B-G-O!

We didn't just randomly decide to go to upstate New York on our annual sib-trip this year. There was a specific motivation.

For the first time in history, a player was going to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame as a Houston Astro. For non-baseball-fans, and even for baseball fans invested in other teams, this might not seem like a big deal, worth traversing the continent for. But for us, it was.

Other players who have worn Astros unis, some even for a fairly long stint, are in the Hall, as you can see on the back of my souvenir t-shirt:

But only the guy at the top of the lefthand column, whose Hall plaque, recently unveiled, is shown above, went in as a 'Stro. And even better, he played all of his seasons with our team. Starting in 1988 and playing until 2008, with one team?! This is practically unheard of in modern sports. You can see a photo gallery of him in action here on the Astros website.

So, when Biggio's election was announced in January, we started making plans. Cooperstown, New York, is a small town sort of in the middle of nowhere, but we found other attractions to amuse us before and after the big day (which was July 26).

And Steve found other amusements on the day itself; having a non-fan in the family actually worked out well for us, since he was able to drop us off and pick us up, eliminating the need for finding parking. Finding seating was another matter, though, since we knew there would be a big crowd and we were not buying close-in seats.

The only way to manage was to get there early. Even though we were overnighting in Albany, to avoid scandalous hotel prices in Cooperstown, we thought it was worthwhile hit the road early. We hit our target time of 9:30 pretty much on the nose and were glad we did, grabbing a nice area right in the center of a sloping berm. Here's the view from our seats soon after our arrival:

Yes, that's the stage 'way in the distance, but there was a video screen and we thought being on the hill would be cooler than being down on the flat area. And this turned out to be true. It was much hotter than Texans were expecting summer New York weather to be, but this slight discomfort didn't spoil the thrill for us. We were so pleased to be among probably the largest group of true Astros fans you could imagine. Memories of Astros-Cubs home games when Cub jerseys out-numbered the hometown unis were erased by the site of all the Biggio jerseys we saw.

this adorable munchkin had a jersey matching his dad's (on the right)

And of course we added to the total:

Although we think Astros jerseys were the most numerous in the crowd, we were probably out-done in the noise department by Pedro Martinez' Dominican partisans. But they were obviously having such a good time, and they put on such a fun show, that we didn't mind.

For such a large and important gathering, the whole feel of the operation was very small-townish. No admission fees or metal detectors, high school kids selling concessions (although an admittedly limited choice of food options: hot dogs and chips. Period! Plus they ran out of water before the show was over!), and families with coolers, balls, and gloves, setting up impromptu games for the kids. Not to say that important matters were overlooked; it was probably the best-supplied operation, porta-potty-wise, that any of us had ever had experience with...

And our four-hour wait for the festivities to begin was very entertaining. From watching the spaces fill up (see below), to watching kids running makeshift bases, to some entertaining videos on the big screen, it was very enjoyable.

Here's a look at the "hillside" we were on, after it had gotten pretty filled up:

And to give you an idea of how much/how little space was left at showtime, here are two shots of the space in front of us, occupied by a family with a very handy canopy-tent...very welcome shade, appropriately decorated:

just setting it up

close to showtime

They could have handled a few more fans, I guess. But it was a good crowd all the same. Estimates I saw said 45,000.

And here's the ultimate fan experience: Bigg giving his speech. The red box is around him and the podium. The sound was fine, though, and we heard every word.

This was really the thrill of a lifetime for fans who've followed the team, more or less, since its beginnings as the Colt .45s in 1962. Although Biggio's longtime teammate Jeff Bagwell deserves to be in the Hall, too, I'm sadly resigned to the fact that he probably won't make it, being tarred with the PED brush that's undeserved in his case. 

However, if my pessimism is unfounded, we'll know exactly where to go to see his induction, what to bring—more water, one of those neat canopy-tents, good chairs (thank goodness we were able to borrow some from Amy's friends this time, as we were woefully ill-equipped for 7 hours of sitting), and more food than a granola bar to supplement the kids' hot dogs. We'll be all set!

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Next up, some of our ancillary sight-seeing and activities.