The Tourists Are Coming Soon

Cooperstown’s population changes drastically throughout the summer. We have a lot of families that come from the city or another state who spend their summers here every year. We also have all the baseball families who come to Dreams Park and All-Star Village. My personal favorite type of population influx is the baseball fanatics. We have the Baseball Hall of Fame here, and it becomes a strong magnet, especially during the summertime. We have people come from all around the country and some from around the world to see our historic museum. As someone who couldn’t give two less shits about baseball, I see all these tourists as a pain in the ass. They make prices skyrocket at restaurants, they walk out in the middle of the street when cars are coming, and they make the town all around busy. One of my biggest issues with them is their inability to play golf. Of course, I am generalizing, as I usually do, but baseball tourists suck at golf. They play slow, they don’t know proper etiquette, and they trample our golf course. It is very hard to get a tee time and not end up waiting thirty minutes on each hole. Obviously, I am grateful we have tourists. They boost our economy tenfold, and they bring a certain energy to the usually boring town. My love-hate relationship goes back and forth with them. I realized that every time I travel somewhere, I am no different than our lovely baseball heads. When I went to St. Andrews, I was walking around like an American idiot in the home of golf. Why do I judge the baseball people so harshly? Aren’t I also a baseball idiot, just in a different form? Being a hypocrite comes very easily when you are on the flip side of something. I worked at a mini-golf and ice cream place right by Dreams Park for two summers. Their whole business revolves around these families. You get to meet so many people from all around. It’s nice to try and learn something from each family. I’ve met some very friendly people and some very unfriendly people, but that's how life is. Now that I work at the country club, I never really see a lot of these baseball people. I see locals and the people who come up from the city all day. It makes you kind of miss your not-so-awful enemies. Then you get to the golf course and wish for them all to go home. Happy Friday, everyone! Nobody submitted any guest posts, so if that interests you at all, please read Monday’s post again. It would be greatly appreciated!