In a League of Their Own: Three Baseball Museums To Visit in the U.S.

This blog post was updated on July 30, 2021.

Once football season comes to an end with the Super Bowl, most of us are looking forward to the next sport, especially if our football team came up short at the big dance. Being a Denver Broncos fan, I quickly had to wash my memory of the game and move on to baseball season. If you are need of looking forward to America’s pastime to get you through the next few months until opening day, here are a few baseball museums in the U.S. to visit in the meantime that hit expectations out of the park.

National Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown: The big cheese of baseball museums in the U.S. is easily the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. What began in June of 1939 as a way to honor the game is still very much a testament to America’s pastime. The museum features around 40,000 items, three million books and documents and 500,000 photographs. Throughout three storeys, you can learn the history of the game and also get to know that select 1% of baseball players in the majors to have earned a coveted spot in the hall. The centerpiece of the museum is the Plaque Gallery, home to the bronze plaque of all of the Hall of Fame members. A ticket to the National Baseball Hall of Fame costs $19.50 for an adult.   (Babe Ruth & Ted Williams statues found at Cooperstown)

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, Kansas City: Kansas City is home to one of the United States’ celebrated baseball museums, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Founded in 1990, the museum details the rich history of African American baseball from the 1860s to the 1960s. While tracing the timeline of baseball and African American history, visitors can learn a great deal about average players and superstars. The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum utilizes multimedia displays, hundreds of photographs and artifacts along with film exhibits. The museum is designed like an old brick baseball stadium and segregates one exhibit from the next to illustrate a powerful message on the history of the game. Admission for adults costs $10.

Louisville Slugger Museum, Louisville: Another can’t-miss baseball museum in the U.S. is the Louisville Slugger Museum. Easily recognizable for its 120-foot tall bat resting outside the building, the museum details the Louisville Slugger bat. The number one bat of Major League baseball invites visitors to step right up and see how some of your favorite baseball players’ bats are made. The museum offers factory tours where you can see the whole process of producing bats first hand. There are also exhibits on site such as the Grand Slam Gallery where you can hold bats used by some of baseball’s greats. Admission to the museum costs $11 per adult.

Do you have a baseball museum to add to the list?

 

Photo: candy-s