• Backyard Baseball Hall Of Fame

It seems impossible. Or, at the least, prohibitively expensive. But for many baseball fans in the 1960s, it was as simple as placing an order in the Sears, Roebuck catalogue.

He was known as “The Hit Man” and “Donnie Baseball.” New York Yankees first baseman Don Mattingly, one of the very best players in baseball in the mid 1980’s, is once again candidate on the Modern Baseball Hall of Fame ballot. Baseball has been put on hold for the foreseeable future. Games aren't happening; pitchers have no hitters to pitch to, and hitters have no pitchers to hit against. Well, unless you're Freddie Freeman. The Braves superstar is still getting in some BP, only he's subbed out pitchers like Clayton Kershaw.

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Shortly after Hall of Famer Ted Williams retired from baseball in 1960, he joined Sears as their sporting goods consultant, helping the department store select and develop its sports equipment. As Sports Illustrated noted in a column from 1962: “If the legendary Williams batting eye can't detect a flaw, Sears knows the item is absolutely first-rate.”

Later this year, the Cromleys will also attend the wedding of a player Marlin hosted back in 2002.

“You form relationships with these kids,” Marlin said. “And those connections so often stay well beyond the two weeks of [the World Series tournament].”

The capstone of the Cromley’s connection to baseball came in 1999, when Marlin proposed to Brenda in Cooperstown, on a bench outside the Otesaga Hotel, overlooking Lake Otsego.

“We met through baseball and I thought, ‘what better place to propose than Cooperstown?’”

Backyard Baseball Hall Of Fame

Isabelle Minasian is the digital content specialist at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum