Why Is The ‘Baseball Hall of Fame’ In Cooperstown, New York?
If you're a baseball fan like me, you may have wondered why the Mecca of baseball is located in little Cooperstown, New York. Well, Cooperstown is the hometown of Abner Doubleday and he's credited with inventing the game we know as baseball.
Did Abner Doubleday Invent Baseball?
Turns out, Doubleday really didn't have much to do with the invention of baseball. WHAT! Here's the story that we were told: There was a young man named Abner Doubleday and he invented baseball in the summer of 1839.
Doubleday would become a Civil War hero, baseball would become "America's Favorite Pastime" and they would all live happily ever after. FAKE NEWS! Now it's true, Doubleday was part of the Civil War as a Union major general.
He is credited with firing the first shot in defense of Fort Sumter (the opening battle of the war) and played an important part in the early fighting in Gettysburg. He was still at West Point in 1839 and NEVER claimed he invented baseball during his lifetime.
Why The Baseball Hall Of Fame Is In Cooperstown New York?
Doubleday passed away in 1893 at the age of 73. In 1908, (15 years after his death), a commission called the "MIlls Commission" was created by sporting goods magnate, A.J. Spalding to figure out where baseball got its beginnings.
They wanted to know if it was invented in the United States or the United Kingdom. Apparently the fact checkers were reliable then as they are now. The commission believed the claims of one man, Abner Graves (who said that he went to school with Doubleday) to come up with the story that has been debunked by baseball historians.
It fit their narrative In the 1930s, so the Cooperstown businessmen and major league baseball officials went with the commissions finding and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was born.
It opened to the public in 1939 and the rest as they say is history.. Whether it's a fabrication or not, we are thrilled that the Baseball Hall of Fame is in Cooperstown and once a year, the best professional baseball players in the world come to town to be enshrined in the Hall.
We hope you will put these great, hallowed halls and museums on your summer list of places to visit in Upstate New York.