When people hear of Cooperstown, N.Y., they often think of baseball, and they aren’t wrong. But there’s an important part of this story about this town on Lake Otsego that should be covered first, which Andrew McCrea covers on this episode of American Countryside:
Cooperstown was founded in 1786 and was a tourism mecca throughout the 19th century, says Ellen Tillapaugh, mayor of Cooperstown. The town was named after founder Judge William Cooper, who was the father of the famous novelist, James Fenimore Cooper, author of “Last of the Mohicans.”
Today many know the town for the supposed invention of baseball by Abner Doubleday on an open parcel of land here. Constructed in 1919 on what used to be a cow pasture that belonged to local farmer Elihu Phinney, Doubleday Field is hallowed ground for baseball fans.
“They called it Phinney’s cow pasture, and it basically was the back lots of many of the houses,” Tillapaugh says.
Fast forward to today, and the historic field still gets plenty of use.
“We rent the field three times a day from April till Columbus Day,” Tillapaugh says.
While baseball was played on this pasture-turned-field from an early date, it was most likely not the place the game was founded. The folks at Cooperstown don’t dispute that fact, but these days it doesn’t really matter.
“We certainly weren’t the place it was founded, but we are America’s home for baseball,” Tillapaugh says.
In 1936, the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum was founded in Cooperstown. It is filled with baseball-related exhibits and draws thousands of visitors each year, serving as a pilgrimage spot for many baseball fans.
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