By Craig Campbell
He could be called the Forrest Gump of major league baseball. Rudy Gafur seems to have been everywhere and seen everything related to the history of the game.
And it’s all in his new book. Cooperstown is my Mecca. Borrowing the old theme of ‘Baseball as Religion,’ Rudy Gafur details his interest in the game and his regular visits to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Gafur immigrated to Canada from his native Guyana in 1971 when he was in his late twenties. he barely knew anything about baseball, which he said was never played in his homeland. He made up for the lost time by totally immersing himself in the game and its history. He read all the baseball material he could get his hands on, attended as many Toronto Blue Jays games as he could, and listened to Tony Kubek call the rest of them on television. But he was still hungry for more.
As an executive of the Ontario Federation of Students, Gafur organized many events for the Students Union of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in the late 1970s. In 1978, he arranged a trip for 500 Ryerson students to attend a Blue Jays game at Exhibition Stadium during Orientation week. There, Gafur met Blue Jay manager Roy Hartsfield, who was the first in an impressive list of baseball people Gafur would meet.
But besides telling the story of a former cricket player who adopted the “American pastime” as his own, Gafur’s book describes his yearly pilgrimages to the Hall of Fame and the village of Cooperstown in great detail. Gafur has visited the Hall of Fame every year since 1986. He has not missed a Hall of Fame induction ceremony in that time.
His descriptions of the Hall of Fame itself, and the great players who are celebrated there, will likely bring up plenty of memories for those who have had the chance to visit Cooperstown. Those who have not been there get a clear picture of what the Hall and the village itself are really like.
Cooperstown is my Mecca is the diary of a true baseball fan covering 1986 to 1994 plus hundreds of moments from over 100 years of baseball.
“I’ve tried to capture my passion for the game and my reverence for the shrine,” Gafur said during the launching of his book. at the Moss Park Armouries, on March 24. Gafur has done that, but he has also written a book that contains an incredible amount of information in less than 200 pages.
In two chapters, Gafur profiles some of the best baseball writers and broadcasters in the history of the game. And a number of appendices give the reader everything from a list of Hall of Fame members and the criteria for selection, to how to get to Cooperstown and where to park.
Gafur does not delve into any of the game’s scandals. There is no mention of free agency, arbitration or strikes—other than the kind pitchers throw over the home plate. Gafur’s outlook is simple and based on a respect for the glory days of baseball. Cooperstown is my Mecca is a book written by a baseball fan, for baseball fans.
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