I realize that when the World Series ends, the baseball season is over. But for people like me, we’ve just moved into the “hot stove season.” I’ve always been a baseball fan and while it may not be as popular as football it does remain the national pastime with most Americans.

As a kid I played in a youth league or as they called in my hometown the “Small Fry league” to avoid paying fees and copyright Infringement. I also played Babe Ruth ball and a whole lot of pickup games over the years. I was a fair hitter, could field a bit but my strengths were my arm and speed on the bases

At one point in “Small Fry” baseball they tried me out as a pitcher because of my strong arm but unfortunately, I was like Nolan Ryan early in his career when he was with the Mets. In other words, I had a pretty good fastball, but I didn’t always know where it was going. I suppose with some coaching I could have developed but that never happened so a potential Hall of Fame career on the mound was nipped in the bud.

I saw my first big league game in 1957 when my father took my brothers and I to see the then New York Giants and the then Brooklyn Dodgers play a day game at the Polo Grounds in New York. It was at this game that I got to see my baseball hero Giant outfielder Willie Mays who I think was the greatest ballplayer of all time. I recently found out that Willie at 92 is the oldest living inductee of the Hall of Fame.

I remember my father telling us at the end of the game to remember what we had just seen because next season neither teams will be playing in New York. He was right because in 1958 the Dodgers were in Los Angeles and the Giants in San Francisco.

We were all Giant fans at the time but in 1962 when the Mets were born, we quicky switched allegiance. However, my youngest brother in either an act of just plain contrariness or as we saw it family disloyalty became a Pittsburgh Pirates fan.

Over the years I’ve seen games at Milwaukee’s long gone County Stadium during the Braves years when we visited my mother’s family, Toronto’s then sad excuse for a ballpark Exhibition Stadium to see the Blue Jays, and Cleveland’s fondly remembered Municipal Stadium better known as the “mistake on the lake.” I also saw a game at Boston’s Fenway Park, said to be beloved by many who likely don’t care about poor sight lines or seats that seem as old as the ballpark.

Of course, I attended Mets games at the Polo Grounds, where they played in the team’s first two seasons. In 1964 Shea’s Stadium, home to the Mets, opened in Flushing. I saw a lot of games at Shea particularly during my college years when we regularly attended Sunday doubleheaders. I have also been to games at Citi Field, one of the best of the “retro” ballparks that opened in 2009.

But in recent years I saw most of my baseball at what is now Sahlen Field. I shared season tickets for about eight years with my youngest son and later bought mini packs and still try to make several games a season. Triple A baseball is not major league ball, but you get to see stars of the future and it doesn’t break the bank to go to a game. Sahlen Field is now the oldest ballpark in the minors and while it needs some upgrades it is still a great place to watch a ball game.

But if you can’t get to the ballpark there is a lot on either television or radio. I remember well lying in bed on a summer night in the 1950s listening to Bob Prince, he of the famous “Green Winnie” doing the Pirates games we got on WWVA in Wheeling, W.Va., or Harry Caray and broadcast partner Jack Buck calling the St. Louis Cardinals games on KMOX. Then there was Vin Scully and Russ Hodges broadcasting the Dodgers and Giants games during those teams’ final seasons in New York. But then the baseball airwaves got a little quieter for a while until the Mets came along in 1962 with Lindsey Nelson, Hall of Famer Ralph Kiner, and Bob Murphy, he of the “Happy Recap” after a Mets victory.

My hometown is only 25 miles from Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame, and I’ve been there on several occasions over the years. It’s open to question if Abner Doubleday actually invented baseball there but when they were looking for a place to locate the Hall, they couldn’t have picked a better site than this small village that is the sort of place where baseball might have been invented. If you are a baseball fan or just curious about the game, you have to visit the Hall of Fame.

Thomas Kirkpatrick Sr. is a Silver Creek resident. Send comments to editorial@observertoday.com.