Schuster: Cooperstown's An Incredible Place

Where? Baseball's Hall Of Fame. It only took me a few decades more then I had hoped, but here I was in Cooperstown, N.Y.. Now let me start off by saying that Cooperstown is a quaint little town in upstate New York, and if it wasn't for the Hall of Fame you probably would never want to visit. But that being said, if you're a baseball fan this is indeed the mecca.

The place drips with memorabilia. And I got to see all the heroes of my childhood. Sandy Koufax's uniform in one corner and Hank Aaron's in another. And of course, all the local players who I watched on TV for years and who I have been fortunate to get to know in my adult years. The 1969 Cubs had so many Hall of Famers, and they're all represented: Banks, Williams, Jenkins and Santo.

And not to be left out from the other side of town, the White Sox have numerous displays with the 2005 World Series front and center. Jermaine Dye's uniform is encased, and why not? He was the MVP of that series after hitting .438 in the four-game sweep.

You could easily spend hours on end in the building, but it's just as much fun to walk up and down the street as there are countless paraphernalia shops competing against each other.

But maybe the biggest attraction in town this weekend (and every year for that matter) is Pete Rose signing autographs down the street. It's actually pretty funny because I saw almost as many pictures and displays of Rose as anybody else. It's rather hard to bypass his accomplishments. But sadly (to many), Rose himself is still not in the Hall.

All in all, it's a pretty cool place to visit, and this weekend the place will especially be hoping because three great players and three incredibly successful managers are being inducted.

It was a long wait to get here, but I'm darn glad I finally made my pilgrimage.