The Hall of Fame is Mint

Money can be exchanged for goods and services, like beer and pretzels, but it can also be used, apparently, to honor Americana through the design and minting of commemorative coins. I don’t know why anyone would want to collect money, when they could spend said money to acquire baseball cards, but that’s neither here nor there. I will not criticize someone else for their hobbies, at least not publicly.*

*Note: for these purposes, Carson Cistulli’s drinking and slothful lethargy are considered an activity and a non-activity respectively, not actual hobbies. I, and you, remain free to criticize these at length. For we live in raucus, bacchanaliac democracy, where our movements are still not monitored and regulated by a benevolent, paternalistic monarch. Yay, America.

Anywho, the United States Mint and the Department of the Treasury would like our assistance with designing three coins “to recognize and celebrate the National Baseball Hall of Fame.” There are so many directions a coin designer could go to truly convey everything the Hall of Fame was, is, and will become in the future. There are baseball’s greats who embody the Hall itself, players like Babe Ruth, Christy Mathewson, Jackie Robinson, and Satchel Paige. There are images that one generally associates with the game itself, balls and bats and ballcaps and athletic cups and the like. There’s the building itself, a beautiful structure in a picturesque town that provides a stately home for baseball’s most exclusive club and the primary keeper of the game’s history.

None of these seem to get at the heart, though, of what the Hall of Fame has become. And thus, being of sound mind and body, possessing naturalized American citizenship, and having a passing interest in baseball, the United States, and what my money looks like, I thought I would offer the following options that I think more accurately reflect where the Hall is today: