Cooperstown, NY

Cooperstown is a small town located on Otsego Lake in upstate New York, 20 miles northeast of Oneonta, NY and 50 miles west of Schenectady, NY. It is best known as the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, which was installed there based on the legend - now debunked - that Abner Doubleday laid out the first baseball field in the small town in 1839. It was also the site of the now discontinued annual Hall of Fame Game which pitted a National League team against an American League in an exhibition game around the time of the annual induction ceremony.

Cooperstown is itself a shorthand for the Hall of Fame: a player is said to be "headed for Cooperstown", when his career numbers put him on track to be elected to the Hall after his retirement.

Marc Cerbone and Ethan Paquette were born here. Hal Schumacher and Whitey Wilshere died here. Cooperstown Classical and Military Academy was located here.

Cooperstown has many other museums including the Farmers' Museum, the Fenimore Art Museum and others.

Further Reading

• Brian Martin: Baseball’s Creation Myth: Adam Ford, Abner Graves and the Cooperstown Story, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2013. ISBN 978-0-7864-7199-7