The International Boxing Hall of Fame

Driving west on Route 90 in 2018 on our way to Toronto, we passed The International Boxing Hall of Fame. This year on the way to Toronto, we built in time to stop and tour the HOF.

The hall was really just one big room. Although it is well curated, the amount of memorabilia on display is small.

Boxing or a form of hand-to-hand combat in its simplest form is millennia older than all these other sports. The Boxing HOF website states,"...the shrines to baseball, football, and basketball are located in the ancestral homes to those sports. But boxing has no such geographical origin" or timeline that can be at least traced. Since the other major sports could trace their geographical origins their HOF are much older than boxings. Here is a list of the years the other major sports established their HOF:

Baseball 1939
Hockey 1943
Tennis 1954
Basketball 1959
Football 1963
Boxing 1989

The International Boxing Hall Of Fame

Rocky Marciano

"Marvelous" Marvin Hagler

This is the pavillon used for the induction ceremony

This was a nice touch! The actual 82-year boxing ring from Madison Square Garden.

The Baseball Hall of Fame

Each major sport has their own Hall of Fame and I had the chance to visit baseball's in Cooperstown, NY. I was in Rome, NY, accompanying my wife to Capitol Fest, a minor film festival. There was an afternoon my wife's afternoon was filled with movies, so I headed to the Hall. I remember driving east on Route 90, then exiting onto Route 28 south, then driving and driving through farmland, open fields, and rolling hills. Really beautiful countryside and after a while I start asking myself, where the hell is this place? After about 50 minutes of driving, civilization starts to emerge little by little. I stop at an intersection, take a left, then a right into downtown Cooperstown, and then the GPS announces I have arrived! I look up and there it is. Ok, I was expecting a monolith on the edge of town with 3000 parking spaces to accommodate the masses. Nope, just a regular building right in downtown. I find a parking spot and head in.

The Baseball Hall of Fame

I was impressed with the Hall as soon I stepped inside. It is three modern floors of well curated memorabilia. 

I'm sure many people want to know why is the Hall located in Cooperstown, NY?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Here are some of the Boston Red Sox contributions to the Hall.

I must have taken 60 photos at the Hall. Here is a small sample of them:

 

I was throughly impressed with this display!

There was a section dedicated to memorabilia from baseball themed movies. 

These two highly detailed figures of Babe Ruth and Ted Williams are made entirely of wood.

One of Norman Rockwell's most famous paintings is on display here, quite fitting for the subject.

Whoops!

There is a piece of incorrect information in this depiction of Yankee Stadium. Can you spot it? The clue is this photo was taken in 2016. I called over an employee and pointed it out to him. He looked at it and said he would look into having it fixed.

Everyone inducted to the Hall has their likeness imprinted into a bronze plate. I chose three Red Sox players.

I found this outside of the Hall. It gives perspective of the distance between the batter and pitcher.