A Trip to the Yogi Berra Museum!

Hey guys, Drew back here! So, as I mentioned in the last post, the day following Jets camp was quite busy as well. My family went over to Hoboken, New Jersey to check out Carlos' Bake Shop, where the show "Cake Boss" is filmed. I don't really watch the show, but my sister does, and she wanted to see if she could meet anyone on the show. Sure enough, she did, and we came home with a lot of good pastries that won't last very long! But, since this is a sports blog, I'd prefer to go into what we did after visiting the bakery.

About 20 minutes out of Hoboken, on the campus of Montclair University, there stands a museum dedicated to one of the greatest baseball players of all time! In 1998, Montclair officially opened the Yogi Berra Museum & Learning Center, right next to their baseball field, which was named "Yogi Berra Stadium". Not only is it the home of the Montclair team, but the Canadien-American league New Jersey Jackals as well. Fortunately, we were able to visit the museum on our trip, and I'm going to try to take you through a bit of it.

As I said, the entrance to the museum is right next to Yogi Berra Stadium, and the gate was open to the field. It was just about empty, despite a few people taking care of the field, and let me tell you, it's a beautiful park. I wouldn't have minded catching a game there, but it was a little too early for all of us to wait for one, and well, I'd be the only person interested.

Also on the outside of the museum is this statue of Berra kneeling, with the famous #8 on the back of his Yankee jersey. To put the size into perspective, I'm 5'11, so, it's a pretty good size. 

The building has a very nice lobby, which eventually leads into the actual museum. A good majority of the beginning of the exhibit had to do with Yogi's personal life with his wife Carmen and his 3 sons, including Dale Berra, who played in the Majors in the 1980's. He wasn't quite his father, but he was good enough to make the big leagues as well. 

One thing you can point out immediately is that it wasn't just all about Yogi. He featured a lot of other player's autographs and memorabilia, such as Jeter, Jackie Robinson, and of course, the Bambino you see above! The signed Ruth ball is definitely one of the nicest ones I've seen, and I've seen at least 4 or 5 in person in my lifetime.

What is a museum of the most quoted baseball player ever without a little fun? There were a few TV's set up with commercials featuring Yogi and his "Yogiisms", which I found very entertaining. I don't think I have a particular favorite quote of his, but I mean, he didn't say everything he said; so that made it a bit more difficult to choose. 

Also on display were 2 of his 3 MVP Awards, the ones from 1954 and 1955! He had a few of the best seasons ever by a catcher in those years, first batting .307 with 22 home runs and 125 RBI in '54, and .272 with 27 home runs and 108 RBI in the following year. Not only was he beloved by baseball fans, but he was a pretty darn good ballplayer too. 

He was good enough to receive two of the biggest honors you could get in baseball, a Hall of Fame plaque and his number retired by the Yankees organization. Here are a few momentos he took home from those special events, that found their way into the museum. 

One of the biggest features of the museum was his display of World Series rings. Whether he played, coached, or was an honoree to receive a ring, he deserved every one of them, and went down as the player with the most rings in MLB history!

I figured it would necessary to capture the Maris newspaper photo because of how involved I've been with the 1961 Topps set over the past year or two.

These are indeed, Berra's jersey and glove that he wore during Don Larsen's perfect game in 1956! The tour guide there told us that Berra confirmed the right glove is indeed here, not in Cooperstown, and boy was it nice! Apparently they have the jersey on a loan as of now, because it was recently bought for $600,000! The Larsen jersey is currently in an auction now, and people expect it to sell for over $1,000,000!

Speaking of Perfect Games, here is the hat David Cone wore during his special game, signed and inscribed with the date. Of course, the special thing about Cone's perfect game was that it was on Yogi Berra Day at Yankee Stadium, which made the perfect game turn into an odd but incredible coincidence!

This picture will most likely end up being the most perfect picture of all time (pun intended). It is all 3 battery mates from the Yankees Perfect Games: Larsen/Berra, Wells/Posada, and Cone/Girardi! Not only that, but everyone is in uniform, and I believe it was taken at the 2008 All Star Game if I'm not mistaken. That would be a cool picture to have signed.

After Yogi's firing as manager of the Yankees, he swore he'd never step foot in Yankee Stadium again. That is, until George Steinbrenner came to this museum and met up with Yogi to publicly apologize. As part of a welcome back present, Steinbrenner gave Yogi the 1951 World Series banner that used to fly in the old stadium. Here it is, now as part of the theater room, which was used to showcase rare Yankees footage, including of Babe Ruth.

And for my card collecting readers out there, I didn't forget about you! One wall in the exhibit featured cards of Berra from all of the major issues during his career. I had 5 of the cards, and if it weren't for the binder Dad got from a yard sale a year ago, I'd have none. 

One day, his 1948 Bowman rookie card will be mine. Just saying. 

Finally, as we exited the museum and headed back into the lobby, we were greeted by a giant cow, signed by hundreds of Yankees players, including Jeter above. I didn't quite get the reference somehow, until I saw Rizzuto's signature with the "Holy Cow" inscription right above the horns.

