Cooperstown, NY

Cooperstown Photo

http://casdra.com/~jmetzger/doubleday-field_sm.jpg

Drove from Wilbraham to Cooperstown to visit the baseball hall of fame. I'd never bene through the farmlands of upstate new york before. I was amazed at the low population density in the area. We went a back route to cooperstown and the last 20 miles was rolling hills of family farms, then poof, you reach cooperstown which is a fantastic old community. There are lots of old mansions that surround a 1940's style main street. Most of the businesses on main street live off the hall of fame. They either sell baseball memoribilia or they sell custom made bats or souveneirs. The town borders a pretty large lake that looks like it may have been quite the tourist destination spot in the 40's and 50's. We'd like to do some research on the town because both Betsy and I were befuddled on why a mini newport, RI community would spring up in Cooperstown NY.

The hall of fame itself was excellent. It was chock full of equipment used by the actual players in accomplishing various records. It also gave a history of the game through the world series winners from the eary 1900's onward. There was a special exhibition of Sports Illustrated covers throughout the years, several of them brought back memories. I used to devour each SI as it arrived at our house. They were eyeball onto the world of sports to a kid growing up in Western Mass. We showed up a week before Paul Molitor and Dennis Eckersly were innagurated so the place was hopping. The plaque room was outstanding and I spent an hour there with the big girls reading names and the hilarious nicknames for many players and some history. Up the street you can watch some little league games at Doubleday Field where Abner Doubleday "invented" baseball. It's also where the annual Hall of Fame game is played each year.

There are lots of baseball camps in the area, the largest accepts applications from teams all over the country to play a weeklong tournament each week at the Dream Field complex. This keeps the merchants pretty well set with fresh consumers of memoribilia each week. All in all it was a great visit to a place I've always wanted to see. The town was equally facinating. The older girls really enjoyed themselves and the younger two had fun in the kids room and pushing buttons on any interactive exhibit they could find.