There was no better time to visit Cooperstown, N.Y., a rustic New England village, than the last week of baseball season. Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa’s garb were newly installed in special cases in the lobby at the Baseball Hall of Fame. The two super-sluggers hit yet more homers before the week was out, and the day we were there, the Orioles’ Cal Ripken sat out his first game, breaking a 2,632 game streak that spanned 16 years.
There’s something about the place — especially Abner Doubleday Field and the multimedia show in the museum — that conjures memories of boys, red-faced and anxious, as they await their turn at bat on a hot summer day. Something to do with bandaged knees, team trophies and outgrown cleats, filthy, grass-stained uniforms from the game-winning slide to home plate.
The boys grow up and become men. The mothers grow older and become sappy with nostalgia, like I did watching a fresh crop of the boys of summer playing at Abner Doubleday near the Hall. The historic baseball field is ringed by quaint houses, and in September, with the leaves turning, Cooperstown becomes picture postcard perfect.
Only 1 percent of those who have played major league baseball are enshrined in the hall — 237 bronze relief plaques that line both sides of the gallery on Level 1. There are familiar names, such as Babe Ruth and Ted Williams. And unfamiliar names, names of umpires and commissioners and early players who were inducted years after their deaths. You could spend two hours alone reading all the plaques, but there are three levels with numerous wings to explore, each one devoted to some aspect of baseball.
Many of the exhibits are multimedia and interactive. By choosing buttons from a menu, visitors can hear and see their baseball heroes in action: Babe Ruth signing autographs for the kids on an old newsreel, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio clowning with the 1938 World Champion New York Yankees.
On the second level is the Grandstand Theatre and Baseball Today room — two of my favorites. Baseball Today features “lockers” for every major league team complete with jerseys, gloves, jackets and bats. The entry to the theater is fashioned like an old ballpark with iron railings lined with whimsical figures of popcorn sellers, kids, grandpas, souvenir hawkers. Once inside the theater there’s a multimedia presentation that beautifully captures baseball’s mystique, and brought this baseball mom to tears.
Exiting the theater brings you to a chronological history of the game, era by era. Very fun stuff. You see the Babe’s 60th home run bat, and the one from Ted Williams’ .406 season in 1941. Ty Cobb’s sliding pads and Jackie Robinson’s warm-up jacket are but a few of the artifacts.
The World Series Room holds an eye-popping assortment of memorabilia — Yogi Berra’s catcher’s mitt from Don Larsen’s 1956 no-hitter, Willie Mays’ glove from his famous catch in 1954, Joe Carter’s bat from the 1993 series. There is also a collection of World Series rings dating back to 1922.
You need at least four to six hours, if not longer, to enjoy the exhibits at the Hall of Fame. Baseball at the Movies and Scribes and Mikemen (about old baseball writers and sportscasters) are two new attractions since I first visited the Hall in 1992. Women in Baseball, African-American Baseball History, 500 Homerun Hitters, old ballparks, rare baseball cards and the Evolution of the Uniform are other fascinating displays.
The Hall of Fame is also a library and archive that contains the most extensive and diverse collection of photographs, documents and published materials about the game. The museum shop is good for another hour of browsing for books, clothing and souvenirs about the game.
The picturesque village of Cooperstown isn’t just about baseball, however. Founded in 1786 by the father of author James Fenimore Cooper (“The Last of the Mohicans”), the hamlet of some 2,200 residents contains museums, galleries, artisans, bed-and-breakfast inns and the 9-mile-long Otsego Lake, the “Glimmerglass” of Cooper’s stories.
Fenimore House Museum, about one mile from the Hall of Fame, is a beautiful neo-Georgian structure with terraced gardens overlooking Otsego Lake.
At the Fenimore Museum are changing exhibitions of folk and fine art, Cooper memorabilia and an extensive collection of American Indian art. There is an Iroquois 1750s-style fishing camp as part of the new American Indian Wing, where Iroquois crafts and traditions are presented by costumed interpreters during summer.
The Farmers’ Museum across the way houses a living-history museum of 19th Century rural life. Craftsmen demonstrate rural trades in the buildings restored to an 1845 village complete with blacksmith, general store and tavern.
It is here where “America’s Greatest Hoax,” the Cardiff Giant, was perpetrated in 1869. The 10-foot-tall gypsum “giant” was made in Chicago, secretly shipped East, buried, and then unearthed by unsuspecting workers on a farm in Onondaga County nearby. The discovery of the so-called petrified man caused a stir through upstate New York and created fortunes for the hucksters.
Traveling back toward Main Street, downtown Cooperstown abounds with baseball souvenir shops, restaurants and historic buildings. The Tunnicliff Inn at Main and Pioneer Streets is a restored 1806 Federal townhouse architecture with 17 guest rooms and a formal dining room in summer. The Chestnut Street Guest House was a charmer, as were the Green Apple Inn on Lake Street and Aunt Jane’s Victorian Manor on Chestnut.
The Cooperstown Visitor’s Center at the start of Main is a good first stop. During peak season, trolleys shuttle visitors downtown from outlying parking lots.
For a native Californian, Cooperstown and the other villages, lakes, forests and hamlets of upstate New York are utterly charming — even better than expected. New York is, after all, more than the Big Apple.
Once you get hooked on baseball, it never leaves you. And nowhere is the lure, the tradition and the glory of America’s pastime more beautifully depicted than at the Hall of Fame.
IF YOU GO
GETTING THERE
Cooperstown is located 40 miles southeast of Utica, via Interstate Highway 90 East to New York Highway 28, then go south. From Interstate Highway 88, take New York 28 north 19 miles to Cooperstown.
THE DETAILS
National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily Oct. 1 through April 30, and 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. daily May 1 through Sept. 30 (major holidays excepted). $9.50 adults, $8 seniors and $4 juniors 7-12. 607-547-7200.
OTHER ATTRACTIONS
The Farmer’s Museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily June 1 through Labor Day; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily after Labor Day through Oct. 31; open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday in April and November; open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday through Sunday in December. $9 adults, $4 ages 7-12. 607-547-1450.
Fenimore House Museum: Days and hours of operation and admissions are the same as The Farmer’s Museum. Combination reduced price tickets may be purchased for the Hall of Fame and the museums. 607-547-1450.
Lake Otsego boat tours: Narrated one-hour tours depart daily at 10, 11 a.m., 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6 p.m. late May through Columbus Day. $8.50 adults, $5 ages 3-12. 607-547-5295.
INFORMATION
Cooperstown Chamber of Commerce, 31 Chestnut St. 607-547-9983.