Unfortunately, Yogi wasn't there the day we went, so this will have to be the closest I'll get to a picture with him for now. I downloaded a Bucket List app today for my iPod, and one of the first things I added was to meet Yogi Berra and shake his hand. Hopefully it can come true one day. As for the museum, well, my whole family, including my sister enjoyed it, which really meant it was good! It was a great experience and I highly recommend it to anyone in the area that hasn't gotten to check it out yet!

Thanks Yogi! See Ya!

Jets Training Camp Recap Part 1!

Hey guys, Drew back here, after a long, grueling car ride home from Cortland, New York. For a few weeks, my dad and I have planned up a trip up to the Cortland university to watch the Jets training camp in person! It's been a few pretty controversial weeks of Jets news led as always by the ringleader of the circus, Rex Ryan, but despite it all, we couldn't resist passing up on watching so many talented athletes come together for a practice session. We headed up yesterday afternoon and spent the night at a hotel about 7 minutes away from the camp. Although we slept horribly on the hotel beds that were harder than a rock; a little Monster and coffee was enough to get the two of us up and out of the hotel by 6:00 AM! Turns out we ended up being the first people there, so we became eligible for a promotion the Jets team runs for younger kids. The first 50 kids to show up for the camp were given a wristband, which allowed them to take the field following the practice for a good opportunity for autographs. Despite not necessarily being a "kid", Dad & I were going to try hard to get me one of those wristbands.

However, before I go into autographs and all that, I'm going to dedicate the rest of this post towards the actual practice. After being allowed into the facility, we went through a team store which we used to purchase some merchandise, and when we finished all of that, we found a spot on the far end of the two field setup. A guy working there told us it would be a good spot for autographs, so we took his word and camped out directly behind the fence and began our wait.

At around 8:00, practice was underway, and the players made their way onto the field to start warming up before drills and scrimmaging. Mark Sanchez, as seen above in the red penny, was loose and comfortable today, and that comfort level was a good sign of things to come. 

Receiver Santonio Holmes has been nursing a rib injury, causing him to miss the first (and now the second) preseason game so far. However, he was dressed in his uniform today, and ran a little bit on the sidelines. I've never been a huge fan of his, but with the receivers hurting and limited, I can't wait for him to be fully healthy again. He looks like he should be back relatively soon, probably within the next week or two. 

The players then begin their drills, and rather than moving and losing our spot on the fence, we stayed put and waited for the players to come in our direction. Sure enough, some did, as the cornerbacks made their way over to work on hitting drills. Antonio Cromartie, who also spent time working as a wide receiver, was encouraging the players to hit harder and harder, and the players seemed to interact pretty well for the most part today. 

The Man of the Hour, Darrelle Revis, was indeed there for camp, which is another great sign. It's funny, because on the way up, we stopped for dinner at the Roscoe Diner, which apparently is a pretty well known restaurant up around the Catskill Mountains. Revis met up with the Jets management two years ago at the very diner to restructure his contract, because it served as a middle point between Cortland and NYC. We didn't know that was the restaurant until we got there, when the waitress told us about it.

One of the more impressive things I saw today was, well, Rex Ryan! Holy wow he looks good! Over the offseason Rexy underwent a lap band procedure and lost over 100 pounds, and instead of sticking out like a sore thumb, he was a bit tough to find throughout the camp. The tattoo is fairly new too, and although I can't say I'm a fan of it; whatever floats his boat I guess.

Sanchez had everything working for him today, especially during the 7 on 7's drills! At one point in the drills, he completed 5 of 6 passes, resulting in 3 touchdowns! His biggest plays happened to both be touchdowns to backup wideout Jordan White, who had a big day. This is great news for Mark considering just recently him and backup Tim Tebow completed 14 passes in a row during this same drill. 

Speaking of Tebow, well, it wasn't the best of birthdays for the now 25 year old quarterback. He completed only 2 passes in quite a few attempts, however, he did run the ball pretty well as always. I'm a big fan of Tebow, but I'm still not all that sure how well the fit will be for him here in New York. It adds a lot of pressure on Mark Sanchez, and that's never really a great thing. 

A former Jet great was on hand to offer some advice to the young quarterbacks though. Chad Pennington, the Jets quarterback between 2000 and 2007, was requested by GM Mike Tannenbaum to help mentor Sanchez especially. Pennington was a big favorite of mine in my early years as a Jet fan, and he's one of the smartest quarterbacks the game has ever seen. While he wasn't quite Joe Namath, his presence definitely will  help around the Jets team as a whole. Multiple people have reported that Pennington thinks Sanchez has improved a lot over the past offseason, and he gave him a lot of high praise. 

We weren't quite sure who it was talking to the players for so long until I zoomed in on one of the photos above, and then we realized it was indeed Pennington. It was really cool getting to see him again, although he won't be coming back to football anymore, as he recently announced his retirement at the age of 36.  

Eventually, practice came to a close. Pennington came to the center of the team and said a few quick inspiring things to the players, and led the Jets roar concluding the practice. Rex Ryan stated afterwards that it was great to have him back around with the team, and that he will attend some of the upcoming quarterback meetings to discuss plays and other things with the quarterback crew. 

All in all, watching the practice was really fun, although some moments did get kind of dry at times. I'm sure if we moved with the offense throughout the practice we would've enjoyed it more, but as autograph collectors, we didn't want to move a muscle. In the next post, you'll see how we ended up doing. Stay tuned!

See Ya!