Cooperstown’s Dead In Winter

I encountered few people as I visited the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown last week, a far different experience than visitors will encounter this summer.

Winter’s a great time to visit the Hall, but every season has tradeoffs. Cheaper hotel rates and no lines or crowds are perks. The downsides include cold weather, snow, and limited attractions. High temps in the teens shocked this lifelong Massachusetts resident.

Cooperstown and its surrounding communities have many attractions besides the Hall of Fame during tourist season, but they close for the winter. There’s a baseball wax museum, batting cage, retro arcade, bakery, nationally acclaimed cider mill, kayak/boat/fishing rod rentals, lake tours, and many sports memorabilia shops open during the summer. None of that, except a few shops, remain open in January, adding to the importance of hotel amenities. The hotel I like has a pool, hot tub, and versatile arcade machine that plays Pac-Man and Donkey Kong, among other classics.

Instead of watching the New England Patriots blow the top overall pick by beating the Buffalo Bills last Sunday, I visited the Hall and had a nice conversation with an employee. He told me that the Hall expects a record-breaking crowd on induction weekend later this year, thanks to Ichiro Suzuki, who will be the first Japanese and Asian player inducted. Ichiro has over 3000 MLB career hits. He’s also the record-holder for professional baseball hits since he spent nine seasons playing in Japan before coming to America.

About 80,000 people attended the 2007 induction ceremony when the Hall inducted Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn; the employee told me that around 100,000 could attend Ichiro’s induction, which he’ll likely share with CC Sabathia and Billy Wagner, plus Dave Parker and the late Dick Allen; Ichiro and Sabathia both spent some time with the Yankees, and Wagner was a Met for four years. Parker spent most of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Allen with the Philadelphia Phillies—and Pennsylvania neighbors New York. Philadelphia’s about the same distance from Cooperstown as the South Shore of Massachusetts, and I’ve visited the Hall three times since September. Even without Ichiro, those names and local connections likely warrant a solid draw. Add him, and they’ll have wealthy people from the other side of the world making the trip, alongside Seattle Mariners fans and Asian-Americans.

Acknowledging what a massive draw Ichiro will be, the Hall permanently closed its Sacred Ground exhibit, primarily dedicated to baseball stadiums and stadium culture. The Hall employee told me they’ll renovate that section and create something new that coincides with Ichiro’s induction—an exhibit dedicated to Japanese and Asian ballplayers. The museum already has exhibits about blacks, Latinos, and women in baseball.

As a Red Sox fan, I like the idea. Ichiro and Shohei Ohtani will likely receive the most glory from it as the first Asian Hall of Famer, and the best two-way player since Babe Ruth, but the Red Sox also had solid contributions from Japanese players. Daisuke Matsuzaka was a decent back-end starter for the 2007 World Series championship team, while All-Star Hideki Okajima excelled as a setup man. Daisuke even had a two-RBI single in the World Series. Six years later, Koji Uehara was arguably the best Red Sox closer of all time for the 2013 championship team, while Junichi Tazawa had a great season in relief. Throw in Hideo Nomo’s no-hitter and Takashi Saito’s prowess late in his career, among many other Japanese and Asian players in Red Sox history, and I’m excited to see it.

The Hall could honor great Nippon Professional Baseball players, like home run king Sadaharu Oh, MLB players who shined in Japan like Matt Murton and Wily Mo Peña, American-born Carter Stewart’s unconventional path to NPB, and highlight baseball in Japanese culture, including anime and video games. Yamcha is a pro baseball player in Dragon Ball Z; Casey is a huge baseball fan in Pokemon; and the Japanese video game series Power Pros released two great MLB video games in the late-2000s. They could recognize the Rakuten Monkeys of the Chinese Professional Baseball League for keeping us entertained during the Covid lockdown.

If I were a local shop owner, I’d spend the next six months trying to figure out how to make some money off this development. One card store I visited Sunday had a 2007 Topps Turkey Red Daisuke rookie card for sale for $2—a card I remember being worth $5, according to Beckett Magazine, when I was 10. Between that and the $1 Daisuke pennant I bought at another Cooperstown store in 2021 (likely in the store’s possession since 2007), maybe these stores can finally cash in on Matsuzakamania—18 to 19 years later.