Road Trip: Springfield & Troy

  Day two of our trip would see another state that I had never visited as part of our plans, another new state that was unplanned, and a place that I had never visited before that was always on my list to see.

When I was planning the trip for things to build around baseball stops, I was surprised to see just how close Springfield, Massachusetts was to Hartford and that would mean my first visit to the basketball hall of fame.

The basketball Hall of Fame isn't like its football counterpart in Canton or Cooperstown's baseball hall which is devoted to only inductees for their professional careers.

Rather, the basketball hall honors success from college and professional levels along with the greats of the men's and women's games.

I wasn't sure what to expect from the basketball HOF after Bill Simmons skewered it in his terrific book "The Book of Basketball" but I was still anxious to see it.

And I was surprised because, in some ways, it might have been better than either of the two more established Halls.

The basketball Hall is connected to what seems to be a defunct mall and with its high ceilings upon entering, it did feel like walking into a mall!

The hall has a few exhibits that passersby can see for free (such as the Pete Maravich shown above) and once you pay, you move into an elevator that takes you to the top of the building and you wind your way through three floors of basketball history.

When you look down through the center of each floor, you are able to see the ground floor with several baskets that you can shoot at and although all you can do is shoot (and my few shots later were missed), it's a very nice touch that the other halls lack.

Fred was having a good time for a casual basketball fan as he zoomed through with his scooter up and down the floors and looked at the items on display.

It was cool seeing a few ABA items including a championship ring, an empty bottle of RC Cola celebrating the 1975 ABA champion Kentucky Colonels, and that was beside a full bottle of Coke for the 1983 N.C. State Cardiac Pack which was cool seeing there since I own that same bottle.

The gift shop didn't have many items from schools and pro teams and specialized in Hall of Fame items, so I only purchased a magnet as a souvenir.

I thought the basketball Hall was better than expected and if you are ever in the area, I'd recommend stopping by, it's right off an interstate so it's easy to reach and leave as well.

Fred had mentioned earlier in the trip that Rhode Island was only an hour away and I considered going there to add another state to my list but Rhode Island was in the opposite direction of New York and it didn't make sense to add two hours to our trip.

Instead after looking at the route, if we drove a little out of the way, I could catch another state instead-Vermont.

It was some beautiful country and that's about all we saw because in Vermont there was very little else to see and after miles and miles, we reached Burlington.

It appeared that some sort of festival was going on and when we looked around the streets of Burlington,, we found another pizza place.

I find that I eat a lot of pizza away from home and rarely when I am home, which I suppose says it all about local pizza!

This choice was Benner's Pizza and Bagels, which had outside seating and we used that to add a bit more of the excitement of the area as there were many people walking to different events etc.

I enjoyed my pizza but I thought a scale model of a moose painted red and orange that stood at the pavilion was the big star!

Two pizza places in two days with both rating well with me!

The next stop was Joseph Bruno Stadium in Troy New York, home of the Tri-City ValleyCats.

I visited Tri-City once about ten years ago with Rachel and Cherie on a trip that included my stop at Cooperstown.

Back then, the Valley Cats were a thriving member of the New York/Penn League, an affiliate of the Houston Astros, and doing well at the box office.

Now, the Cats are a member of the independent Frontier League, not doing so well at the gate and some rumors have them as having a questionable future.

I only had cards for one player, former Phillies outfielder Aaron Altherr and manager Pete Incaviglia.

Upon arriving, we discovered that Incavaglia had been suspended by the league for the game for an outburst the previous night and wouldn't be leaving the clubhouse.

That's a disappointment as I had some cool cards from his college days at Oklahoma State that I had hoped to get signed.

Aaron Altherr had always been very nice in his days coming through Hagerstown and Harrisburg and he signed both cards I had for him.

We had two hours or so to get to our hotel in Binghamton, so we stopped in a former minor league town for dinner but there were not many open places, so we settled for a Buffalo Wild Wings, which was fine.

Remember when I wrote about the Roku problems in Hartford?

Here is the other issue from the trip- I could hook the Roku up fine but no internet service.

I tried different tactics, called the front desk, and went down to the lobby, and just as I neared the lobby, it turned on.

So I returned to the room and ZIp. nothing.

It turns out that the hotel was built before the wifi age and the thickness of the walls keeps the wifi from doing its job unless you are near the center of the building!

Oh, the bed was comfortable and after the controversial decision given to George Kambosos over Maxi Hughes was announced, it was off to bed.

Next time that I can, I'll write about day three as I visited an old friend, found some items for the collection, and saw the Binghamton Rumble Ponies to conclude the trip.