Day 17 - Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid

Today was a long day. We started out by driving from Cleveland to Canton to visit the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Before we headed out, we had to make a pit stop at Staples to pick up another toner for the printer - second one this trip. More Than Paper has been busy, to say the least. You would think that people would have known that the Jewish New Year was early this year, and planned ahead and bought their cards last month. But no, they must have been busy doing other things because we have been swamped this week. Today was the first relatively quiet day in over a week. I guess we can't complain, as all of those last minute charlies are paying for our overeating.

Due to the itinerary for the day (HOF then drive 4+ hours to Williamsport, PA to try and catch another minor league game), the hope was to get on the road to Canton (only about an hour away from Cleveland) by 10, stay a few hours at most then hit the road. We weren't bad leaving Cleveland, for us anyway, and we finally got on the road around 10:30. We made it to the Hall around 11:30 and went in to check it out.

Frankly, I thought the boys would be more interested than they were. Brian had some interest, but Ethan really didn't. I guess it's because they are only 10 & 13, and the players they have watched are either not yet eligible for the Hall or still playing. I enjoyed it, as I went back as far as the 70s for players that I had watched, and knew a lot of the older players as well. Debbie, who hates football, at least on TV, actually seemed to enjoy it, as she was asking questions ("Is the football the one that isn't round?" - just kidding, she asked questions about the World Football League and American Football League as they had a whole exhibit about the various other pro leagues over the years). We also sat in on a brief history of the helmet over the years, which I thought was interesting.





For some reason Amanda got a kick out of the Hall of Fame busts that had mustaches, and insisted on taking a whole bunch of pictures with busts of mustached players. She was especially fond of one relatively recent induction class where every player had a mustache.



After the troops got restless, and we purchased more crap, I mean souvenirs, we stopped at Wendy's for lunch (told you the food-fun had ended) and got on the road to Williamsport. It was this journey that brought to life the fears of long trips in the car, as there was an almost constant (unpleasant) aroma filling the air in the car, emanating from the back seats(s). My guess is that the food choices at Wendy's didn't help matters. I can't say for sure who the culprit(s) was, but I kind of think it was a total team effort.

The game was scheduled to start at 7:00, and thanks (or no thanks) to a 30 minute crawl on I-80 in PA when the road went from 2 lanes to 1 because of roadwork (although the westbound side also was one lane and was moving fine), we got to the ballpark right as the game was starting. This was a Single A game between the Williamsport Crosscutters (Phillies) and the Mahoning Valley Scrappers (Indians). The general admission tickets cost $5.50 ($4.50 for the kids) and we found seats on the 3rd base side about 10 rows from the field. Love minor league baseball. The ballpark is very nice, and calls itself Historic Bowman Field.



On this trip we have now been to 2 Major League games, one Double A game and one Single A game. Obviously, the quality of the games has reflected the level of league we were watching. But what I realized tonight was not only are the players more polished at the upper levels of baseball, but so are the fans. I was completely unaware that (how do I put this nicely?) the IQ of the fans matched the baseball IQ of the players. The boys watched a lot of the Little League World Series that just wrapped up here in Williamsport, and from the fan shots they showed throughout the games it is clear that they did not let any of these fans into those games. My guess is that they had a 24-hour-day Dukes of Hazzard marathon going on somewhere in town to keep them busy for the 2 weeks or so the tournament was on.

To say this crowd was scary is an understatement. To give you a sense of what we I'm talking about, this was on one of the fan's cars as we exited, and I think summed it up for all of them:



There was a man that sat two rows in front of us that looked like he had swallowed an inner tube. To be fair, he definitely had issues, as he had a chant for every situation ("H-R, H-R, H-R, H-R, H-R!" for a batter he wanted to hit a home run, "If you're happy and you know it call strike 3" when a batter on the other team had 2 strikes, etc.). And it was constant. I really can't do it justice without video, or at least a picture, but that would not have been right. Funny, but not right.

We left after the top of the 8th inning and went to the hotel for the night. Tomorrow we might try and go to the ball field where they play the Little League World Series and we saw a sign for the Little League Museum, so we might try that also. Then we will head to Philly for the last stop of the trip.