famers, a sprinkling of movie stars, and long walls of bronze plaques symbolizing each inductee.

Of any Hall of Famer for Ken to have had the pleasure of following into the museum, Willie Mays tops the list — his all-time favorite player. In Mays’ company, Ken was in his baseball glory.

“On a baseball field,” Ken said, “Mays could do anything. When I see him, it takes me back to my childhood.”

It is rare I witness my husband as an admiring fan. Usually the table is turned. Yet on this special evening, Ken was transfixed to baseball’s past in a different era. As he said to the kids the next day, "It meant a lot to Dad to see those guys."

His pride and love of the game burst through as he introduced me one by one to the greats: Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, Wade Boggs, Carlton Fisk, Frank Robinson, Lou Brock, Joe Morgan, Rod Carew, Gary Carter, and a parade of others, including one of the newest, Tony Gwynn.

Ken considers himself blessed to have played with, and against, many of these men.

A party bonus presented itself when actor Richard Gere introduced himself to Ken, commenting on how he enjoys watching him broadcast the New York Yankees games.

The reception was an adrenaline-pumping event — quite thrilling. It has been exciting over the years to be a small part of the making of baseball history where Cal, the other newest Hall of Famer, was concerned: attending his 2,130 tie-breaking game, the 2131 record-breaker, and watching No. 8 take his final bow in an Oriole uniform six years ago.

To add to our Cal-related list, we are lucky to count Cooperstown 2007 as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Ken has the added honor of saying he was Cal’s teammate for three seasons, when the rookie first buttoned up his Baltimore Orioles jersey.

For this Cal fan — and every other — indeed it has been the “gr8test” ride of a lifetime.

Suzanne Molino Singleton is a freelance writer and editor, and staff writer for The Catholic Review newspaper. She can be reached at MrsSingy@SuzanneSingleton.com. Her husband, retired Oriole Ken Singleton, is a TV broadcaster for the New York Yankees on the YES Network.

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