Explore Cooperstown and its famous National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
A discussion of Cooperstown, New York, and its famed baseball museum, from the documentary Home Base: The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)
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Transcript
[Music in]
TOM SHIEBER: It's a whole experience. When people come to Cooperstown, it's a form of a pilgrimage, and they love it.
BOB COSTAS: You walk down that main street, and you've gone back in time. The surroundings create a state of mind that makes you appreciate that you're in a place where baseball history resides.
NARRATOR: Nestled between the Adirondacks and the Catskills in upstate New York, the tiny village of Cooperstown has a mighty mission: to preserve and protect the story of America's game at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
DALE PETROSKEY: This really is the spiritual home of the game. And we are the stewards of the game, the game's history.
NARRATOR: Baseball and America have grown up together.
JANE FORBES CLARK: People come to Cooperstown—come to the museum—and they find their past. They don't think they're going to find their past, but they do.
KRISTEN JONES: Its popularity endures because it is part of our nostalgia, our collective nostalgia.
TED SPENCER: That's the message we try to drive home. That's our main goal virtually every day—is to make sure that people understand that this is much more than just runs, hits, and errors; this is about American life.
[Music out]
TOM SHIEBER: It's a whole experience. When people come to Cooperstown, it's a form of a pilgrimage, and they love it.
BOB COSTAS: You walk down that main street, and you've gone back in time. The surroundings create a state of mind that makes you appreciate that you're in a place where baseball history resides.
NARRATOR: Nestled between the Adirondacks and the Catskills in upstate New York, the tiny village of Cooperstown has a mighty mission: to preserve and protect the story of America's game at the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
DALE PETROSKEY: This really is the spiritual home of the game. And we are the stewards of the game, the game's history.
NARRATOR: Baseball and America have grown up together.
JANE FORBES CLARK: People come to Cooperstown—come to the museum—and they find their past. They don't think they're going to find their past, but they do.
KRISTEN JONES: Its popularity endures because it is part of our nostalgia, our collective nostalgia.
TED SPENCER: That's the message we try to drive home. That's our main goal virtually every day—is to make sure that people understand that this is much more than just runs, hits, and errors; this is about American life.
[Music out]
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