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Show Sunday, November THE DAILY HERALD, Provo, Utah, 6, 1994 - Page C'J Poopersttown an example of the power of legend By PHILIP SEIB Dallas Morning News N.Y. -lqOOPERSTOWN, uch of baseball's appeal is built ?n history and myth. Nowhere is hat combination more striking than in Cooperstown, the beautiful ! village in upstate New York that is fiome to the sport's Hall of Fame. ; Although a thriving souvenir industry relies heavily on the claim haf Cooperstown is "the home of baseball," only shaky evidence supports the notion the game was borh here in 1839, with Abner Doubleday as its er. Contrarians ; fath- rule-maki- argue the sport evolved from "town ball," and that its rules were codified by, among others, Alexander of New York's Knickerbocker Base Ball Club in 845 . Car-twrig- ht 1 The theory has the appeal of precision: a person, a place, a time. Fact or myth, it is easy to embrace. Fact or myth, it has done no harm and much good. Cooperstown is an example of the power of legend. The Double-da- y story made this village the log ical site for the Hall of Fame (which opened in 1939) and for the nicely archaic little ballpark Field built on the one-tim- e cow pasture where the first baseball diamond supposedly was laid out. Baseball is big business here. Doubleday With its array of memorabilia shops, this village certainly has more baseball cards and autographed baseballs per capita than anyplace else in the world. Along Main Street, virtually evbe it pharmacy, liquor ery store has baseball store or art gallery items in the front window. Merchants don't need much math skill to recognize the value of this emphasis: Cooperstown's population is about 2,200. Last year, the Hall of Fame hosted 407,000 visitors. From the outside, the Hall of Fame is an unremarkable brick building on Main Street. But step through its doors and you enter wood baseball nirvana. Life-siz- e statues of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams greet you. Just beyond them is hallowed ground: the formal gallery lined with 219 plaques com- - Forget Willy Wonka, Hershey plant tour offers the real thing Sometime back near the dawn of creation, my parents took my sister am, and the Utz Quality Foods potato chip factory in Hanover. Brumberg and Axelrod, who own and operate Brumberg Publia Boston-are- a cations legal and and me on an Easter-vacatio- n trip to Hershey, Pa. They chose Hershey for its excellent Hotel Hershey with its beautiful gardens and, more im- financial publishing house came with the idea a for guidebook to up factory tours about 2 Vi years ago. "We were traveling in upstate New York," Brumberg said, "and portantly, the wonderful golf course. The hook for us, of course, was simply the name of the town the same name as that of our favorite candy bars. Of course, it wasn't just the we went to the Corning Glass Works and to Kodak in Rochester and we said, 'Gee, we really like these factory tours.' "We looked around to see if there was any kind of book that could tell us about other tours, and we found there wasn't. So, we decided to do one." Over the next two years, the couple traveled the country, touring factories, getting free samples and buying "factory seconds" in the outlet stores. "Hike to say we sort of went around and kicked the tires of the American economy," Brumberg By JACK SEVERSON Knight-Ridde- r Newspapers name; we knew that those candy bars were made right there in Hershey. Even better, Mom and Dad said we could tour the plant and actually see them being made. A dream come true! ""he plant tour was fascinating: Giant rectangular vats of chocolate, each seemingly as big as a football field; Hershey Bars slid- g conveyor ing down lines; women in white hairnets and what resembled nurses' uniforms standing at the end of another conveyor, capturing whole armies of Hershey Kisses as the line by the down marched they "tens of thousands. ; Forget Willy Wonka this was Ithei real thing, complete with free Isarjiples. For a kid, it was the factory tour. mile-lon- foil-wrapp- ulti-;n- 4e jershey ended those tours many J ago, when it built "Choco-jl- e a Disney World-Jrjp- e World" attraction, explaining how its chocolate products are made nfett to the Hershey Park amuse-Jmepark. J No longer would lines of tourists Jtfaipse through the huge Hershey plant. No longer would they at the speed of the packaging 'operations. And no longer would a grandmotherly woman in a white Ihairnet stoop and pick up a kiss that had fallen to the - 'yfcars nt mar-4v- Jflobr and toss it to a ear-ol- wide-eye- e( But, thanks to Bruce Brumberg jand his wife, Karen Axelrod, I now know where I can at the that childhood delight ; te iHershey plant in Oakdale, Calif., !the only Hershey plant still offer-lin- g factory tours. "If you're in San Francisco and lypu're heading for Yosemite Park), it's right on the said in a recent Brumberg ;way," interview from his office near ! (Na-;tKm- al Bos-I'io- n. complete description of the tour appears on Page 16 of a new book, "Watch It Made A Visitor's Guide the U.S.A. h) the 'to Companies that Make Your Favorite Products," written by Prumberg and Axelrod. The authors devoted a page each to 240 companies in 48 states that offer factory tours, with references (o 140 or so other companies that $re nearby. "Factory tours are one of the best vacation values," Brumberg iaid, "because almost every one is free and most of them give out free samples." When it comes to free samples, Brumberg, a 1977 graduate of Abington High School, is particularly enamored of the Lancaster iCjounty, Pa. area factories. I "Lancaster County must be the Snack-foo- d capital of the world," he said, noting the book's reports on, tours at the Anderson Bakery ;pVetzel factory in Lancaster, the jSfijgis Pretzel House in Lititz, "Heir's Pottto Chips in Nottingh A ! Each factory-toureport gives a description of the tour, days and hours, and admission costs (if any), whether videos or films are shown, whether reservations are required, length of the tour, direcr d. '. J leisure traveler. "Factory tours are great for families," Brumberg said. "Kids are always fascinated to see how as are many things are made adults." 