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American Morning

Cooperstown Memorabilia May Be Coming to City Near You

Aired March 14, 2002 - 08:50   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: In case you couldn't find Cooperstown on the map and never had the occasion to visit baseball's hall of fame there, now for the first time, hundreds of the exhibition's treasured memorabilia are going on tour and maybe coming to a city near you.

First stop, New York, where our own Jeanne Moos steps up to the plate.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Take me out to the museum.

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A museum better known for stuffed reptiles has gone batty over baseball, Maris' McGwire's bat, Sosa's bat.

DAVE WINFIELD, FMR. YANKEE: You guys looks at all the things in here, and then we have a quiz when its over.

MOOS: Former Yankee Dave Winfield was one of 24 Hall of Famers on hand to open the baseball exhibit and sample 10 different hot dogs from various ballparks at the American Museum of Natural History. It's all about baseball's impact...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUGS BUNNY: Wham! another homer!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: On American culture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm not asking you who's on second.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who's on first?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Third base.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Some 500 items from Cooperstown are taking a road trip.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My favorite part of the exhibit is my baseball glove right back there from the '70 World Series. I'm just making sure it doesn't leave here.

MOOS: From the modern glove to the first padded catcher's mitt from 1888.

WINFIELD: Look at this glove. How many errors did this catcher have?

MOOS: Move over Piazza. This is a patent drawing for a design to catch pitched balls and release them through a tube. A different kind of pitching reveals that Lou Gehrig was an Aqua Velva man while Jackie Robinson pitched Chesterfields. You'll be huffing around the bases if you smoke Home Run Cigarettes.

Thirty years ago Lou Brock endorsed...

MOOS (on camera): Brocca Pop.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Brocca Pop.

MOOS: Do you remember Brocca Pop. What does it taste like.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was shocked to see it in here.

MOOS: It was a red soda.

LOU BROCK, FMR. PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL PLAYER: Yes, I remember Brocca Pop. I was shocked to see it in here.

MOOS (voice-over): Not as shocked as we were to see Babe Ruth pushing a line of children's underwear. The exhibit features the original lyrics to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's about the second most sung song in America next to "Happy Birthday."

The exhibit includes hand-written hate mail sent to Hank Aaron. "If you think we should honor you, hell no, you old slob. Playing ball is better than eating cotton and picking grits."

The hate mail is displayed along with fan mail, which begins "Do you ever wonder how many people you have Touched?"

Talk about touching.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There is a guy who lost four fingers, but it didn't stop him from playing ball. He strapped the thing on his hand, wrapped around his thumb, put it in a glove.

MOOS: There is a ball recovered from the rubble from the World Trade Center. It's in better shape than the oldest baseball in the collection, the 1839 Doubleday Ball.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But there is no joy in Mudville!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no crying. There's no crying in baseball!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOOS: Not even if your hot dog breaks.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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