People return to the stands where they cheered as kids. They make a pilgrimage to the home of a favorite team...or where a team's home used to be. A few even "collect" stadiums, visiting ballpark after ballpark with the goal of seeing them all.

Players, too, take on mythic proportions, letting us live out our own fantasies through their achievements. A rare few become legends whose renown endures long after they hang up their cleats. DiMaggio, Ruth, Robinson, and others resonate not simply as sports figures, but as cultural icons—as heroes who embody an era, an achievement, or an ideal.