Ithaca=gorges

The town slogan - Ithaca is gorges - makes for an easy-to-overuse pun. And overuse it I did last weekend, during a quick trip to Ithaca.

The gorges in question are a few deeply-cut waterways on the edges of town. Not far on the edges, either - one of them ends in a waterfall about three blocks from the house where we were staying, which was itself just three blocks from the center of Ithaca's downtown.

Beyond the gorges, Ithaca itself is a quirky college town well away from anything else in upstate New York. Our weekend trip coincided (not really coincidentally) with the town festival, which turned the main downtown strip into a market. The street was lined with tent stalls, each filled with some sort of craft for sale - unless it was food for sale. Two stages featured live music. There was nothing particularly unique about the event, although as always it's more fun to visit an area filled with people enjoying themselves (and it didn't hurt that the weather was perfect).

Of more interest to me was the opportunity to take my own day trip to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, a 2 1/2 hour drive from Ithaca.

Perhaps it's from being spoiled, living in a city filled with Smithsonians, but I was slightly surprised by the size of the HOF
. For as many artifacts as the place must have, the two floors of exhibits are just a taste. There were a few display areas were it seemed the hall had tried too hard for a clean and modern museum look, and the spacious rooms were sparsely decorated.

Where the hall shone were the areas that were far more crammed in with displays and artifacts. The first few displays on the history of the game were the most fulfilling, mostly because they played to my bias - the older the baseball era, the more fascinated I am by it.

An exhibit allowing you to virtually explore a computer rendering of Ebbetts Field or Boston's South End Grounds was great, but left me wanting more parks. (I wanted to see the Polo Grounds and the Baker Bowl).

The last spot hit is the actual hall filled with the plaques of those selected for induction. It was a respectfully somber and inspiring area to wander about and read the accomplishments of the biggest names in the sport. The only downside is the sometimes atrocious likenesses on the plaques.

Make no mistake - I loved the hall. Walking among the pieces of baseball history was exactly how I wanted to spend the afternoon. There were just a few things I wished were there but weren't. Perhaps No. 1 on my wish list would be an area with a computer station to browse through video/audio of old games. There is a small area honoring broadcasters and writers who have covered the game throughout the years, but few examples of their work. If I had the ability to sit and watch old game broadcasts, or at least clips of historic moments, I could spend days doing so.