5-- d said. Patriotism played a part in the decision to do the book. "People are under the impression that America doesn't really manufacture anything anymore," Brumberg said. "But we still make a lot of things in this country, and we make them well. We just wanted people to be able to go out and see how it's done." The book doesn't deal only with manufacturing plant tours, however. For example, it includes tours of movie studios, newspapers and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Nor does it include every factory tour available in the United States. Instead, it treats us to a broad range of tours across the nation. The book is clearly aimed at the ! won-Iderf- ; ul tions for getting to the factory and a listing of nearby attractions, including other plant tours. The tour reports are organized by state, and the companies are presented alphabetically' within each state. In the back of the book are helpful indexes, listing the companies by name and then by product groupings. Brumberg and Axelrod also in- memorating the hall's members. Although honoring the game's greatest players, managers, execu-- . tives and even umpires is the hall's principal function, this room may be the least evocative place in the building. It is too much the somber memorial, inspiring hushed respect rather than the raucous delight that is the real character of baseball. Most of the hall, however, is filled with glorious artifacts that elicit joy and wonder. "Grandpa, look at this; it's signed by Babe Ruth!" is an exclamation in one form or another and not just heard constantly from children. So much is here. The expected: Willie Mays' bats. The ironic: Shoeless Joe Jackson's shoes. The ancient: a chipped and taped bat used by Dan Brouthers, who won five batting titles between 1882 and 1892. The modern: seven caps worn by Nolan Ryan when he Some bepitched his long in a museum: the silver bat awarded to batting champions. Some belong on the ball field: George Brett's d grime-encruste- Mar-quard- 's 1 1 1 ii ii immersion. Its galleries are all baseball; the outside world does aficionado not intrude. The fan can let memory and or novice imagination range unfettered. major-leagu- Negro Leagues; women in baseball; minor and youth leagues; baseball movies, songs, stamps and trading cards. Exhibits are enlivened not just by visitors' chatter, but also by recordings of sportscasters. The heart beats faster in response to Milo Hamilton's exuberant words from April 8, 1974: "That ball is gonna be outta here! It's gone! It's 715! There's a new home-ru- n champion of all time and it's Henry Aaron!" Achievements of the past few years are honored in a series of display cases. The one for 1994 stands half full, forlornly awaiting treasures that will never come. The cap Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers wore during his perfect game in July sits alone on the top shelf. This museum lends itself to total mi ii For the scholarly visitor, a new addition houses the National Baseball Library and Archive. It features books, newspapers, a variety of documents, baseball-relate- d plus 250,000 photographs of play- ers, events, stadiums and other grand old forest ringing Otsego Lake, this community reflects a solid confidence born of long tenure. James Fenimore Cooper, whose family gave the village its name casts his proprietary ee on all this. His statue sits in front of the baseball library in a park that extends from the hall into a quiet residen: tial neighborhood. About a mile from Main Street! Cooper owned in 1813 now the Farmers' Museum. A a farm subjects. Baseball's influence extends beyond the village boundaries. In neighboring Fly Creek, the Cooperstown Bat Co. turns out 15,000 hand-mad- e bats each year. Most of these are for collectors, with color graphics that pay tribute to play- ers, teams and stadiums. The showroom and work space where the bats are finished are open to visitors. The depth of Cooperstown's own history enhances the hall's emphasis on baseball as embodiment of national tradition and character. In its Federal-styl- e houses, its gracefully aging inns and the huge barn houses exhibits illustratfarm life. ing Along a path beyond the barn are 13 old buildings moved to the site from nearby towns. These now constitute a little village: blacksmith's shop, doctor's office, tavern, schoolhouse, printing shop, 19th-centu- ry church, farmhouse and others. where museum staff members explain and demonstrate skills once essential, now largely forgotten. This is a delightful museum, particularly on a pretty day, when the visitor can stroll by its pond pasture and wooded hillside. Hurrying seems out of place. m to u lyiuj jj iiaii 1 1 u 1 m here's how to fly free on southwest airlines Just buy a roundtrip ticket at our regular low that operate during peak travel times. 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