# 19 Baseball HOF

I’ve been missing baseball a lot of late, so to get some baseball I visited the baseball Hall of Fame website.  When I got to their website I found some virtual exhibits.  Then I spent quite a bit of time exploring and here is part of what I found.

Presidential Pastime

This exhibit had information about many different presidents and their connections to baseball.  Some fun facts I learned were that William Taft threw out the first 1^st pitch in 1910. Harry Truman attended a record 16 games.  Ronald Reagan was the first to watch a game from the dugout and also did play by play at Wrigley field.  Also there was the video when George W Bush after 9/11 threw a strike from the mound and was the most meaningful first pitch that I remember.

Pastime Portraits

This exhibit had different portraits from the twenties and thirties and was kind of boring.

Picturing America's Pastime

This photography exhibit had different pictures and quotes from all different Eras of baseball.   My favorite quotes were

“I always figured that I had a bat and all the pitcher had was a little ball, and as long as I kept swinging that bat I’d be all right.”

— Hank Aaron, 1991

“The only comparison is that we both love to hit and hate to lose.”

— Pete Rose on the similarities between himself and Detroit Tigers outfielder Ty Cobb, 1985

“Baseball is really two sports—the Summer Game and the Autumn Game. One is the leisurely pastime of our national mythology. The other is not so gentle.”

— Author Thomas Boswell, 1982

 

My favorite pictures were ones of various players including

• Roy Campanella and Yogi Berra in the World Series in 1955
• Tim Lincecum
• Orestes “Minnie” Miñoso
• Jackie Robinson
• Honus Wagner
• And also one outside of Wrigley Field when they hosted the World Series in 1929

There was also information about what the different things they had to do throughout the years to get the best pictures and had info about some of the photographers.

Head, Heart and Hustle

This exhibit talked about the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League AAGPBL which was during WWII and after 1943-1954.  And had information about the different women that played in the league. 

My knowledge about this league was just from the Movie “A League of Their Own" and this expanded on the league and I learned some new things including

• ·         In 1943, Philip K. Wrigley, owner of the Chicago Cubs, started the league
• ·         They had spring training in Cuba in 1947
• ·         Prior to the 1949 season, an American All-Star team traveled to Cuba and Latin America to recruit Cuban players
• ·         They established an International League of Girl’s Baseball
• ·         Ysora Castillo was one of nine native Cubanas who played in the AAGPBL
• ·         Dorothy Kamenshek received a weekly $125 paycheck which was one of the highest in the league

Google street view inside museum

They had a Latin baseball exhibit that included jerseys of Roberto Clemente, Albert Pujols and Edgar Martinez.  They also had a locker room display with a locker for each team filled with memorabilia.  Then there was the room that had all of the Hall of Fame plaques.

This was a very fun adventure, I was able to find baseball and was able to learn some new things about the sport.

If you want to check out these exhibits here’s the link

 https://baseballhall.org/discover/online-exhibits

# 18 30 movies I hadn’t seen

Over the last month or two I’ve been watching a bunch movies, I was able to watch 30 movies I hadn’t seen before which were…

We Are Marshall

The Express

Patriots Day

Cast Away

A Perfect World

Trouble with the Curve

A River Runs Through It 

Deepwater Horizon

The 33

The Catcher Was a Spy 

Spy Game

The Lost World: Jurassic Park

Robin Hood

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure 

Madagascar

Hugo

The Count of Monte Cristo

Inside Man

Enemy of the State

Rio

Varsity Blues

Letters from Iwo Jima 

Sherlock Holmes 

The Great Wall

Holmes & Watson 

Peter Rabbit 

Hulk

Shark Tale 

Unbreakable

The Debt

My favorite movies were

We Are Marshall

 Which was about a plane crash in 1970 that killed a majority of the Marshall Football team and staff and how they rebuilt the program.  I liked this movie a lot because first of all it was sports related.  It was also a nice story about how everybody related to the Marshall Football program came together to get back on their feet even if they weren’t very good.

The Express 

This was about Ernie Davis, the first black athlete to win the Heisman trophy when he played at Syracuse University.  I liked this movie because it was about sports as well.  It was also interesting to see what all he had to go through to get where he got and interesting to see where he got support from.  Unfortunately, the movie ended very sadly with him dying of leukemia.

Patriots Day

This was about the Boston Marathon bombing a few years back. Even though this was a terrible event I thought the movie was done really well. It was good at telling the story of the events and about all the people involved. I liked how they showed Boston coming together after a terrible event.

Cast Away

Was about a FedEx worker who got stuck on a deserted island by himself for four years.  I liked this movie because I’ve always been fascinated with deserted island stories and what it would be like.  I found it interesting when he came back to the real world and how much it had changed.  I also thought the open ended ending was interesting.

I had quite a bit of fun watching all these movies. I enjoyed watching 30 new movies and I’m looking forward to watching even more in the future.

# 17 Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge Brigham City, Utah

 July 24 2019

On another very hot day we drove about 15 miles north from Ogden to Brigham City Brigham City to visit.

It was so hot but inside the visitor center had AC as well as some nice and interesting bird displays and a small theater.  After we checked out the inside we took a walk outside on a wheelchair accessible trail which was a half mile loop.  It was very dry, hot and there were not many birds mostly because it was the wrong time of the year.   

 

We did see some cattails as I hurried through the trail to get back to the AC. 

When we got back closer to the building where it was wetter we did see a couple of birds. When we got back inside we watched a video about the place in the theater. Then we tried to take their auto tour.  We decided not to do this tour because we found out it was a dirt road and was too bumpy for me.   I really liked this place, but I wish we would have been there at a better time so I could’ve seen more birds and had a more enjoyable walk.  Despite all that it was still a nice place to visit.