Iceman Celebration Day 2016 - Baseball Hall of Fame

 

Unfortunately the Baseball Hall of Fame also had to mention PED's, cheating and the scandals that erupted from it. This meant a display featuring Mark McGuire, Sammy Sosa, Alex Rodriguez, Jose Canseco, Barry Bonds, and yes, our very own Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers. This period of baseball cast a pretty big shadow over the game but it is a big part of the history of the game. I didn't like seeing Braun included in this display, but his testing positive for PED's in 2012 is a fact that cannot be ignored. But in happier news, they also featured mascots, bobbleheads and giveaways. This included the Milwaukee Brewers Chorizo of the Klement's Racing Sausages.

It would have been great had the Braves stayed in Milwaukee instead of departing for Atlanta, but then we may have never had the Brewers. So then I may have had Milwaukee Braves tattoos on my arms instead. But that didn't happen and Hank Aaron's Braves jerseys are in the Hall of Fame instead.

One wing of the museum featured a locker for every team in MLB that showed their jersey and contained artifacts from their history. Although the Braves are mostly known for being in Atlanta, they did spend some pretty good years in Milwaukee.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The most notable item in the Milwaukee Brewers locker was the Prince Fielder jersey. Fielder (drafted in 2002 and played for them from 2005 - 2011) is one of my all time favorite players. It was hard not to love the big teddy bear. The placard listed the years they have played in Milwaukee, retired numbers and (sadly) number of World Series championships won.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the display is a bat from Bill Hall (who wins games) from 2006 (when he hit the 1st homerun in the history of the new Busch Stadium), Prince Fielder's jersey from the 2011 All-Star game (which he was named MVP), Trevor Hoffman's hat from the 2010 season (when he set the all-time saves record), Scott Podsednik's cleats from 2004 (when he stole a MLB high 70 bases in 2004).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Home

 

The Klement's Racing Sausages were featured in another display along with a vendor's hot box. I love sausages and I love seeing things from my hometown Milwaukee Brewers here at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

 

 

I have loved everything at the Baseball Hall of Fame. But my favorite exhibit had to be the one about Hank Aaron. In addition to being (arguably) the greatest baseball player of all time, he was also a great human being. There was this video of him giving his advice on how to treat people that literally brought me to tears. He had to deal with so much adversity, and I am proud to be from the same town that he spent 10 of his 23 amazing seasons.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There's really no point in me sitting here telling you how great of a baseball player Hank Aaron was. But just in case you don't follow the history of baseball, here are his career stats - 23 seasons, .305 batting average, 3771 hits, 755 homeruns and 2297 RBIs. That's really damn good. This exhibit features countless artifacts from his storied career including MVP Awards, Gold Glove Awards, World Series Ring, bats used to hit monumental home runs and homerun baseballs, including his 755th and final homerun of his career.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Francisco "KRod" Rodriguez's jersey is in the Hall of Fame because of his record 62 saves in a season while playing with the Los Angeles Angels. KRod played for the Brewers in 2011 - 2015 and has 437 career saves.