COOPERSTOWN, New York — I am attending a college reunion in upstate New York this weekend (Colgate University) and since Cooperstown is only about 40 miles from campus, I figured, why not? I’ve been to the Hall of Fame three previous times, but being this close I couldn’t resist another trip to the Mecca of baseball.
Make no mistake, the Hall of Fame almost certainly should NOT be in Cooperstown. The idea that baseball was invented there in 1839 by Abner Doubleday is a convenient myth, likely invented to try to make the sport feel like it came out of some pastoral beginnings in small-town America.