The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum

Overview of the Museum

First-floor map   Second-floor map
Third-floor map   Visitors Guide

Located on Main Street in the heart of picturesque Cooperstown, New York, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is one of the country's most popular destinations and is surely the best-known sports shrine in the world. Standing as a three-story red brick building on Main Street in the center of Cooperstown, the Museum opened its doors for the first time on June 12, 1939. The Hall of Fame has stood as the definitive repository of the game's treasures and as a symbol of the most profound individual honor bestowed on an athlete. It is every fan's "Field of Dreams" with its stories, legends and magic to be passed on from generation to generation. The Baseball Hall of Fame's mission is to preserve history, honor excellence and connect generations.

The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is an independent, non-profit educational institution dedicated to fostering an appreciation of the historical development of baseball and its impact on our culture by collecting, preserving, exhibiting and interpreting its collections for a global audience as well as honoring those who have made outstanding contributions to our national pastime. Open daily, year-round (except for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day), the Museum's hours are from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the offseason. Admission prices are $16.50 for adults (13 and over), $11.00 for seniors (65 and over) and $6.00 for juniors (ages 7-12). Those holding current memberships in the VFW, Disabled American Veterans American Legion or AMVets organizations are admitted for $11.00. Friends of the Hall of Fame members, active or retired card-carrying military personnel and children under six years of age are admitted free. Group rates are also available, as is a "AAA" discount. The Museum is handicap accessible and video programs are captioned for the hearing impaired.

The Hall of Fame Gallery serves as the centerpiece of the historic institution, where the plaques of all 278 Hall of Fame members line the oak walls. Only 199 former Major Leaguers -- one percent of those to have played baseball in the major leagues -- have earned a spot in the Hall of Fame. The 2008 inductees -- Rich "Goose" Gossage, Dick Williams, Billy Southworth, Walter O'Malley, Bowie Kuhn, and Barney Dreyfuss -- will each have a plaque added to the Gallery on Hall of Fame Weekend (July 25-27).

The Museum Store resides on the first floor. Visit the Store for unique gifts, keepsakes and clothing apparel for the baseball fans in your life. While there, sign up at one of the Museum kiosks to receive a merchandise catalog; Inside Pitch, the Hall of Fame's free weekly e-mail newsletter; a trial subscription of Memories and Dreams, the Hall of Fame's bi-monthly magazine; and send a digital postcard to friends around the world from the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.

The Museum Bookstore, located in the Library Atrium, carries a wide variety of books and videos on a variety of baseball subjects, available for purchase. For the numerous booksignings that take place in the Library Atrium year-round, books are available for purchase from this location.

The Hall of Fame Library, which houses in excess of 2.6 million documents, including a file on every player to appear in a Major League game, 500,000 photographs and 12,000 hours of recorded film, video and sound. A public research area is a great place to spend the afternoon, for those wishing to delve deeper into baseball's history. The Library also includes exhibits on baseball "Scribes and Mikemen" and "Baseball at the Movies," the "Sandlot Kids' Clubhouse," and the newly-redesigned activity center, the Bullpen Theater.

The A. Bartlett Giamatti Research Center, housed in the Library, facilitates approximately 60,000 research inquiries from around the world each year. A public facility where numerous researchers and Museum visitors are served annually, the research staff answers questions ranging from students working on a report to fielding a request from The White House for information for a presidential speech. While the majority of patrons are independent baseball fans conducting research, others using the facilities have included such noted authors as George Plimpton, Roger Kahn, and George Will; officials from numerous Major and Minor League clubs; former Major League players; writers from The New York Times, USA Today and The Wall Street Journal; television shows such as Jeopardy; and students of all ages. The Research Center is open Monday through Friday, from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., year-round. Appointments are encouraged. To schedule an appointment, or for more information, please call 607-547-0330.

