Cooperstown, N.Y., is not “on the way” to anywhere. It is a remote destination 70 miles southwest of Albany, nowhere near an interstate highway. Traveling to the small village (population 2,300) requires driving along winding, hilly roads that every so often pass through other small towns.
Baseball fans know Cooperstown as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the preeminent sports history venue in the country since its opening in 1939.
Baseball fans know Cooperstown as the home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the preeminent sports history venue in the country since its opening in 1939.
Over the last decade, the hall has attracted more than 400,000 visitors annually, and its popularity continues to surge. Seventy-five thousand fans came on July 29 for the induction of Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn, a contrast to the 14,000 who attended the same type of ceremony in August for Michael Irvin at the Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
But Dallas-Fort Worth baseball fans now have the game’s history more accessible than ever before. Last Friday, as part of the start of this year’s State Fair of Texas, the Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas in Fair Park began its 15-week showing of “Baseball As America.”
This exhibition from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum began its travels in 2002 at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and it has been hosted by 11 other cities before finally getting to Dallas.
Since its debut in the Big Apple, the road show has attracted 2.2 million attendees who have come in droves to see 500 of the hall’s most treasured artifacts.
Why at the Museum of Nature and Science? Besides bats, balls, and gloves, baseball is a game filled with mathematics and physics, making the exhibition a natural fit.
Since the national pastime’s inception, children have mastered multiplication and division by calculating the batting and earned run averages of their favorite players. They have been introduced to notions of torque and acceleration in the context of throwing curveballs and enhancing their power through increased bat speed.
Between now and Jan. 13, North Texas residents no longer need to travel halfway across the country to see Ty Cobb’s spikes, Yogi Berra’s glove from catching Don Larsen’s World Series perfect game, George Brett’s pine tar-covered bat, the original 1908 manuscript with the lyrics to “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” and John F. Kennedy’s two-page single-spaced letter to Jackie Robinson seeking his support in the 1960 presidential election.
As for the most important figures in Texas Rangers’ history, the exhibition also showcases the tools of the trade from the storied careers of Fergie Jenkins, Nolan Ryan, Pudge Rodriguez, Michael Young, and Sammy Sosa.
“Baseball As America” brings the best of Cooperstown to Dallas, thanks to the generosity of national sponsor Ernst & Young and local sponsors Turner Construction, AT&T, the State Fair of Texas, and the Texas Rangers.
During the show’s run, the museum has also assembled a stellar series of speakers, including seven-time National Sportswriter of the Year Frank Deford in October, Hall of Fame player Lou Brock in November, ESPN baseball commentator Tim Kurkjian in December, and a special surprise Hall of Famer in January. The lecture series is sponsored by Wachovia Bank, the law firm of Cox Smith Mathews Inc., and Park Cities resident Rex Jennings.
Getting to Fair Park does not require traveling halfway across the country along winding roads through one-horse towns over hills and valleys. Want to see Babe Ruth’s bat? Come to Fair Park.
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