I'm writing to you now having recovered from what felt like the longest bus trip in history--up to Cooperstown and back in a single day. Sunday saw me travel to baseball's Hall of Fame inductions not as a reporter, but as a fan. (More accurately, my wife and her folks are big fans of the Orioles and Cal Ripken.)

I didn't get to see much of the actual town while up there, but I did see Pete Rose charging for autographs just two blocks from the Hall. And I found an old bookstore where I bought an old copy of Roger Angell's "Season Ticket," a collection of articles that center largely around baseball in the 1980s, a very underrated decade of baseball, in my opinion.

Anyway, as I sat in the hot sun listening to the speeches by Ripken and fellow inductee Tony Gwynn, I was struck by the sheer size of the crowd. Upwards of 75,000, I'm told, which is something like five times the normal crowd. I'd say at least 75 percent of those in attendance were Orioles fans, which underscores something I have believed for quite some time: people in Baltimore LOVE baseball. They love it, and have a tremendous appreciation for its history. Unfortunately, going without a winning season since 1997 has taken its toll on fans in Charm City. If the Orioles ever turn it around (and they are showing some signs of life, thanks to some great pitching), Camden Yards will once again become a raucous place. Couple that with the expected big crowds at the Nationals' new ballpark beginning next year, and you might have a concentration of baseball fandom not too different from that seen in Chicago or Southern California.

And while fans were breaking records in Cooperstown, they were also breaking records in ballparks across the country. Major League Baseball announced 717,478 fans saw baseball in person Sunday, setting a new single-day record. Granted, the 17 games played were one more than normal thanks to a Mets-Nationals doubleheader, but that still represents an average crowd of more than 42,000. Baseball attendance has topped 50 million this season and is on pace for its fourth straight year of record-breaking attendance.

As if to back this whole notion of baseball being popular, the Los Angeles Dodgers just reported they have surpassed 3.5 million in ticket sales this season. (Anything above 3 million, and you're doing awfully well.)

With so much negative news surrounding baseball and its steroids scandal, has any of it really hurt the sport all that much? I wonder.

-- Tim Lemke