A three-year, $20-million renovation of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was formally completed with a rededication ceremony on July 29, 2005. Thirty-eight Hall of Fame members were present to cut the ribbon. The project marked the Museum's seventh building renovation effort since the opening of its doors for the first time on June 12, 1939. Previous projects in 1950, 1958, 1968, 1980, 1989 and 1994 added exhibit space, the Hall of Fame Gallery, the Hall of Fame Library and the Museum Store, and connected them all. The most recent renovation offers visitors: a completely new look and feel; 14 exhibit and program spaces; 10,000 additional square feet of exhibit space; more accessibility for those with special needs; more interactive technology; a more consistent environment for the collections; and a seamless traffic pattern for visitors to enjoy.

The Museum Experience begins with a fully-updated, and now digitally-enhanced, 13-minute multimedia presentation called "The Baseball Experience." Taking place in the 191-seat Grandstand Theater on the second floor, "The Baseball Experience" sets the stage for the visitor experience. From the Experience, visitors will enter the Baseball Timeline, beginning with a new exhibit, Taking the Field: The 19th Century, the first installment of baseball history, which features more than 180 items from baseball's formative beginnings. Featuring multimedia and engaging interpretation of baseball's early years, the exhibit sets the table for exploration of baseball's history by generation. Visitors then are led into the 20th Century Baseball Time Line, detailing baseball's notable players, legendary teams and historic moments through the 2000 season. The Babe Ruth Room honors the game's most recognizable star. Other exhibits of note in the Timeline: Diamond Dreams: Women in Baseball, a newly redesigned salute to the roles women to have played at every level of baseball; Pride and Passion: The African-American Baseball Experience, an interactive exhibit detailing the history of African Americans in baseball, from Civil War times through the major league integration of players, managers and executives; No-Hitters, featuring a baseball from every no-hitter thrown in the major leagues since 1940; Presidential Pastime, containing numerous presidential mementos from the Museum's extensive collection, exploring the relationship between baseball and the leader of the free world; Youth Baseball, honoring the current-year champions of major youth leagues in a variety of divisions from across the country; and Baseball Cards, with a sampling of the 135,000 in the Museum's collection. Today's Game captures memories and milestones from the last several years of baseball history at the end of the Baseball Timeline on the second floor, featuring a locker for each of the 30 major leagues in a clubhouse setting. Organized alphabetically by city name, each locker contains artifacts of memorable moments and historic achievements from the last decade for each team. In the center of the exhibit, cases feature items from the 2006 baseball season, as well as highlights from the previous two weeks across Major League Baseball. The manager's office in the clubhouse provides visitors a glimpse of how strategic decisions are formulated. Ambient music fills the background, further adding to the clubhouse experience.

Baseball at the Movies explores the long-standing relationship between baseball and the movies. Scribes and Mikemen honors the greatest journalists to broadcast and write about the National Pastime, housing the award winners for the Ford C. Frick Award, given annually for broadcasting excellence, and the J.G. Taylor Spink Award, presented annually for meritorious contributions to baseball writing.

Sacred Ground welcomes visitors to the third floor of the Museum, examining ballparks of the past and present through more than 200 artifacts and numerous displays in 1,800 square feet of exhibit space. Among the most notable artifacts in the exhibit: a scoreboard "pinwheel" from Comiskey Park; a ticket booth from Yankee Stadium; a turnstile from the Polo Grounds; a cornerstone from Ebbets Field; Walter Johnson's locker from Griffith Stadium; and the on-deck circle from Forbes Field. The exhibit also includes a special interactive section dedicated to music at the ballpark, where visitors can hear the distinctive sounds from various ballparks and learn the history of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." A computer interactive guides visitors on a "walk-through" of Boston's South End Grounds Grand Pavilion, in existence from 1888-1894) via a 14' x 8' curved screen.

The Records Room tracks the active and all-time leaders in virtually every statistical category, while featuring award winner lists and selected awards from the Hall of Fame's collection. The Records Room also features artifacts from several of the unique achievements in baseball history, such as the bat used by Ron Blomberg as the first designated hitter in 1973.

Autumn Glory: 100 Years of the Postseason spotlights moments from every memorable World Series. Artifacts range from the baseball used for the final out of the inaugural Fall Classic's in 1903 to the bats used by Bobby Thomson, Bill Mazeroski and Joe Carter to hit dramatic home runs, to the catchers' mask worn by Yadier Molina in the 2006 World Series, and the jacket worn by manager Tony LaRussa.